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While idly flicking through the weekend’s news last night, I came across a Forbes article titled ‘Apple Accidentally Leaks Massive Upgrade For iPads, iPhones’.
Ooh! What’s this, I wondered. Do we finally have something to get excited about with Apple’s next iteration of their portable telephone?
As it turns out – no; this latest ‘massive’ leak relates to the power brick. Which probably still won’t come in the box.
If you stick with me beyond this intro, I am hugely grateful. Thank you.
The latest MASSIVE leak
On 8th April, someone at 9to5Mac spotted a new support document that had been accidentally published by Apple.
The document referred to a currently unavailable ‘Apple 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter’. It read as follows:
Use the Apple 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter and a USB-C cable (not included) to charge your device. Connect a USB-C cable to either port on the power adapter, extend the electrical prongs (if necessary), then plug the power adapter firmly into the power outlet. Ensure the power outlet is easily accessible for disconnecting. Connect the other end of the cable to your device.
The document obviously isn’t there anymore (presumably whipped away quicker than the contents of the person’s desk who made the boo-boo). But its brief presence does suggest that Apple is looking to up its game when it comes to official charging technology for the iPhone.
As always, Apple isn’t first to the pack with this. There are countless Android phones on the market that have more impressive charging capabilities and bundled accessories. But the charging brick referred to in the leaked support document would be a significant upgrade on the current single-port 30W and 45W chargers currently provided by Apple (it’d probably be smaller, to boot).
If this leak results in a living, breathing product, it would give us the option of buying an Apple-branded charging brick that’s capable of fast-charging your iPhone, and topping up an Apple Watch simultaneously.
Crikey – are you still with me? Bravo!
Why I couldn’t care less about this leak
As you’ll note from the quoted text above, the leaked support document made it clear that the dual-port charger doesn’t ship with a USB-C cable. And one can assume that the charger itself categorically won’t be bundled with the iPhone 14, either.
So, there’s the first underwhelming footnote.
But there are several other reasons I just cannot get excited about this leak – and why I genuinely hope that the person who accidentally published the support document didn’t get too much of a telling off.
Firstly, there are countless options out there for fast-charging power bricks with multiple outlets. My pick of the bunch is the Aukey PA-B6S, which offers 90W charging in a compact, well-built frame. You can connect three devices to it at once via the single USB-A port and dual USB-C ports.
I use it all of the time. Unfortunately, it no longer appears to be available (ominous? Possibly…), but there are so many reputable brands offering similar devices, such as UGREEN.
The second reason I can’t get excited about a potential Apple dual-port charger is the price. It’ll cost about the same as four third-party chargers combined, and no amount of fancy product wrapping or marketing is going to make it much of a draw for 99% of people.
Lastly, if the accompanying leaked schematics of the iPhone 14 in the Forbes article are anything to go by, it looks like Lightning will remain. I’ve waffled on about Lightning enough in the past, so I’ll spare you my thoughts today. But, suffice to say, any remote hope I might have had that we’d see USB-C on a future iPhone is now well and truly quashed.
There is, of course, a strong possibility that Apple’s dual USB-C charging brick has already been cancelled. They don’t, after all, have a particularly good track record when it comes to creating multi-charge solutions, do they?
There is some light on the horizon…
Not all iPhone 14 rumours are this boring.
Although there are reports that the regular iPhone 14 won’t feature any significant external design changes at all, it’s looking increasingly likely that the iPhone 14 Pro will indeed do away with the notch in favour of a pill-shaped hole-punch cut-out for the camera and accompanying sensor technology.
We could also see one of the biggest upgrades to the iPhone camera system since the iPhone 6S. Reliable rumour scavenger, Ming-Chi Kuo, tweeted last month that the next iPhone will increase its sensor resolution to 48MP.
The main reason for the larger and more prominent rear-camera bump of the 14 Pro/Pro Max is upgrading the wide camera to 48MP (vs. 13 Pro/Pro Max's 12MP). The diagonal length of 48MP CIS will increase by 25-35%, and the height of 48MP's 7P lens will increase by 5-10%. https://t.co/lrwgmnLNce
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 27, 2022
Apple has stuck resolutely with a 12MP sensor for six years, while the competition has delved deeply into large sensor territory. More detail, better low-light performance, and images that can be printed at a larger scale make for a genuinely exciting iPhone 14 rumour.
Am I being unfair? Are you excited about a dual-charging Apple power brick? Get involved in the comments!
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