The Apple Charging
Situation

The Air and 17e both cap at 20W — a 140W charger finishes at the same speed as a basic 20W. Save the good charger for a device that can use it. The MagSafe / Qi2 column is the wireless ceiling: 25W on the 16 line and up (minus the 17e), and a Qi2 pad from anyone hits the same number as Apple's puck, provided the adapter behind it is 30W or better (35W on the 17 and 18 lines). Wireless is still the slow lane; 25W gets an 18 Pro to 50% in about 30 minutes, twice the wired time.

† Apple's numbers, not the lab's. The 18 Pro ships September 18 and the Duo October 23, so ChargerLAB hasn't had either on the bench; those times are estimates and get corrected when the tests land. The catch in the 15-minute claim: it needs a 60W adapter that supports AVS (Adjustable Voltage Supply, the trick that lets a 40W brick surge to 60W). Right now the only one on the shelf that qualifies is Apple's own $40 40W Dynamic Power Adapter. The Anker below has an AVS mode on paper but nobody has tested it with an 18 Pro yet; without AVS, an 18 Pro charges like a 17 Pro, about 20 minutes to 50%. Still not bad.

The Pro starts at $1,199 and charges at 60W. Apple included a 20W charger, one-third speed. I have feelings about this. (The M5 Pro is the first iPad Apple calls fast-charging; the M4 topped out around 35W.)

Airs fast-charge at 70W but now ship with 40W — better than the old 30–35W, but still almost half-speed. The Neo ships with 20W on a 30W device — the biggest gap in the laptop lineup. The base M5 and 16-core Pro ship with 70W — below their 96W fast-charge threshold. As of macOS Tahoe 26.4, Apple will literally tell you — an orange "Slow Charger" label appears in the battery menu when your adapter can't keep up. One regional note: since April 2026, EU and UK MacBooks ship with no charger at all. The Common Charger Directive required Apple to offer a charger-free option, and Apple made it the only one. The Ships With column is the US answer.

Ranked by actual impact. Most people worry about #4. They should worry about #1.

Above 80%, the battery is working its hardest — voltage spikes, chemistry gets stressed, wear accelerates. Apple knows. That's why all five of these exist. Also: USB-C means the device controls wattage, not the charger. A 140W brick on an iPhone delivers only what the iPhone asks for. You can't overfeed it — the device won't draw more than it's designed for. (The USB-PD spec goes to 240W and Framework now ships one; no Apple device asks for more than 140W.)

Apple shipped this 5W charger with every iPhone from 2007 to 2019. Then stopped including chargers entirely. Hundreds of millions still in drawers. And yes — it's USB-A, so you need a USB-A to USB-C cable for anything made after 2023. Still in use. Still slow.