Introduction

Not long ago, we did a ChargerLAB Compatibility 100 test for the brand-new iPhone 15 Pro Max. Many of you guys want to learn more about the full charging test for this generation and how the temperature performs. So, today, let's take a closer look at a detailed charging review.

Product Appearance

Charging Review of iPhone 15 Pro Max-Chargerlab

The packaging box follows the classic design of iPhones.

We received the blue version with a storage capacity of 256GB.

Apart from the phone itself, the packaging includes a new USB-C to USB-C cable and some documents, but there is still no charger included.

This is the long-awaited USB-C port on the iPhone, which can support USB 3 with speeds of up to 10Gb/s.

And here is the brand-new USB-C cable.

Its woven design is quite similar to the one that comes with the latest iPad Pro, indicating that its lifespan should be significantly better than the older models.

The USB-C connector adopts a special pin design.

Our ChargerLAB POWER-Z KM003C shows it does not have any E-marker chip.

The length of this cable is exactly 1m (3' 3.37'').

Charging Compatibility Test

Next, let's get to the test, starting with the compatibility part.

Apple Chargers

In fact, we have already completed a comprehensive ChargerLAB Compatibility 100 article. Therefore, here we will just take a brief look at its compatibility with Apple's own chargers. If you are interested, you can click on the "related articles" at the end to view the original content.

Take the Apple 29W charger (model: A1540) as an example. KM003C shows that it can deliver 14.5V 1.75A, equivalent to 25.43W of power to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

We tested all the Apple fast chargers we have, you can see that only the 29W one reaches a power of more than 25W with relatively high voltage and low current, while the others are at the 9V3A level.

Plotting the data into a bar graph, it's surprising to see that the 29W charger, with its unique fast-charging strategy, outperforms chargers with much higher power. It takes the top spot, although the advantage is minimal. Even the lowest-powered 20W charger reaches its own limit. Overall, the power output hovers around 25W, very stable.

Full Charging Test

Next, we'll use the Apple 35W Dual USB-C Traditional Power Adapter to fully charge the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The voltage is around 9V at first. The charging curve can be divided into five parts. In the first part, the peak power stayed at 26W for the first 22 mins. Then, the power gradually drops to 22W, 15W, and 8.6W in turn. The final part begins at 52 mins, which is also the time when the voltage dropped to 5V, and the power slowly drops to almost zero. It takes one hour and 55 mins to be fully charged.

We also turn it into another curve. The charger can charge the iPhone 15 Pro Max to 50% in 25 mins. And it can reach 80% in 51 mins, 100% in one hour and 55 mins. The last 20% took more than half the time, crazy.

Then, we switched to the Apple 70W Charger to see how it performs.

The charging curve is quite similar to the 35W one. In fact, the critical power turning point is basically the same as before. It takes one hour and 48 minutes to be fully charged.

The other curve shows that reaching 50% and 80% also takes 25 mins and 51 mins, respectively. So, the only advantage of using this 70W charger is the last 20%, which means the trickle charging time is about 7 minutes faster than the 35W charger – a minor improvement.

Temperature Test

We also put the phone into a 25°C (77℉) thermotank throughout the test, and recorded the highest temperatures on the front and back at three different time points.

After 10 minutes of charging, the thermal imaging camera shows the highest temperature on the front is 36.1°C (96.98°F).

The back is slightly higher at 38°C (100.4°F).

After 30 minutes, the highest temperature on the front increased slightly to 37.1°C (98.78°F).

The back is 38.9°C (102.02°F).

Surprisingly, after 60 minutes, the highest temperature on the front dropped to 29.3°C (84.74°F).

The back is 29.5°C (85.1°F).

From this bar graph, the highest temperature is about 38°C (100.4°F) at 30 mins. According to the full charging test, the phone was in fast charging mode at that time. After charging for 60 minutes and switching to trickle charging mode, as the voltage and power decrease, so does the temperature.

Summary of ChargerLAB

In summary, the full charging time, power and compatibility are pretty much the same compared to the last gen. And it just feels warm during charging, which is beneficial for extending battery life.

However, when compared to other Android devices, it still lags behind. But the new USB-C port can still enable other cool features like using high-speed external SSDs, transferring photos through USB-C cables, or even turning your new iPhone into ultra-fast mobile router. Stay tuned for more contents!

Charging Review of iPhone 15 Pro Max