A rival to Samsung's popular Wireless PowerShare feature (opens in new tab) that debuted on the Galaxy S10 (opens in new tab) and Galaxy S10 Plus (opens in new tab) is reportedly lying dormant on the Apple iPhone 11 (opens in new tab), 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.
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What's interesting here is that if the required hardware onboard as iFixit claims (opens in new tab), 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 (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab) and a slew of other hardware that uses wireless charging to replenish its power reserve.
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