iPhone 11 Pro Max wireless charging tested: DON'T use it if you want speed
The new iPhone 11 Pro series are the first iPhones to come with a fast charger in the box and it makes a big difference, charging the phones fully in under two hours and bringing them to a 50% charge in about half an hour.
But what about wireless charging? Both the iPhone 11 Pro and the 11 Pro Max support wireless charging at speeds of up to 7.5 watts, slower than the 18-watt wired charge, but how much slower exactly?
We tested the wireless charging times and while we expected slower results, we were in fact quite shocked to see that it takes nearly 5 hours to fully charge the iPhone 11 Pro Max using wireless charging. The 11 Pro is only slightly faster as it charges fully in slightly more than 4 hours!
Here is the detailed breakdown of the wireless charging speeds:
iPhone 11 Pro WIRELESS Charging Test:
- in 15 mins - 12% charge
- 30 mins - 21%
- 45 mins - 30%
- 1 hour - 38%
- 1 hour and 15 mins - 45%
- 1 hour and 30 mins - 51%
- 1 hour and 45 mins - 57%
- 2 hours - 64%
- 3 hours - 83%
- 4 hours - 98%
- 4 hours and 12 minutes - FULL CHARGE
iPhone 11 Pro Max WIRELESS Charging Test:
- in 15 mins - 8% charge
- 30 mins - 17%
- 45 mins - 24%
- 1 hour - 30%
- 1 hour and 15 mins - 37%
- 1 hour and 30 mins - 43%
- 1 hour and 45 mins - 49%
- 2 hours - 55%
- 3 hours - 76%
- 4 hours - 90%
- 4 hours and 53 minutes - FULL CHARGE
*We used the Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand and RavPower HyperAir Stand.
While wireless charging is a nice convenience, the current implementation is so much slower than wired charging that it does not make much sense using it.
We have recently seen rival Android phone makers introduce wireless charging at much faster speeds: the Huawei Mate 30 Pro supports 27 watt fast charging, and a few phones by Chinese phone maker Xiaomi claim to reach 30-watt speeds. We are not sure how real those speeds are, but if we could at least get double the current wireless charging speeds on the new iPhones, it would make a huge difference.
As it stands right now, we would rather plug the phones via the wired charger for a quick, 30-minute top-up than bother with wireless charging.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: