Fast charging has become one of the areas of most innovation in the smartphone industry in the last few years.

Smartphone manufacturers out of China have pushed higher and higher charging rates so that now we have reached the point where you can charge a flagship phone with a big battery in just half an hour. This deals away with the need for nightly charges and is a huge convenience. Needless to say, this one feature has become an important criterion in picking up your next phone, especially for the most demanding users. However, we should also mention that super fast charging may come with some cost to the long-term battery longevity.

Below, you will find the fastest charging phones out there along with a few details about the technologies used by each of the companies making them.

Flagships

*phone comes with a slower charger in the box.

**phone comes with a faster charger in the box.

iPhones Fast Charging Explained

However, in order to use that maximum speed you do need to have an 18W power adapter and Apple has been notorious for not providing such an adapter in the box with most iPhones. Only the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the iPhone 11 Pro ship with such an adapter. For all other iPhones, you need to purchase this adapter separately. Apple is selling its own official 18W USB-C Power Adapter for $29, and you will also need a USB-C to Lightning cable if you don’t own one for an additional $19.

Can you use a third-party power adapter that is not made by Apple and still get those fast, 18W charging speeds?

The answer is yes, but make sure that the adapter you purchase supports the USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) standard. For example, a standard Samsung Galaxy S20 series phone charger also supports the same USB-PD standard and will also deliver the maximum 18W charge to iPhones.

Samsung Galaxy Fast Charging Explained

There are some nuances, though: for example, only the top tier Galaxy S20 Ultra and Note 10 Plus support a super fast charge rate of 45W. To achieve those charge rates you need to purchase a separate power adapter from Samsung for $50 (note that this adapter also comes with a thicker than your average USB-C to USB-C cable that you need to use to get the max charge rate). The regular S20+ and S20, as well as the Note 10 only support 25W charging speeds, and they come with 25W adapters in the box.

Earlier Samsung phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, S10 and S10e only support the Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 standard and they max out at charging speeds of 15W.

Google Pixel Fast Charging Explained

Can you use a faster 25W or 45W power adapter to charge Google Pixel phones even quicker? The answer is no, the phone is configured to receive a maximum charge of 18W so you won’t see any benefit from plugging it to a more powerful charger.

LG ThinQ Fast Charging Explained

With the newer LG V60 ThinQ, you get a more modern 25W USB-C charger with support for the Qualcomm QuickCharge 4.0+ standard.

OnePlus Fast Charging Explained

What this means is two things: one, it is a proprietary solution which means that you need to use the OnePlus charger with the OnePlus cable to make use of the fastest charging speeds (thankfully, both are provided for free in the box), and second, it means that other chargers like a USB Power Delivery charger will not be able to deliver its maximum output on OnePlus phones.

In reality, we have found the proprietary OnePlus charger to work extremely well and one advantage it has over other technologies is that it is able to maintain the fast charging rates even while you are using your phone. On other phones, in contrast, charging rates drop noticeably if you use your phone while charging.

Huawei Fast Charging Explained

Can you use a third party power adapter with Huawei phones? The answer is yes, but don’t expect to get the same fast charging speeds.

Oppo and Realme Fast Charging Explained

Chinese company Oppo is not popular in Western markets, but its budget off-shoot Realme is picking up pace in many places across the globe, and one of the key selling features is a super fast charging rate.

The technology is similar to what is used in OnePlus phones (which are part of the Oppo group of companies). It’s called Super VOOC 2.0 and it uses pumps up power at a rate of 10V and 6.5A, and it also uses GaN technology to achieve that in a relatively compact package.

This charger, however, will only work with few very specific phones and will charger other phones at a rate of just 10 watts.

As for Realme phones, the Realme X50 Pro 5G supports 65W charging via the same technology and the phone would also charge at rates of 18W with a QC/PD charger and 30W with the company’s Flash Charge power adapter.

Xiaomi and Redmi Fast Charging Explained

The charger provided in the box also supported the QC4.0+ and Power Delivery 3.0 standards, so it is technically compatible with many other phones as well.