Apple iPhone 11 has secret weapon lying dormant to combat Samsung Galaxy S11

(Image credit: Apple)

published 24 September 2019

A rival to Samsung's popular Wireless PowerShare feature that debuted on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus is reportedly lying dormant on the Apple iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max — just waiting to be enabled.

This information comes courtesy of repair specialist iFixit, which noted that there are two battery connectors inside the trio, hinting that all three support bilateral charging — corroborating popular tipster Sonny Dickson's claim that Apple was working on such a feature, but used software to disable it ahead of the launch of its latest iPhone.

What's interesting here is that if the required hardware onboard as iFixit claims, this is very much a feature that Apple could bring to the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max in the future. All it would need to do is bake the option to enable it (on the consumer end) into a future update to iOS, with the new feature then enabled, bolstering the range's feature set for next year's fight against the Samsung Galaxy S11.

Then again, this is far from confirmation that the tool is on the way. Apple was forced to scrap its AirPower wireless charging mat for whatever reason and its wired charging speeds aren't the fastest in the game, so it clearly has some trouble mastering the power department.

Reliable sources are saying iPhone 11 and 11 Pro do include the hardware for bilateral charging, but that it is software disabled. Uncertain whether this was removed prior to final production run.September 13, 2019

Still, we can't help but think this would be a much-appreciated addition to the iPhone and it would explain the reasoning behind Apple rushing to release the latest AirPods with Wireless Charging Case in anticipation of the release of the iPhone 11. If and when the switch is flipped, AirPods owners will have the option to place the Wireless Charging Case on the rear of their iPhone to charge it on the move —sans wires. This same functionality would also carry over to the Apple Watch and a slew of other hardware that uses wireless charging to replenish its power reserve.

Having spent half a decade writing about the latest news for some of the world’s largest publications, Josh is one of the most recognised reporters in the space. Nowadays, in addition to covering the odd news article, he spends most of his time keeping T3's long-form consumer content up to date, while also researching and reporting on the best deals to help you save some serious scratch.