Want Fast Charging on the iPhone 18 Pro? You’ll Need the Right Brick
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One of the small but pleasant surprises in yesterday’s iPhone 18 Pro announcement is that Apple is finally bringing legit fast charging to the iPhone. After years of changes that could be described as incremental at best, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max now deliver roughly double the base charging speeds of pretty much every iPhone model that’s been released in the past decade.
Specifically, this year’s iPhone models can now reach a 50% charge in “around 15 minutes” via wired charging, or 50% in 30 minutes when using a powerful enough MagSafe charger.
While Apple bolstered its charging speeds slightly in last year’s iPhone 17 Pro models, setting that bar at 20 minutes for a 50% charge, that only came after seven years of virtually no changes at all. To put this in perspective, the first iPhone models to be listed as “Fast-charge capable” were the 2017 iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (and the iPhone X that followed).
These models could reach 50% in 30 minutes, but not only did that needle fail to move for years after that, but the Pro Max models often pushed that number up to 35 minutes, due to their larger batteries. To be fair, those were all based on 20W power adapters — the official maximum supported by all the iPhone models of those eras. It was possible to squeeze slightly faster charging by using a higher-wattage adapter with some models, but Apple generally stuck to 20W as the baseline standard.
It wasn’t until the iPhone 17 models came along last year that Apple shaved that down to 20 minutes by delivering official support for 40W charging. The iPhone Air was left behind with only 20W charging, but the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max all stepped up their game.
Now, it looks like Apple is already forging ahead again by introducing support for 60W charging on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. That’s a nice leap ahead; considering how long it took to get 40W charging, we’d honestly expected that to remain the norm for a few more years.
What You’ll Need to Fast-Charge an iPhone 18 Pro
According to Apple’s official specs, you’ll need to use a 60W-capable USB PD 3.1 (or better) power adapter with Adjustable Voltage Supply to get the fastest possible charging. Of course, Apple’s own 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max fits the bill, and it might be the most affordable option in the short term.
The trick is that the charger has to support both the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) 3.1 spec and Adjustable Voltage Supply (AVS). There are plenty of USB PD 3.1 chargers on Amazon, but not all of them also include AVS support. In fact, right now this is mostly confined to the ultra-powerful bricks — the ones rated 100W and above — and even then that’s not always guaranteed.
For example, the Amazon Basics 65W charger and the Belkin 67W charger definitely have the USB PD 3.1 side covered, but there’s no word on whether either supports AVS — so it’s safe to assume they don’t. Without that, it may not provide the voltages required by the iPhone 18 Pro to deliver 60W charging (since wattage is a function of voltage and amperage). Charging voltages are controlled by the iPhone, which tends to manage heat very aggressively. If it can’t tell the charger to ramp the voltages down, it’s more likely to just negotiate a slower “safe” charging rate of 27W (9V/3A) or 30W (15V/2A) to help the battery keep its cool.
The biggest challenge right now is that AVS is a relatively new standard, so even the chargers that may support it don’t explicitly list it. There are subtler ways to look for this, like looking at the voltage ranges in the specs tables, but really if you’re in a hurry for fast charging right away and don’t want to buy a bulky, higher-end laptop charger, Apple’s 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max will be the safest way to go.
Perhaps ironically, one of the other few options that already offers AVS support is Google’s Pixel Flex 67W charger, which also provides two USB-C ports.
With the iPhone 18 Pro landing next week, we probably won’t have to wait long to see more options popping up. Ugreen released a compact Nexode 45W GaN charger with USB PD 3.2 and AVS support in April, but it remains limited to the Chinese market for now.
If you’re shopping third-party, the easiest shortcut is to look for USB PD 3.2. While AVS is optional under USB PD 3.1 (and often unlisted), it’s mandatory under USB PD 3.2. If a brick supports USB PD 3.2 and delivers at least 60W, you’re guaranteed to get top charging speeds on your iPhone 18 Pro.
That said, you’ll still be able to charge an iPhone 18 Pro with any standard USB-C charger on the market. Using a lower-power charger won’t hurt your iPhone — it just won’t charge it as quickly.
