Users of iPhone handsets with wireless charging support may have noticed of longer juicing up with Qi-standard charger. Know that it's not a case of hardware issue. The problem emerged with the rollout of iOS 13.1, reports said.
Per the report by Forbes: "Apple is quietly slashing the performance of third-party wireless chargers for iPhones running iOS 13." The report cited the study recently issued by testing firm ChargerLab.
Apparently, with the recent release of iOS 13.1 wireless charging speed on specific chargers, and manufactured using the Qi charging standard, has been capped from a rating of 7.5W to 5W. It meant that charging on an iPhone model running on iOS 13.1 will require a longer time to charge up.
For instance, an iPhone 11 that was unboxed with iOS 13 will have an 80% battery meter in two hours of charging wirelessly. But once the same device is bumped up to iOS 13.1, two hours of juicing up wireless will only get to more than 50% of battery, the same report said.
It looked like the wireless charging capping affects all variants in the iPhone 11 series as well as the iPhone XS models. And the report ChargerLab had stated that the anomaly still exists for iPhone users that made the jump to iOS 13.1.2.
To be clear, the problem seems exclusive on wireless chargers on the Qi standard, but interestingly, 7.5W charging can still be attained on specific chargers, specifically the charging devices purchased from Apple Store.
According to AppleInsider, this charging issue is a bit more complicated, the report adding that faster wireless charging is available for charging devices that were deemed compliant to standards set by Apple.
"Any vendors who are fully compliant with the Qi charging spec and all of our guidance will see 7.5W charging," the report said, quoting an unnamed source from the tech giant.
It seemed this explanation was supported by ChargerLab on its findings, which stated: "Our analysis is that, in iOS 13.1, Apple only enables 7.5W charging for solutions using fixed-frequency voltage regulation (which is recommended by Apple)."
Absent this requirement by Apple, other wireless charging solutions will be limited to 5W, the testing firm said.
ChargerLab added that 7.5W wireless charging can still be accessed on charging pads manufactured by Belkin or Anker, but there is no assurance that capping will not happen, specifically for iPhones already running the latest versions of iOS 13.
As of writing, Apple has not issued an official comment on the matter, so there is no telling if the capping on wireless charging will disappear with the release of later versions of iOS 13.
