iPhone X and iPhone 8 support fast charging, but it comes at a price

One place iPhone has seriously lagged behind Android is wireless charging, which Google’s ecosystem has supported for years. It took until now for Apple’s smartphone to receive wireless charging and the same can be said for a fast charge feature.

This cool technology will let you charge your new iPhone from 0-50 percent in 30 minutes because Apple is now using the USB Power Delivery specification to provide fast charging on the new phones.

Fast charge is supported in not only the flagship iPhone X, but the iPhone 8 series as well. In fact, it’s available across both the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and the updated 12.9-inch model released earlier this year.

Apple’s promotional materials confirm that, if starting from a fully depleted battery, you can gain 50 percent in half an hour, which is really cool if you’re in hurry. Given how long an iPhone battery typically lasts, you are gaining hours of functionality with just a very short charge.

Unfortunately, you cannot use the included USB-A cable or power brick to achieve this.

This exclusion is patently Apple—they don’t include a wireless charger either. Apple’s standard charger included in the box with iPhone X or iPhone 8 still supports just 1A though they will happily sell you a stronger one that can charge at 2.1A.

To fast charge your iPhone X or iPhone 8, you will need Apple’s own Lightning to USB-C cable (because, currently, only Apple makes these) and also a USB-C Power Delivery-compatible wall brick (Apple has a few of them for their line of MacBooks that use USB-C).

The cost for this really starts to add up when you look at it. Apple’s cable is $25. Then, Apple’s cheapest USB-C charger currently sold on the online store is $49 for a 29W variant.

From what we’ve heard, you need a ~18W USB-C charger to use fast charge.

This is something we’ll have to look at when the new iPhones arrive to find out for sure. Luckily, a variety of vendors create great USB-C chargers, like Anker, for much less than Apple.

If you do go with Apple’s option, you are looking at $74 just to charge your phone faster. Maybe we will get lucky and the company will eventually start to allow others to create MFi-approved Lightning to USB-C cables, and drive prices down.

Lastly, while you can charge any iPhone model a little faster via a stronger third-party charger or iPad brick, this doesn’t compare to the new fast charge feature in iPhone X and iPhone 8.

Thoughts?