Smartphone Charging Speeds, Ranked


Charging speed is not something people normally consider when buying a new smartphone. This is foolish oversight. There’s nothing quite so annoying as being forced to wait around for your phone to finish charging – especially when it’s heaps sluggish. So which brand is the fastest of them all?

The stress testers at Tom’s Hardware recently compared the charging speeds of different phones by charging them for 30 minutes under identical conditions.

Now, you might be thinking that all high-end smartphones charge at roughly the same speed, which is a reasonable assumption to make. It turns out that nothing could be further from the truth.

Depending on what model you own, you could be waiting twice as long for your phone’s battery juice to fill up to a reasonable level. Here’s how five current-gen models from Huawei, Apple, Google and Samsung compared.

  1. Huawei Mate 20 Pro: 70% in 30 minutes (4000mAh)
  2. Apple iPhone XR: 51% in 30 minutes (2942mAh)
  3. Google Pixel 3: 50% in 30 minutes (2915mAh)
  4. Apple iPhone XS Max: 35% in 30 minutes (3174mAh)
  5. Samsung Galaxy Note 9: 34% in 30 minutes (4000mAh)

As you can see, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro came out on top by a significant margin. Its battery went from zero to 70% in just 30 minutes. By contrast, the iPhone XS Max and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 only managed about half that over the same time period.

Interestingly, the iPhone XR was second fastest out of the above handsets, despite having a less powerful battery. This just goes to show that specs don’t always tell the whole story.

The next time you’re in the market to buy a new phone, remember to look beyond the listed features. Hell, you might even want to test the call quality. (People still make calls on their phones, right?)

[Via Tom’s Guide]

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