The best chargers for your new iPhone

Wireless charging

The iPhone 12 Pro supports up to 15W 'fast' wireless charging but only when using MagSafe chargers. It is Qi certified, of course, but if you opt for a regular Qi-compatible charger, you'll be limited to 5W-7.5W or so.

The MagSafe charger works at a maximum speed only when coupled with Apple's new 20W charger. We've tested with other USB-PD adapters, and the thing won't go beyond 10W if it's not hooked on Apple's latest adapter.

But the worst thing is that the MagSafe wireless charger provides 15W only in the first 10 minutes or so, excluding the 5 minutes it took to wake up our dead iPhone 12 Pro. After fast charging for a bit, it drops the output to 10W and won't go higher. And, of course, it finally drops to 5W upon reaching 80% charge.

So, the MagSafe with Apple's 20W adapter combo lifted the iPhone 12 Pro dead battery to 30% in 30 minutes, while a full charge on that charger required 3 full hours!

We also tested the iPhone 12 Pro on two Samsung Wireless Stands - the one from 2018 that doesn't support iPhone 'fast' charge, and the best it can do is 5W. The 2019 model supports up to 7.5W iPhone charging, which is better.

So, the 5W 2018 Samsung Wireless Stand refilled 18% in 30 minutes of the iPhone 12 Pro battery, 33% in 60 minutes, while a full charge required nearly 4 hours!

It gets better with the 2019 Samsung Wireless Charging Stand model, which outputs 7.5W. It recharges 22% in half an hour, 40% in one hour, while a full charge requires 3 hours and 14 minutes.

And here is the chart with the full charge times.

Time to full charge (from 0%)

• Apple MagSafe 15W
  3:00h
• Samsung Wireless (2019)
  3:14h
• Samsung Wireless (2018)
  3:51h

Conclusion: The iPhones are not super fast with wireless charging. The MagSafe wireless charger may have its benefits, but it takes forever to recharge an iPhone wirelessly, and that's with the extra purchase of Apple's 20W power adapter. If you enjoy the added convenience of a wireless charger for say, charging your phone on your nightstand, you can save some cash by getting any wireless charger instead of Apple's. If you charge the phone while you sleep, do you really care whether it takes 3h or 4h?