How To Charge Laptop Using Iphone

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how to charge laptop using iphone
How To Charge Laptop Using Iphone

If you’re in an emergency and your laptop is losing power, you might be wondering whether you can charge a laptop with an iPhone. 

Unfortunately, an iPhone cannot be used for emergency laptop charging. You simply can’t use iPhones as power banks; they’re not designed for that. 

In general, phones simply don’t have enough power output to charge laptops, which have much larger batteries and higher battery charging requirements. Even phones that support outgoing power delivery aren’t practically useful for charging laptops in any sense of the matter. 

Understanding Power Requirements

While both your phone and laptop may charge with a USB-C (or Thunderbolt 3) cable, phones simply can’t deliver sufficient power to laptops. Even if you connect the two via a power adapter, it just won’t work. 

The voltage and wattage requirements of a laptop battery for charging is many times higher than what a phone battery can produce. Voltage and wattage are measures of battery power, and without going into specifics, it suffices to say that phones aren’t powerful enough to charge laptop batteries. 

How To Charge Laptop Using Iphone 1

Using an Adapter to Charge Your Laptop

Even if you get an iPhone-to-laptop adapter, your iPhone won’t provide enough power delivery to power your laptop. You would be much better off getting a power bank designed for charging laptops instead. 

Pro-tip for advanced users: While charging your laptop with a power bank, you can ensure USB selective suspend is enabled in your Windows settings to optimize power saving. 

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Using an Adapter to Charge Your Laptop

Important Considerations

While you can’t charge a laptop with a phone, you can charge a phone with a laptop. A laptop’s power draw is too much for a phone to handle, but not vice versa. However, laptops do have charging limitations, so your phone may charge slowly. 

If you decide to use a power bank to charge your laptop, it’s important to ensure manufacturer compatibility first. 

Can I Use an iPhone Charger to Charge a Dell Laptop? 

No. Phone charger limitations don’t allow you to charge most Dell laptops directly. 

However, if your Dell laptop charges via a USB-C port instead of the old-style pin-based charging ports, a USB-C or Thunderbolt charging cable could provide a small amount of power, but it will take very long to charge your laptop. That’s because such chargers are designed for a phone’s power requirements and not a laptop’s power requirements. 

Can I Use a Phone Charger Type-C to Charge My Laptop?

Yes. If your laptop has a USB-C charging port, a USB-C cable meant for phones could be used to deliver some amount of power to your laptop. 

However, it’s best to use a laptop USB-C charger and not a phone charger when charging a laptop. To ensure power safety, it should only be used in emergencies. That’s because the power delivery of phone chargers is a lot less than what laptops really need. 

Troubleshooting Tips

To fix slow charging, ensure you have a cable that is designed for your laptop. Adapter issues could also cause slow charging or prevent your laptop from charging entirely. Replacing the power cable with a new one (sold by the manufacturer, not a third party) is often the best troubleshooting step when facing charging issues caused by a charger. 

The other issue could be the charging port on your laptop itself. Use compressed air to clean it out. If that doesn’t help, take it to a repair shop, as it might need replacing. 

Alternative Method: Power Banks

While you can’t charge a laptop with a phone, there are some portable power banks that are large enough to power laptops. High-capacity power banks that are designed for charging laptops are sold by Anker and other companies on Amazon. Make sure the power bank is a laptop power bank and not one designed primarily for charging phones. 

Conclusion

Whether charging your phone from a power bank or wall outlet, it’s important to follow best charging practices to avoid ruining your laptop’s battery life. For example, leaving it plugged in overnight, every night, could ruin your battery. 

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Benjamin Levin

Ben is a gamer addict and hardware enthusiast who loves taking apart and building PCs. He has over half a decade of writing experience and is HubSpot certified in content marketing and SEO. He is currently pursuing a bachelor's in computer science with various certifications in the information technology field, particularly relating to hardware. He's excited to share his passion for PC hardware with you and help you create your gaming setup, whether it's your first rig or 100th. Ben has traversed the globe and speaks several languages. His passions include traveling, martial arts, going to the gym, buying random PC stuff he doesn't need, and rewatching Street Fighter and Dragon's Dogma.

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