How to Charge iPhone XS faster: iPhone XS Fast-Charge Guide

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iPhone XS is one of the premium iPhones but suffers from a glaring weakness – it comes with the slow Apple 5-watt charger that takes very long to charge the phone. However, the iPhone XS supports 18-watt USB-C PD charging, allowing you to charge iPhone XS super-fast from zero to 50% in just 30 minutes using a PD charger or PD power bank. All you need is a USB-C to Lightning cable. The USB-C PD charger will also fast charge all the latest iPhone 12 series phones and latest iPads at fastest possible speeds as well.

If the USB-C PD solution seems too expensive, you can also fast-charge the iPhone XS at twice the speed of stock charger using 2.4 amp chargers. The charging rates with these chargers is empty to 50% in about 50 minutes. Though not as fast as PD charging, this is about half the time taken by the 5 watt/1 amp iPhone stock charger to reach 50%.

Here are the best ways to charge the iPhone XS fast –

Charge iPhone XS fast with USB-C PD charger (also fast-charges iPhone 12)

An 18-watt USB-C PD charger will take just around 30 minutes to fast-charge the iPhone XS from empty to 50%. Single port chargers such as AmazonBasics 30-watt PD charger or the Anker 20-watt PD charger are excellent and inexpensive 18-watt solution to fast-charge the XS.

If you want a dual port charger, then Anker 30-watt PowerPort Speed Duo is a good dual port USB-C PD charger that can charge two devices at the same time. It will charge your iPhone XS and any other phone/power-bank at good speed simultaneously. You can even buy a dual PD charger (18-watt PD + 18-watt PD) such as Anker 36-watt Powerport 3 to fast charge your iPhone XS and your USB-C PD power bank (or two iPhone 12, 11/11 Pro/XR/XS/X/simultaneously at the fastest possible speeds.

If you have a MacBook, then AmazonBasics 68-watt PD charger is a very good option for your XS. It will fast-charge the XS through 18-watt current supply and Macbook at blazing speeds with its 60/61 watt output .

Fast-charging techniques for iPhone XS Anker Duo
Anker 30-watt PowerPort Speed Duo will fast-charge the iPhone XS/12, 11/XR/X from zero to 50% in 30 minutes 

iPhone XS can also be fast-charged via Macbook Air/Pro’s USB-C chargers such as MacBook 29/31/61/87-watt chargers. The charger that comes with the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max will also fast-charge the XS as well.

Chargers that use GAN (Gallium Nitride) components are considered better than ones with Silicon components. These GAN chargers are half in weight and size compared to regular chargers, making them superior to Silicon ones. Two of our top choices among GAN chargers for XS are Anker 32-watt GaN PD charger and AmazonBasics 30-watt GaN USB-C PD charger.

At the top-end of the spectrum, especially for Macbook users, is the high-output dual PD-port Anker PowerPort 60-watt dual PD charger or the AmazonBasics 68-watt PD charger. The Anker supports 30 watt PD + 30 watt PD simultaneous current output and hence can charge two PD devices at once – for example an iPhone XS at 18 watt from one PD port and any MacBook at 30 watt from the other PD port. When charging just the Macbook, it will charge it at 60-watt speed.

Fast-Charge iPhone XS with USB-C PD power bank (also fast-charges iPhone 12)

USB-C PD power banks will charge the iPhone XS at same speeds as PD wall chargers – from zero to 50% in about 30 minutes. PD power banks are a future-ready choice for XS as they will also fast-charge the new iPhone 12, 11 series and future iPhones and latest iPads.

Our top picks as PD power banks for XS are ZMI 10000 PD, ZMI 10K Powerpack USB-C, PowerAdd 10000 PD  and Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux. All these have very similar performance, capacity and 18-watt USB-C PD charging output and USB-C charging input. These four have superior build quality than cheaper power banks.

