Galaxy S22 debuted with the most advanced Quick Charge implementation ever encountered on a Samsung phone. But the practical tests tell a completely different story.
While other smartphone manufacturers are announcing over 100W charging speed available on their devices, Samsung’s South Koreans have just announced a jump to 45W speed, available only on the top S22 + and S22 Ultra models. But the first practical tests show that this speed is implemented in a rather timid way, Samsung really wanting to avoid any reliability problems manifested by premature battery wear or, worse, by cases of spontaneous ignition of phones left to charge .
Existing more in marketing leaflets, the charging speed at 45W is only reached as a peak of the charging process, if certain very strict conditions of temperature and battery capacity are met simultaneously. In practice, the time savings obtained when fast charging even works at a maximum speed of 45W is practically imperceptible, practical tests show that both the Galaxy S22 + version and the S22 Ultra model are only 1-2% faster to charge with the adapter 45W AC, rather than using a 25W power adapter.
Thus, the same Galaxy S22 + phone charges in 30 minutes up to 62% battery with 25W AC adapter, respectively 64% battery with 45W adapter. The same trend is found when testing the S22 Ultra model. Analyzing the whole charging process, S22 phones need about 59 minutes to fully charge with the 45W adapter, using the 25W model adding only 4-5 minutes to the total standby time.
Ironically, the illusion of charging speeds is dispelled with the help of Samsung, which, not delivering in the Galaxy S22 accessory package a harmonized AC adapter with the power passed on the phone label practically forces future buyers to experiment with not exactly ideal accessories, discovering on this occasion just the limitations that Samsung would have wanted to go unnoticed.