Can the iPhone 16 Pro Charge Faster Wired Than the 15 Pro? Sometimes.

Last week, rumors emerged about the charging speed of Apple’s new iPhone 16 Pro models that alleged they would charge faster with a wired USB-C connection than last year’s iPhone 15 Pro models. That’s not true… most of the time.

The rumor originated on X (formerly Twitter) where certification showed 5-15 volts and three amps, which is up to 45 watts, 9to5Mac reported. That would make it over 50% faster than last year’s iPhone 15 lineup which maxed out at 27-29W. This, combined with prior rumors that the iPhone 16 would support faster charging, led many to believe that it would charge significantly faster than last year’s models.

Rumors are often never quite right though, and now it’s clear the faster charging referred to wireless charging performance which got a big boost this year. A MagSafe Charger now enables faster wireless charging up to 25W but that requires a 30W charging brick. Additionally, Apple initially said there was no change to wired charging performance.

So the 30W wired charging didn’t change but that doesn’t mean it’s the same. Apple says it improved the ability for the iPhone to charge normally while simultaneously being used.

The devices can pull over 40W to the system to optimize charging performance even with background activities. That would come into play if, for example, a user is charging while also doing a compute-intensive task like playing a graphics-heavy game or editing images on-device. This change helps the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max charge while they are also drawing power. This pairs with Apple’s fast charging claims of up to 50% capacity in 30 minutes.

So if an iPhone 15 Pro and an iPhone 16 Pro were both at 50% and plugged into power, both would charge at a similar rate. However, if both phones were also running a game like Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail, then the iPhone 16 Pro would reach 100% capacity before the iPhone 15 Pro would. That’s not necessarily what most people think of when they hear “it charges faster,” but it is technically true, albeit only under very specific circumstances.

So can the iPhone 15 Pro charge faster when connected to a wired connection than the iPhone 15 Pro? The answer is yes, but also no.

Image credits: Apple