Apple’s iOS 13 is fast becoming one of the company’s worst disasters ever. The initial version was riddled with security issues and bugs, forcing Apple to issue three hurried updates within the first two weeks. It has now emerged that there is another major issue that iPhone owners should be aware of.
According to ChargerLab, Apple is silently downgrading the performance of third-party wireless iPhone chargers without any guidelines for phone makers on how to get past this. Owners who paid high prices for fast third-party wireless chargers, therefore, appear to have wasted their money.
ChargerLab discovered that after the launch of iOS 13.1, various third-party wireless chargers that before delivered a maximum charging speed of 7.5W have now dropped to 5W. This means that an iPhone 11 that earlier reached an 80% charge level in two hours when running on iOS 13 dropped to only 55% after installing iOS 13.1.
This situation still persists with iOS 13.1.2, and according to AppleInsider, Apple is doing this deliberately. The secret seems to be that vendors who comply with the ‘Qi charging spec’ will still enjoy 7.5W charging speeds, but the rest won’t.
Manufacturers who chose to remain anonymous, however, said that Apple has not issued clear directions on how to comply with Qi certification. They also claim that compliance is apparently no guarantee that their products won’t be capped at 5W.
What is even more disturbing is that ChargerLab’s tests have revealed that wireless charging pads bought from Apple Stores still operate at 7.5W, so the company appears to be blatantly favouring its own products. Apple remains silent on the topic.
This comes only a week after the firm started showing lock screen warnings on all three iPhone 11 models if the owner dared to get a screen replacement from a non-Apple vendor. In August, Apple also locked down battery replacements for iPhones in what was described as a “user-hostile” decision.