Apple is set to introduce faster wireless charging with Qi2 technology on the iPhone 12.

Apple plans to bring support for faster Qi2 wireless charging by rolling out iOS 17.4 to the iPhone 12 model. Although not officially announced by Apple, a series of tests and reports from Macworld readers indicate that the iPhone 12 can now charge at a full 15W wirelessly when magnetically attached to a non-MagSafe Qi2 charger.

Qi2 is the Wireless Power Consortium’s (WPC) next-generation wireless charging technology based on MagSafe. Qi2 can reach a maximum speed of 15W, while third-party wireless chargers that are not MagSafe certified are limited to maximum speeds of 7.5W.

In the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, Apple introduced iOS 17.2 last year, which brought a speed of 15 watts with Qi2 wireless chargers. The iPhone 15 series already supported Qi2 when it debuted, so the iPhone 12 remained the only iPhone model with MagSafe that does not allow fast charging when using Qi2 accessories.

Although Apple doesn’t mention this compatibility in the iOS 17.4 release notes, Macworld testing after iOS 17.4 has revealed that the iPhone 12 fully matches the charging speed of Apple’s certified MagSafe chargers when attached to a Qi2 charger, even showing just 15W: n loading animation.

They started testing with an Apple MagSafe charger, where it took 38 minutes to charge an empty iPhone 12 Pro Max to 30 percent and 70 minutes to 50 percent. They used the Anker Qi2 MagGo Wireless Charger to charge the iPhone 12 Pro Max to 30% in 33 minutes and 50% in 64 minutes.

In later testing on an iPhone 12 with a smaller battery than the 12 Pro Max, Qi2 came out on top, but MagSafe and Qi2 charge speeds were very close (around 20 minutes to 30% and 45-50-50%).

The update was originally brought to Macworld’s attention by a reader who noticed his phone charging faster and a MagSafe/Qi2 animation appearing on his Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad with Qi2.

Meanwhile, in iOS 17.4, Apple added an in-depth Battery Health section to the Settings app, which provides detailed information about your phone’s battery health, such as the number of cycles and maximum capacity. Compared to the previous version which showed the battery health in percentage, this change is a huge improvement.