USB-C comes out on top in iPhone X charging speed showdown

iPhone X wirelessly charging
iPhone X wirelessly charging (Image credit: Rene Ritchie / iMore)

If you're looking for the fastest way to charge your new iPhone X, a new test has offered some interesting results. Put together by the folks over at MacRumors, the test utilizes eight different chargers, from the 5W mini-brick included with the phone to Apple's 87W USB-C power adapter included with the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

We used the same iPhone X for all tests, plugged into the same outlet. Between tests, the battery was drained to one percent, and then battery percent was checked at 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes while charging.For all tests, the iPhone X was placed into Airplane mode with no apps running. The display was deactivated except for the four time checks. Tests were conducted without a case on the iPhone X.

Unsurprisingly, the USB-C chargers from Apple and Choetech proved to be the fastest methods for charging the iPhone X, beating out the default 5W wired charger, as well as 5W and 7.5W wireless charging.

The absolute fastest way to charge an iPhone 8, iPhone X, or iPhone 8 Plus is with a USB-C power adapter and an accompanying USB-C to Lightning cable. Charging with USB-C activates a "fast-charge" feature that's designed to charge the iPhone to around 50% in 30 minutes, and I saw about that level of charge in all of my USB-C tests.5W wireless charging and 5W wired charging with the standard iPhone adapter were the slowest methods that I tested. 7.5W wireless testing was faster than 5W wireless charging, but not by much.

The results between the four USB-C chargers that MacRumors tested are particularly interesting, especially if you're looking to save a little money. While each of these chargers outperforms the lower power chargers, there's little variance in performance amongst one another. For instance, after an hour of charging, both the 18W USB-C charger from Choetech and the 87W MacBook Pro charger brought the iPhone X's battery to 79%.

At the 30 minute mark in all tests, my phone was charged to between 45 and 49%, and at 60 minutes, I reached 77 to 79% battery life. The slowest charger was the Anker 30W, but the overall difference was so small that I think it can be chalked up to random variance. My charts are using 1 charging result, but I did test many of these chargers multiple times with the same general results.

Be sure to check out MacRumors' full article on the test to see the full results. And go ahead and tell us in the comments how you prefer to charge your iPhone X.

Joseph Keller

Joseph Keller is the former Editor in Chief of iMore. An Apple user for almost 20 years, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.