iPhone X, iPhone 8 support fast charging only if you buy special charger, cable for over Rs 6500

 iPhone X, iPhone 8 support fast charging only if you buy special charger, cable for over Rs 6500

            

Of late, Apple products have become famous - or rather the word has to be infamous - for holding back functionality. To get whatever functionality that is fairly standard in other competing products, Apple users have to shell out more money. It seems that this is going to be the case for fast charging too. Apple introduced fast charging in the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X when it announced the three phones on September 12. However, what the company tucked away in the finer details was the fact this fast charging feature would be only available to users if they were willing to spend around Rs 6500 extra on a special charger and cable because Apple wouldn't bundle fast charger and relevant cable in the box of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X.

To use fast charging in the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or the iPhone X, users will have to buy at least one high-power charger and a USB-C to Lightning cable. Among the Apple charger that support fast charging in the company's new iPhones, the cheapest one is the 29W charger that will costs around Rs 5,500 in India. The USB-C to Lighting cable costs another Rs 1200 or so in the market. In other words, to use fast charging feature in the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X users will have to spend an additional Rs 6500 or a little bit more after buying their phone for Rs 64000 (in the case of the iPhone 8) or Rs 89,000 (in case of the iPhone X).

Even for a company that has increasingly made a move to earn more and more money from accessories - remember all those dongles and lack of ports in the Apple products of late - this is a strange strategy. Not only Apple is late in bringing fast charging to iPhone users - OnePlus Dash charging, Qualcomm Quick Charge, Motorola Turbo Power are common in the world of Android for the last two years - it is baffling that Apple has sort of made the feature optional.

In the world of Android, almost all companies that advertise the fast charging in a phone or sell a phone with fast charging feature, also bundle a fast charger and relevant cable with the phone. This is same for the OnePlus 5, which comes with a Dash charger, and it is same for many of the Moto phones that are sold for less than Rs 20,000. In fact, nowadays only the entry-level Android phones, which sell for less than Rs 10,000, come without a high-power charger. Almost all other phones come bundled with a large charger that can supply enough power to enable fast-charging in the phone.

This also makes it a little unfair for the iPhone users. Many of them will be spending nearly Rs 1 lakh on the iPhone X and yet won't be able to use one of the highlighted features of the phone until they don't spend an additional Rs 7,000 on buying a charger and cable. Ideally, Apple should have been shipping its latest iPhones with chargers that support fast charging.

There is an argument here that may be users will not have to spend Rs 6000 or Rs 7000 on accessories. Instead, once the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 are out in the market, companies like Belkin will come out with cheaper chargers and cables for them. The argument has some merit but it is worth noting that charging a phone of the most critical part of using the phone daily. All phone companies, including Apple , clearly mention in service and warranty terms and conditions that their devices should be charged only with approved first-party chargers.

In other words, if you are buying the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus or the iPhone X, also be willing to shell out an additional Rs 6,000 on a new charger and cable for it. The bundle charger will charge your phone but slowly and you won't be able to make use of the fast charging feature that Apple has built inside the new iPhones.