Gadget Weekly

Join Namerah Saud Fatmi as she explores the cool, quirky, and sometimes downright odd world of smartphone accessories, gadgets, and other nerdy toys every week.

For better or for worse, the Galaxy S24 is all the rage at the moment. If you're even the least bit interested in tech, you've probably been pouring all over the different opinions and takes on the new Galaxy S series from Samsung.

Between the good, the bad, and the neutral, there's a tiny sliver of information that's been bugging me a lot. We've gone over the entire spec sheet of the S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra, and somehow, no one is outraged by the charging speeds of the trio.

Celebrate the Galaxy AI features and spanking new 50MP telephoto camera all you want; that's all fine and dandy with me, but let's take a moment to talk about the dreary wired charging speeds for a moment because I don't feel like this is getting as much limelight as it should.

To refresh your memory, these are the wired and wireless charging speeds supported by all three S24 phones.

Okay, so now that we've looked at the existing numbers, let me take you on a trip down memory lane. Believe it or not, Samsung hasn't changed the wired charging speeds of its Galaxy S series devices since the Galaxy Note 10 Plus for its stylus-touting replacement of the Note series. That's five years of saturation in this category.

And it's just as bad when you look at the S Plus and basic S models. The Galaxy S24 Plus boasts the same 45W USB-C charging as its Ultra counterpart, identical to the S22 Plus from 2022. This isn't nearly as frustrating when you compare it to the measly charging capability of its smaller sibling.

The petite Galaxy S24 fuels up at a snail's pace, giving you 25W PD 3.0 Type-C charging in 2024. Embarrassingly, this number hasn't changed since the ancient Samsung Galaxy S20 roamed the earth four years ago, practically the Mesozoic era in the smartphone timeline.

That's about four to five years of stagnation. Deary me is that old. I mean, we're talking four to five years from today, which is like 400 to 500 years in the consumer tech space.

If you're here to tell me that we don't need anything faster than that, I can show you the door right now. Either you're my retired grandfather, or you've got zero interest in living a modern lifestyle.

How do we even begin to unpack this? Starting with the basic Galaxy S24 or jumping on to the S24 Ultra, you're paying nearly a thousand or over a thousand dollars for these phones. Chinese brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, RedMagic, and Vivo are able to sell devices that rival the S24 series in specs for a cheaper price and faster charging. Why can't Samsung?

The OnePlus 12 launched with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. The Xiaomi 14 touts 90W wired and 50W wireless charging, whereas its Pro variant sports 120W wired and 50W wireless charging. The Vivo X100 Pro packs in 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. Need I go on?

Heck, there are Android phones from four years ago that came out around the same time as the S20 but still charge faster. For instance, the RedMagic 5G came with 55W fast wired charging back in the day.

Things are looking very poor for Samsung — and I haven't even touched the wireless charging subject yet.

Going back to that fun little table I referred to earlier, the Samsung Galaxy S24 series all come with 15W Qi wireless charging across the board. If the wired charging hasn't been upgraded for four to five years now, how about wireless charging?

Well, I'm sorry to report that there's been nothing new since the Galaxy S10, circa 2019. This was before Samsung unified its S series and Note series under a single banner.

Prepare yourself for the butt of the joke because this is what Samsung had to say about the charging speeds on the Galaxy S24 lineup:

This was in the midst of a conversation about Qi2 not coming to the S24 series. It took a random person testing accessories for us to find out that the possible reason for Qi2's exclusion in the S24 lineup was interference with the S Pen. We didn't get a proper answer for that, and I guess we won't get one for this either.

Samsung says it has been focusing on "extremely fast wireless charging," but it certainly doesn't seem like it. Getting the same old 15W Qi wireless charging for the past five years on its most expensive family of phones is ridiculous, and it certainly does not match that statement.

So, what is proper fast wireless charging? Literally anything from one of the phones I mentioned earlier. I'd be happy with something between 50W and 80W, even though we know that wireless charging speeds exceeding 100W are possible and available in some flagships.

The bottom line is we all know that Samsung could do better. They have the money and the resources to do better. But they choose not to upgrade the charging specs because they think they're already doing great.

Samsung, honey, you're embarrassing yourself. For the love of all that is holy, please do something about this.

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