The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have the largest batteries of their product generation and yet, it still charges at the same, piddling 5W that it has for a long time. And while a battery charge test isn’t as sexy as a battery drain test (or a few battery bursts), somebody’s gotta make sure these phones charge the way they’re supposed to.
Enter Anandtech‘s analysis and the observation that it takes 7 to 10 percent longer for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users to get from zero-to-full on the supplied charger than users of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
“[The] iPhone 7 could use a higher power charger here as using the device while it is charging will significantly impact the charging rate,” Anandtech wrote, “as the charger cannot supply enough power to the board while also charging the battery.”
While the iPhones’ battery lives range above most of its competition, — 8.62 hours for the iPhone 7 and 9.02 for the “Plus” — the charging times take anywhere from 20 minutes to more than an hour longer to get to 100 percent.
The closest comparison in terms of capacity finds the iPhone 7 Plus using up 3.07 hours for a fill while the HTC 10 takes 1.8 hours and the iPhone 6s Plus some 2.8 hours. The iPhone 7 took 2.08 hours versus the 1.94 hours the iPhone 6s took.
“This doesn’t take away from how impressive battery life is, but overall mobility isn’t going to be better than the competition unless you go out of your way to buy an iPad charger,” the site concludes.
We agree.