Wireless Reverse-Charging: Is it finally going to the iPhone?

USB-C has many advantages in the iPhone: finally use a standard cable, use numerous accessories and much more. The unknown functions include the possibility of so-called reverse charging: you can charge external devices such as AirPods with the iPhone. At the moment, this is only possible via mentioned USB-C cable, but not wirelessly via Magsafe on the back of the device-although the inductive qi charging standard underneath is actually dominated in more recent variants. This could change in upcoming iPhones, according to Asia.

Firmware or hardware?

The Weibo-Leaker Fixed Focus DigitalHowever, this now claims that the reliability is unclear. According to the information, Apple tested the function at least on the iPhone 17 Pro, which is expected on September 9th. It would also be conceivable that no additional hardware is necessary to unlock reverse charging via Magsafe, but Apple does not yet have the corresponding firmware on the devices. Therefore, you shouldn’t quite give up hope of older devices.

The basic idea: You put AirPods with wireless charging function, an Apple Watch or even another Magsafe-iPhone on the back of the device equipped with wireless reverse charging.

It is also interesting that Apple is said to have slightly postponed the Apple logo due to the changes in the camera unit at iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max-it could serve as a charging area indicator. Already in February there had been Weibo rumors about reverse charging via Magsafe. At that time it was also said that Apple “tested” the function.

Load via cable stays faster

Basically, the loading via Magsafe is above all a convenience feature. If you want to load quickly and at the same time, you should use the cable. The inductive charging also ensures that the iPhone heats up, which in the long run is not good condition for batteries-you should therefore switch to the cable even as a MAGSAFE loader.

With wireless reverse charging of smaller devices, however, this should not be a problem. We will find out whether Apple actually implemented the function in early September. Apple had recently screwed to the iOS battery management – also for the new, thin iPhone 17 Air, which is supposed to bring a small battery.

At Google’s Pixel 10, the function called “battery” there was recently deleted for wireless reverse charging-supposedly because this bites with the magnetic Qi2. However, the functions of wireless reverse charging and magnetic technology do not exclude: HMD (formerly Nokia) has a corresponding device on the market, the skyline.