If you often charge two phones, then a better solution than the above three power banks is the 28-watt PD in the market is Anker PowerCore 10000 PD. It has two ports with 28-watt total output (18 watt PD + 10-watt regular USB) and can hence fast-charge two phones at once. Anker PowerCore 10000 PD will give two full charges (from zero to 100%) to the iPhone XS. PowerCore 10000 PD itself takes around 3.5 hours to get recharged via any 18+ watt PD charger.

pd portable charger for iPhone XI and XRR
PowerCore Slim 10000 PD will give two full charges to iPhone XS 

If you own an iPad or a Macbook as well, then a high-output + high capacity PD power bank such as Anker PowerCore PD 26800 30-watt is the ultimate solution for your XS. This is especially useful if you own a latest PD supporting iPad such as iPad Pro 2018, iPad Mini 5, or iPad Air 3. ZMI 20000 PD 3.0 45-watt can charge latest iPhones/iPads/Macbooks fast speeds with charging output of 45-watt for the MacBook and 18-watt for XS/iPads. The power bank has a huge battery capacity of 20000 mAh and is enough to give at least one full charge to both the iPad and iPhone XS.

If you need compact 20000mah PD portable chargers for iPhone XS, then top options at the moment are Anker PowerCore 20000 PD and AmazonBasics 20000 PD. These power banks can be recharged via PD chargers such as Anker 30-watt PowerPort Speed Duo charger, or AmazonBasics 30-watt PD charger at their maximum supported speed of 4-5 hours. Other than that, the XS stock charger can also be used to recharged them taking around 20 hours.

Finally, there are the ultra high-capacity portable chargers that come  in maximum power bank capacity allowed by the TSA.  AmazonBasics 26800 PD 45-watt or the Anker PowerCore PD 26800 45-watt are two TSA-allowed-capacity PD power banks for the iPhone XS. These massive capacity power banks are capable of getting recharged in just about 4.5 hours by any 30-watt PD charger such as any Macbook 29/61/87 watt charger or the Anker 30-watt PowerPort Speed Duo charger.

Fast-Charge iPhone XS with iPad Pro 2019, iPad Pro 2018, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max Chargers

The 18-watt Apple PD charger that comes with iPad Pro 2019, iPad Pro 2018, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max will fast-charge the XS up to 50% in just about 30 minutes. Along with this, the PD charger will also charge PD power banks/portable chargers as well.

Charge iPhone XS fast with 2.4 amp chargers or power banks

2.4 amp chargers or power banks can charge your iPhone XS at somewhat slower speed than the PD chargers i.e. from empty to 50% in about 50 minutes. 2.4 amp chargers such as Anker Elite 24-watt dual port charger or power banks such as PowerCore 20100 are a low-cost fast-charging solution for XS and offer twice the charging speed of the Apple XS stock charger.

2.4 amp fast-charging
Anker Elite 24-watt dual port charger takes around 50 minutes to charge the XS up to 50%

Fast-Charge iPhone XS with Macbook USB-C port

A MacBook Air/Pro with a USB-C port will fast-charge the iPhone XS by connecting the Macbook to the XS through a USB-C to Lightning cable.

Fast-charge iPhone XS with Quickcharge chargers or power banks

If the combined cost of buying a PD powerbank + a  USB-C to Lightning cable seems too high and you already have a Samsung/Android charger with you, then Quickcharge power banks offer a low cost iPhone XS fast-charging solution.

QuickCharge charging is used by almost all Android phones including Samsung phones. A Quickcharge charger will charge the iPhone XS via the 2 amp current from zero to 50% in about 50 minutes (two times faster than Apple stock charger). All new Samsung phones or latest Android phones support QuickCharge 3.0/2.0 and most come with a Quickcharger phone charger that can be used to charge XS as well.

QuickCharge 3.0/2.0 charging
PowerCore 10000 Slim is a good Quickcharge power bank that gets charged fast with Samsung chargers

Quickcharge portable charger such as Anker PowerCore 10000 Slim will fats-charge Samsung/Android phones and charge XS at zero to 50% in 50 minutes. QC power banks take lesser time to recharge than the 2.4 amp power banks and thus, are considered better.

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