Samsung's 45W charging brick accessory for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra does, despite reports, work as advertised. We tested it and it's as fast as we'd hoped.
Which makes us even sadder that we have to pay another $49.99 / £39 / AU$69 to own it.
Inside the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's box is a lovely Android phone, cable, and little else. There is no charging brick. Not a 25W one and certainly not the 45W PD Power Adapter that promises Super Fast Charging.
Samsung, like virtually every other mainstream handset manufacturer, stopped including charging bricks in the packaging because most people have a surplus of them in their homes and to help reduce plastic waste.
Granted, all our legacy adapters might not be USB-C to match the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's charging cable, and most won't be capable of fast charging. However, if you do have one laying around, it should fully charge your phone from zero in an hour or two. Personally, I like to place the phone on one of my Qi wireless chargers to juice up overnight (wireless is almost always slower than wired). But that's just me.
Most of you are in a rush and need a full day's charge in as little time as possible.
As I noted in my review, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's 5,000mAh battery is capable of a full day of varied activity, or roughly 18 hours of battery life. I wanted more than a day, but this is still quite good.
A simple test
To test the 45W fast charger, which Samsung unexpectedly sent me, I did my best to drain down the phone, setting the resolution to high, screen brightness at 100%, and running a 'Better Call Saul' Netflix binge that lasted the better part of a workday.
I had a dinner appointment at 6:30pm. So, at 6:03pm ET, I checked the phone, which was down to 27%. Then I grabbed the charger and included cable and plugged one end into the USB-C port on the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and the other into the charging brick, which I then plugged into an outlet.
Samsung had told me weeks ago that the 45W charger was capable of charging the battery to 50% in 20 minutes. So, I set a timer on my iPhone 13 Pro (which looked on with bemusement) for 20 minutes and waited.
As I was preparing to leave, the alarm went off and I checked the phone. It was at 70% after 20 minutes. That's 47% more power than it had when I started and well within the margin of error to count for 50% charged after the allotted 20 minutes.
I will note that while the charging brick was a little warm, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's body was noticeably warm. Sucking in that much power at that speed does heat things up. Interestingly, Samsung also sent me a multi-port, 65W charger, but I don't think I'll use it on the phone - I don't need the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to get any warmer than that.
What did we learn?
If you're willing to spend another $50 / £39 / AU$69 you can get a 50% charge in 20 minutes, which adds up to roughly 9-to-10 hours of reliable battery life. For those always on the move with scarcely an hour to charge their phones, this might be a good investment.
