New results show Galaxy S23 series wireless charging isn't slower (Update)

Update, April 20, 2023 (12:11 PM ET): PhoneArena has updated its article after conducting another test. After retesting the phones, the results reportedly showed much better wireless charging times for the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra. The new results show the Galaxy S23 fully charging in one hour and 15 minutes and the Galaxy S23 Ultra in one hour 50 minutes.

Original article, April 12, 2023 (4:00 AM ET): Samsung has offered wireless charging on its best Android phones for years now, and the Galaxy S23 series is no different. The company has stuck with 15W speeds this time, but a new test suggests that the Galaxy S23 series seriously lags behind its predecessors.

PhoneArena pitted the Galaxy S23 family against the Galaxy S22 series and several iPhone models in a wireless charging test. The outlet used a Samsung 15W wireless charging pad ( EP-P2400) for all Galaxy phones while using Apple’s official 20W charger for iPhones.

The results show that the Galaxy S23 series can be much slower than the S22 series. This is particularly noteworthy for the Galaxy S23 Ultra, wirelessly topping up in two hours and 37 minutes. By comparison, the S22 Ultra topped up in one hour and 58 minutes, despite having the same battery capacity. Check out the outlet’s graph below.

So what could be the reason for this discrepancy, then? It likely has nothing to do with the charging pad used, as this is Samsung’s official pad so we should get the best compatibility. The outlet did however suggest that Samsung could be offering slower charging speeds due to concerns about heat and battery degradation.

Then again, the company has offered a “fast wireless charging” toggle in flagship phones for years now. This is enabled by default on older Galaxy phones. But it’s also enabled out-of-the-box on the Galaxy S23 series. PhoneArena confirmed to us that the fast charge toggle was enabled though, so we can rule this out as a contributing factor.

We’ve also asked Samsung to clarify the Galaxy S23 range’s wireless charging speeds and whether it was indeed throttling wireless speeds on the new phones. After all, it’s strange that the company claims 15W speeds for both the S23 and S22 families when there’s a major difference in charging time (particularly with the Ultra models, which have identical battery sizes).