iPhone 13 range could support faster charging and reverse wireless charging

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One thing iPhones have never been great at is charging speed, with the iPhone 12 range topping out at just 15W wireless and 20W wired, while some rival Android handsets now offer up to 120W wired charging and at least 67W for wireless. But there’s a chance the iPhone 13 range will have at least the iPhone 12’s wireless charging speeds beat.

According to Max Weinbach (a leaker with a good track record) speaking to EverythingApplePro, the wireless charging coils inside the iPhone 13 range will be slightly larger than in the iPhone 12 range – and there are a few possible reasons for that, including a higher wattage.

We wouldn’t expect anything like 67W from these phones, but it would be nice if they could at least match the wired charging speeds at 20W.

Stay cool

That’s not the only potential benefit of a larger wireless charging coil though. The increased size could also help with heat management (so the phones don’t get as hot when charging), and might even allow for reverse wireless charging, so that for example you could place your AirPods on the back of an iPhone 13 to charge them up.

It’s worth noting that Weinbach sounds less sure of that last feature, saying that it’s not confirmed. But it’s something that many Android handsets offer, including the Samsung Galaxy S21 range – the Samsung phones will be big rivals to the iPhone 13, so it would make sense for Apple to add reverse wireless charging.

All that said, Weinbach has previously claimed that the iPhone 13 range will be getting stronger MagSafe magnets, so that accessories stay attached better, and it’s entirely possible that these larger charging coils will just be used as part of that.

So we wouldn’t count on seeing faster charging – and reverse wireless charging looks even less likely, especially as Bloomberg has previously said that this is unlikely for the iPhone 13 range... but you never know.

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Via MacRumors

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.