A pretty big gulf has been developing between flagship smartphones in recent years, and no, it’s nothing to do with AI. It’s charging speed.
Look at any OnePlus phone and any number of other Chinese manufacturers, and you’ll see smartphones — flagship and cheaper devices alike — sporting charging speeds of 80 watts and above, with many even breaking into triple figures.
Realme even released a phone with a charging speed of 240W.
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However, certain brands have always been trailblazers. The big companies can’t be far behind, right? Um, well, they kinda are.
Samsung’s current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, tops out at 45W. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, its most recent and most expensive smartphone, sports a 25W charging rate. That’s a quarter of the OnePlus 13‘s maximum 100W charging speed.
So what gives? Why are some of the biggest smartphone manufacturers apparently ignoring the huge strides being made elsewhere? It’s probably because it doesn’t actually matter all that much.
What fast charging is and why it’s important
Don’t get me wrong; fast charging is important. I’m old enough to remember when recharging a phone would take a very long time.
Overnight charging was basically the only real way to top a phone up, as leaving it on a charger during the day would effectively mean you would barely use it at all.
Thankfully, that ended with the introduction of fast charging.
Fast charging works by increasing the amperage and voltage of the electricity being supplied to your phone, and each different charging standard has a slightly different way of tuning its numbers.
However, it all results in one measurement: the humble wattage rate.
My first fast charging phone was the Honor 8, and its 18W charging speed meant I suddenly jumped from having to charge a phone overnight to being able to charge to full in less than two hours.
I could top-up in the morning and throughout the day, and not miss out on using my phone.
It was the biggest change in smartphones since the original iPhone, and I firmly believe we haven’t had a seismic shift of that magnitude since.
Still, smartphones have changed a lot since my Honor 8, and my Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a great example of how much has changed. But the charging rate isn’t one of those areas. My Z Fold 5 tops out at 25W, a mere 7W more than the Honor 8.
Really, that should be an outrage. And yes, it does rankle a bit that a phone that cost close to $2,000 on release was outpaced by the cheaper S23 Ultra, but ultimately, I’m not that upset about it.
Why? Because it’s not really that special.
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I’m never in that much of a rush
Big wattage numbers only really impress phone nerds like me and you, so manufacturers really like to boast about how quickly their phones will recharge.
The OnePlus 13’s full 100W charging will charge a phone from empty to 50% in 13 minutes, and then on to full in 26 minutes.
That’s fast. Super-fast, in fact. It leaves my Z Fold 5 in the dust, which promises 50% charge in 30 minutes, and would likely charge to full in just over an hour.
It’s fair to expect the OnePlus 13 to be done in half the time of the Z Fold 5, which is especially impressive when considering the OnePlus 13’s significantly larger battery.
How often is that actually going to make a difference in my life? The leap from overnight charging to a few hours was huge. Is the jump from an hour to 30 minutes the same?
It’s less a leap than a hop, and it’s hard to argue that it’s really that significant.
Sure, there are situations where speed is of the essence. Maybe you’re at an airport, and you’re boarding in half an hour.
The OnePlus 13 would be done in the time it took the Z Fold 5 to get halfway there, and who wouldn’t prefer a well-charged phone?
Outside of that specific situation, it’s hard to find a time when I have 30 minutes spare but don’t have an hour. Or, if I only have 30 minutes, is a full battery really that much more impactful than a partially full one?
More often than not, I’m topping up a phone to get it through the rest of a heavy day, and usually, it won’t need much more than 50% anyway.
None of this is to say OnePlus’s fast charging is bad. It clearly isn’t, it’s great to have, and if you have it, you probably love it.
When Samsung skips super-fast 80W charging on their latest phones, am I upset? No, not really.
Although 25W on the Z Fold 7 is very silly when Samsung can do 45W, 25W is still fast enough that popping it on the charger for half an hour will give you around half a full battery.
And really? That half an hour probably isn’t all that consequential. Plus, by staying further away from really fast charging, Samsung is avoiding many of the potential pitfalls and hazards associated with fast charging.
Will I be happy when any phone I have charges faster? Of course, I will, but I won’t be mourning its loss either. I’m perfectly happy with 25W fast charging right now, and honestly, you should be too.
There are many elements of smartphones that need improvements and upgrades, but fast charging isn’t one of them.
