New iPhone 11 to release in September
New iPhone 11 to release in September

The next lineup of iPhones could essentially make USB-C the default charging standard. Apple mobile devices at the moment ship with power bricks that require a USB-A to lightning cable. The company does make USB-C to lightning cables which can only be used when connecting to a USB-C enabled laptop/desktop or a third-party iPhone charger that supports the newer standard.

A post on Chinese social network Weibo cited the fact that Apple is working on an iPhone adapter that uses USB-C. The adapter could essentially ship in-box with the upcoming iPhones to simplify the process of charging Apple devices and also to rule out confusion. Also, the most important point to noted from the post is that the new charger could be a fast charger, aligning Apple with other smartphone manufacturers that ship fast chargers in the box.

The charger that Apple ships currently is the one on the bottom-right
The charger that Apple ships currently is the one on the bottom-right

Apple packs the iPhones with the slow 5W Power Adapter which takes an extremely long period to top-up the phone’s battery. Many iPhone users buy the 12W or 24W fast charger made for the iPad or the third-party chargers to reduce the charging times. It’s horrendous that Apple ships cheap slow chargers while charging a premium for the phones. It’s good news that it may change in the future but the company could have done it a little earlier too.

Majority of the Android smartphone manufacturers started shipping fast chargers in-the-box way back in the 2015-2016 period. Since then, the number has risen exponentially with only few affordable Android smartphone makers not being part of the initiative. Also, Android phones tend to have batteries with much higher capacities compared to their iOS counterparts. The point to keep in mind here is that, Apple does an extremely good job at maintaining their OS resources meaning the iPhone can run for longer with smaller batteries. However, the battery capacity is just not enough for an iPhone to last till the end of the day unless it’s one of the ‘Plus’ models.

All Apple chargers. All of them can be used to charge an iPhone
All Apple chargers. All of them can be used to charge an iPhone

If Apple does start shipping the fast chargers with the next line of iPhones it will definitely help people reduce their spending on additional accessories. Also it would be great, if Apple could pack higher capacity batteries in all the upcoming iPhones and not just the ‘Plus’ model.