The new iPhone 14 models have a lot to do with it. But fast charging speeds aren’t among those many strengths.
Apple has made a lot of upgrades on its latest phones, especially for the iPhone 14 Pro models. Both the Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max benefit from a faster A16 Bionic processor and an improved 48MP main camera, among other changes. Even the standard iPhone 14, which has seen only modest changes from its predecessor, still gets some improvements.
But amid all these changes, the charging speed of all four iPhone 14 models remains at 20W via a wired connection. This isn’t necessarily slow on its own — plug your iPhone into a 20W charger, and you should get a 50% charge after half an hour.
Put this charging speed in context of what other flagships can do, and the iPhone 14 will start to fade in comparison.
As part of our smartphone testing, we drain the entire phone battery as part of our battery test. Then we connect each device to the charger and write down the battery percentage after 30 minutes. Here’s how the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max compare to the similarly priced Android phones we reviewed last year.
| phone | Battery size | Charging speed | Percentage charged after 30 minutes |
| iPhone 14 Pro | 3200 mAh | 20 watts | 57% |
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | 4352 mAh | 20 watts | 42% |
| Galaxy S22 Ultra | 5000 mAh | 45 watts | 70% |
| Galaxy Z Fold 4 | 4400 mAh | 25 watts | 50% |
| Galaxy Z Flip 4 | 3700 mAh | 25 watts | 54% |
| OnePlus 10 Pro | 5000 mAh | 65 watts (US charging speed) | 93% |
| OnePlus 10T | 4800 mAh | 150 watts | 100% (20 minutes) |
| Pixel 6 Pro | 5000 mAh | 23 watts | 40% |
As you can see, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are at the back of the pack when it comes to charging speed, and the state of the phones’ batteries after 30 minutes of charging reflects that. We scored the iPhone 14 Pro at 57% after 30 minutes, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max had a confusing score of 42%. (The iPhone 14 Pro Max battery is the largest of any iPhone battery, so this battery may take longer to fill.)
Compare that to Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, which benefits from 45W wired charging support. That helped Samsung’s flagship reach 70% charge in the same time it took Apple phones to cross the halfway mark.
Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 both support 25W slower charging speeds. Their numbers are much closer to what the iPhone 14 Pro models produce, with the fold ratio at 50% and the flip up to 54% at the half-hour mark.
OnePlus is the true leader in this table, thanks to the fast charging speeds supported by the OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10T. The 10 Pro supports 80W charging in most countries, although here in the US, it’s limited to 65W.
The OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10T are the champions of fast charging smartphones.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)Despite this, the phone almost got charged after half an hour, while using a 150W power brick with the OnePlus 10T, this phone was fully charged while the iPhone 14 Pro was still on. Those numbers are especially impressive considering that OnePlus phones have much larger batteries than Apple uses for the iPhone 14.
About the only flagship phone that the iPhone consistently beats on the charging front is last year’s Pixel 6 Pro, which is limited to 23W charging. But even then, there’s a caveat – the Pixel 7 Pro is coming out next month and leaked Pixel 7 specs suggest the new Google phones will support true 30W charging. If it does, the iPhone 14 Pro is very likely to find itself on the back of the package.
We limit our comparisons to iPhone 14 Pro models, although the situation is only slightly improved if you take the standard iPhone 14 into account. Like its Pro siblings, the iPhone 14 supports 20W charging. The Galaxy S22, which costs $799, supports 25W charging, with Samsung keeping 45W speeds for its more expensive models. As a result, the S22 only hits 60% after 30 minutes, although that’s still higher than the 54% we scored with the iPhone 14. And again, it’s charging a bigger battery with the Galaxy S22 — 3,700mAh. per hour compared to the 3,278 mAh of the iPhone 14’s power pack.
Given that Android phone makers seem to be constantly looking for ways to offer faster charging speeds, it’s a mystery that Apple is holding fast to 20W wired charging for its devices. Apple may be wary of high-speed charging as it can cause batteries to deteriorate faster, and one of the iPhone’s selling points is that you can keep the device on for longer than an Android device.
But there’s also the issue of the iPhone’s Lightning charging port, which may power Apple phones as quickly as possible. USB-C charging can charge phones faster than Lightning, which is one of the reasons some people are so keen on Apple USB-C for their phones.
We can know for sure by this time next year. An early rumor about the iPhone 15 suggests that a switch to USB-C might be in the cards for at least some upcoming iPhone models. If that happens, we can finally see the iPhone chip away from the charging speed advantage that some Android competitors have.
For most phone shoppers, the charging speed hardly spoils the deals, as iPhone enthusiasts want to put up with 20W charging speeds given all the other strengths the iPhone has to offer. However, as the numbers show, Apple is far behind the competition when it comes to how fast iPhones charge. It will be interesting to see how the company responds.
