How to charge your iPhone X twice as fast

It ludicrous that you have to pay $75 ($50 for the 29-watt power adapter and $25 for a USB-C-to-Lightning cable) just to fast-charge your shiny new $1,000 iPhone X. That goes double since every flagship Android phone includes the necessary equipment right in the box.

But trust us, it's worth paying the extra for the gear because regular charging is much slower.

We performed our iPhone X battery test using the same methodology we used for the iPhone 8 Plus.

The iPhone X was drained down to 0 percent and plugged into a USB-C-to-Lightning cable, which was connected to an authentic Apple 29-watt power adapter, which was plugged into a standard wall outlet.

Fast charging compared

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

We left the iPhone X charging for 15, and then 30 minutes, recording the battery percentage at each time.

Here's what we got:

iPhone X

• 15 minutes: 26 percent

• 30 minutes: 46 percent

Apple advertises up to 50 percent in 30 minutes. Our brand new iPhone X was was close, but slower than on iPhone 8 Plus.

Here's how the iPhone X compares to the charging rates of the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 7 Plus, using the same power brick and cable:

iPhone 8 Plus

• 15 minutes: 27 percent

• 30 minutes: 54 percent

iPhone 7 Plus

• 15 minutes: 15 percent

• 30 minutes: 29 percent

Which iPhone gets to 100 percent fastest?

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

After charging for 30 minutes, we kept the iPhone X charging until it reached 100 percent:

iPhone X: 2 hours, 5 minutes

iPhone 8 Plus: 1 hour, 50 minutes

iPhone 7 Plus: 2 hours, 32 minutes

Fast vs. regular charging

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

So, now you have the hard data. But how does fast-charging the iPhone X compare to the regular 5-watt power adapter and USB-A-to-Lightning cable that every device comes with?

We drained our iPhone X back to 0 percent and charged it up again with the pack-in gear and got the following results:

• 15 minutes: 10 percent

• 30 minutes: 22 percent

• 3 hours, 33 minutes: 100 percent

The evidence couldn't be clearer: Get a fast charger and you'll save 1.5 hours of charge time going from zero to 100.

Though our tests showed the iPhone X fast-charged to a full battery slower than the iPhone 8 Plus, that's likely partially due to its larger 2,716 mAh (milliamp-hour) battery compared to the iPhone 8 Plus' 2,675 mAh battery. The last 1 percent took 21 minutes with a fast charger and 23 minutes with the regular charger (almost all fast chargers slow down for the last percent or so to avoid damaging the battery or device).

Worth the investment

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

$70 is a lot of money to spend on a new power adapter and cable just for faster charging, but it's a good investment if you need that quick juicing up in the morning before work or need to "top off" your iPhone X in the middle of the day.

There are cheaper power adapters and cables that'll also fast charge your iPhone X, but we haven't tried them so we can't say if they're quicker or slower. Anker and Aukey are two trusted brands we recommend based on their quality products and customer service.

We also hope that next year Apple won't cheap out, and instead include a fast charger with every $1,000+ iPhone.