No, This Is NOT Apple’s Rumored Dual-Port 35W USB-C Charger (But Yes, It Is Still Coming Soon)

Ever since Apple slipped up last week, accidentally revealing a mysterious 35W Dual Charger in a support document, the internet has been rife with speculation on what it may look like and when it may arrive.

Not surprisingly, a few days later, some leaked images appeared on Twitter, purporting to show the new Apple 35W charger. According to the pictures, it would have foldable prongs, similar in concept to Apple’s MacBook chargers, and place the two USB-C ports side-by-side.

Some of these images also showed a rounded divot on each side to make it easier to grip the charger when removing it from a wall outlet, while others showed a charger with flat edges.

Unfortunately for those who were getting their hopes up, more reliable sources have declared these leaked images fake, with some pretty solid evidence to back those claims up.

Leaker DuanRui, who has a reasonably good track record when it comes to sharing information on unreleased Apple products, has called out one image as showing a very basic charger from an unnamed “third-party accessory manufacturer.”

DuanRui also shares images of a 45W PD Dual Port Charger with Mophie branding. Since this charger isn’t in Mophie’s current lineup, it’s presumably an unreleased product, but more information about it can be found on Weibo.

Another picture posted by DuanRui is from a Chinese manufacturer in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, adding that it’s ultimately a “white-label” charger that will be launched under many different brands at the same time over the next few months.

It’s unclear if the Mophie charger is part of this white-label program or if the company is developing its own. The design is similar but not quite identical, and Mophie’s allegedly offers 45 watts of power output on either port. By comparison, a post on Weibo says the generic one only provides a maximum of 20W per port.

This also shows a critical thing to look out for when buying dual-port chargers. Many generic chargers don’t offer their total power output on any single port — the rating is merely the sum of both ports.

In other words, you should always check the specs carefully to make sure you’re getting the advertised power output you need. A 40W (20W+20W) charger may be fine for charging an iPhone and an iPad, but that “40W” rating won’t do your MacBook Air any good since you’ll never get more than 20W on a single port.

Apple’s Dual-Port Charger Is Still Coming

Despite the misleading photos, there’s still ample evidence that Apple is working on its own 35W USB-C Dual Port charger.

The brief appearance of an Apple Support document should be evidence enough since the text was far too specific to be accidental. The document didn’t merely list a 35W rating but also explicitly referred to a “Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter” and included other text to clarify that there were two ports.

Since Apple has never before released a dual-port power adapter, there would be no reason for that text to appear in a support document unless it’s planning on releasing one — and doing so soon.

Further, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has doubled down on his earlier prediction that Apple will release “a new charger of about 30W” sometime this year, adding that components are now nearing mass production. Kuo also predicts Apple will sell between two and three million units this year.

Notably, Kuo doesn’t say anything about whether this will be a dual-port charger, although the fact that he quotes the original story from MacRumors in his Tweet could be taken as an oblique hint of that.

However, one thing that seems inevitable is that when Apple releases this charger, it will look nothing like the leaked photos we’ve seen thus far. Apple would likely scrap its design and go back to the drawing board before releasing something that looks like a copycat product. Although many Chinese manufacturers produce chargers that look very much like Apple’s, that’s only because they’re copying Apple. It’s never the other way around.

It’s also a safe bet that Apple’s 35W charger won’t split the power output between the ports. You should be able to get a full 35W out of either port, although that will be shared between devices when you’re using both ports simultaneously.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]