Wireless Charging Tests with iOS 11.2 Beta

When iOS 11.2 comes out in final version, the iPhone 8 and X will be able to fill their battery a little faster with wireless chargers. But how fast? The exact answer will have to wait for the final version of the OS but we can already have an idea.

Four iOS 11.2 betas have already been distributed, and it's with the third that Apple has made these two iPhone families compatible with a 7W recharge instead of 5W. We started to look with this beta 3 what kind of gain we could hope for and we continued with beta 4.

Our iPhone 8 with iOS 11.2 b4 went from 0 to 100% charge in 3h 12 min. With version 11.1 it took him 3h 45 min. It's roughly half an hour of winning. Depending on the context, this is a gain that can be appreciable.

In our tests with the previous beta 3, the behavior of the iPhone was random. It happened to load a little faster or on the contrary at equal speed (same statement read elsewhere). We were able to do the test once with this new beta 4 but the results are in the expected direction.

The wired connection for recharging obviously remains more efficient, with a higher efficiency on induction. When testing a previous iPhone 8 connected to the industry with its 5W adapter, it took 2h 25 min to reach 100%. That's 45 minutes better than what we could have with iOS 11.2. To reach 50%, this wired recharge had taken around 45 minutes against 1h 20 for induction with the iOS 11.2 beta

The 7W charging is part of the Qi standard (it climbs to 15W) but Apple has made its own changes that require the use of accessories specifically compatible. When announcing the latest iPhone, it announced that it intends to contribute technically to the evolution of the Qi standard in anticipation of the arrival next year of its AirPower charger capable of simultaneously powering an iPhone, an Apple Watch Series 3 and a future rechargeable case for AirPods.