A Samsung Galaxy S25 certification suggests the phones won’t fix one the Galaxy S24’s biggest issues
The Galaxy S25 might be slow to charge
- The Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra have all been certified by US regulators
- They will seemingly all charge at the same speed as their predecessors
- The Samsung Galaxy S25 doesn't appear to have ultra-wideband
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and its siblings are among the best Android phones you can buy, but one thing they’re far from the best at is fast charging, with even the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s charging speeds being dwarfed by some rival handsets. Sadly, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S25 series will charge just as slowly.
Following a recent FCC (Federal Communications Commission) certification for the Samsung Galaxy S25 in the US, the Galaxy S25 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra have also now been certified, as spotted by 91Mobiles, and those certifications reveal the likely charging speeds.
In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S25 that speed is 25W, just like its predecessor, while the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus and Ultra look like they’ll charge at 45W, which again is the same as the current models.
Technically these certifications don’t reveal the phones' charging speeds, but they do reveal the speeds of the power adapters associated with each phone, which in most cases would match what the phone is capable of.
Well behind rivals
So that’s unfortunate when you consider that the Xiaomi 14T Pro, for example, offers 120W wired charging and 50W wireless, while the OnePlus 13 supports 100W wired charging and 50W wireless – and those are just a couple of examples of much faster-charging Android phones.
And speaking of wireless charging, 91Mobiles interprets the FCC information as saying that the base Samsung Galaxy S25 will offer just 9W wireless charging, down from an already-slow 15W on the Samsung Galaxy S24.
However, that seems an unlikely downgrade, and indeed leaker @Jukanlosreve spotted that, based on the FCC documentation, it’s actually reverse wireless charging (the ability to wirelessly charge other devices with the phone) that’s 9W, while wireless charging is probably still 15W. That would actually be an upgrade for reverse wireless charging, as that tops out at 4.5W on the Galaxy S24.
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Charging speeds aside, there’s not much of interest in these FCC certifications, though they do state that the Samsung Galaxy S25 will lack UWB (ultra-wideband). This is a wireless communication protocol that can be used for things like unlocking car doors and more precise tracking of devices like Samsung’s SmartTag 2.
UWB is present on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and Ultra, but not on the base model, and it sounds like the same will be true of the Samsung Galaxy S25 line. So in short, almost none of the things that these certifications mention seem to be changing from the Galaxy S24 series.
We’d still take all of this with a pinch of salt, but the FCC should be working off official information, so these details are likely correct. We’ll probably find out for sure in January, as that’s when the Samsung Galaxy S25 series is expected to launch.
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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.