Tested: Fast Charge Your iPhone 8 or iPhone X for Half the Cost

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We tested four fast chargers for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, and one performs nearly as well as Apple's 29-watt adapter but costs a lot less money.

Apple charges a whopping $49 for its 29-watt power adapter if you want to charge up your iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus (and soon, the iPhone X) in a hurry. But we found a very good alternative that costs less than half as much.

On our tests, the $23.99 ZMLM USB Type C wall charger outperformed four other third-party adapters, taking 32 minutes and 25 seconds to bring the iPhone 8 Plus to 50 percent on its battery life meter. That's about 4 minutes behind Apple's own 29-watt adapter, which did the job in a brisk 28 minutes. The ZMLM charger also comes with an LED light, so you know that it's working.

Charge Time Results

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ChargerPriceTime to 50 Percent (min:sec)
Apple 29W USB-C Power Adapter$49 Wal-Mart28:00
ZMLM USB Type-C Wall Charger$23.99 Amazon32:25
Mackertop PD Type-C Wall Charger$6.99 Amazon Marketplace34:03
Runpower Replacement USB-C 29W$46.99 Amazon Marketplace35:06
Belker 29W MacBook Charger$27.9 Amazon Marketplace43:20

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are the first iPhones to offer Qi wireless charging, but if you want to really juice Apple's flagships up in a hurry, you'll want to go the fast, wired charging route.

All of the third-party adapters we tested come with USB-C to USB-C cables, so to charge the iPhone 8 Plus we used Apple's own 1-meter, USB-C to Lightning cable ($35).

MORE: iPhone 8 Is World's Fastest Phone (It's Not Even Close)

The next-best performer was the Mackertop PD Type-C wall charger, which took 34:03 to bring the iPhone 8 Plus to 50 percent capacity. This adapter costs an even cheaper $15.99, which is great, if you don't mind a 6-minute delta versus Apple's own charger. The Mackertop has a fairly low Amazon user rating of 3 out of 5 stars, but most of the complaints have to do with it not working well with an iPad Pro.

There's really no reason to buy the Runpower Replacement USB-C 29W power adapter. It finished 7 minutes behind Apple's charger, but it costs about the same, at $47.99.

Bringing up the rear was the Belker 29W MacBook charger, which can also be used to fast charge the latest iPhones. This adapter took more than 43 minutes to get our iPhone 8 Plus to 50 percent. The price is decent, at $27.90, but the performance is not.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide

Mark Spoonauer
Mark Spoonauer

Mark Spoonauer is the global editor in chief of Tom's Guide and has covered technology for over 20 years. In addition to overseeing the direction of Tom's Guide, Mark specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at key industry events and appears regularly on TV to discuss the latest trends, including Cheddar, Fox Business and other outlets. Mark was previously editor in chief of Laptop Mag, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.