One of the most-anticipated feature that didn’t make it into the iPhone 11 line-up is reverse wireless charging. Or did it? Apple never mentioned that the iPhone 11 has reverse charging, but one insider claims it does have the hardware to do it. If the iPhone 11 line-up does have it, we can expect to see it detailed in teardowns of the device. One of the first teardown videos is in, but since it’s not in English, it’s unclear whether the hardware really is there.
iPhone 11 reverse charging is software-disabled
Insider Sonny Dickson tweeted last week that the iPhone 11 has reverse charging. That means users can not only charge it wirelessly but also charge another device like the AirPods by simply placing them on top of it. However, Apple apparently disabled the feature inside the software.
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.
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) September 13, 2019
It’s unclear why Apple would disable reverse charging in the iPhone 11. Rumors about this feature being included date back to earlier this year from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, although he said later that the feature actually wouldn’t make it into the iPhone 11. Several other reports also supposedly confirmed the feature.
According to Mashable, reports indicated just before the phones’ launch that some Apple executives weren’t happy with the trade-offs that were involved in the battery. However, by that time, it probably would have been too late to remove the hardware from the devices.
Forbes notes that it seems unlikely that Apple could remove the hardware from the final production run, but it’s possible the company was able to pull it off. Of course, leaving it in the handsets would enable the company to turn the feature on at some point in a future iOS update.
First iPhone 11 teardown is in
If the iPhone 11’s reverse charging hardware really still is inside the new phones, we would expect teardowns to reveal it. 9to5Mac spotted one of the first teardowns of the iPhone 11 Pro Max on YouTube. The teardown comes from DChannel. Unfortunately, it’s in Vietnamese, so it’s unclear whether reverse wireless charging is mentioned.
Of course, techies who are familiar with the inner workings of smartphones might be able to spot the component as DChannel laid them out nicely for us on the table. If this is you, drop us a line and let us know if you see the reverse charging component in the video.
The teardown does reveal that the report of a 3,969 mAh battery has been confirmed. That makes the battery in the iPhone 11 Pro Max about 25% bigger than the battery in the iPhone XS Max. The battery has also been redesigned into a different shape. The teardown also reveals a return to a rectangular logic board from the previous L-shaped board, and the teardown confirms this as well.
There’s still time to preorder any of the three iPhone 11 devices. Check out the deals we found here.
