We Tested 33 New Phones to See Which Charge Fastest and Crown 2 Winners

Key takeaways:

• Apple’s iPhone 17 collection has the quickest recharge speeds, with the iPhone 17 Professional getting the quickest total
• Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Extremely has the quickest wired charging, because of its new 60-watt charging pace
• Silicon-carbon batteries have quicker charging speeds, however restricted availability

For many people, how lengthy our phone lasts earlier than dying is one in all its most vital options. Proper behind battery life, nevertheless, we prioritize how shortly our telephone costs when it is virtually out of energy. When I’ve a protracted day, am planning to exit after work or if I am touring with prolonged day out and about, with the ability to recharge my system as a lot as attainable can imply the distinction between it powering by means of to the top of the day or dying once I want it for my commute house.

I am removed from alone in that state of affairs. In CNET’s 2026 smartphone survey, 58% of respondents report frustrations with their telephone’s battery life, and 31% say their telephone’s battery does not maintain a cost in addition to it did when it was new.

Learn extra: Smartphone Owners Aren’t Convinced to Upgrade for Foldable Designs and AI Integrations, CNET Finds

Happily, charging pace is without doubt one of the areas we have seen telephones enhance over the previous few years. Sooner wired charging speeds are showing on handsets throughout all worth ranges. The 2026 Samsung Galaxy A17 prices $200 and helps 25-watt charging, the identical pace because the dearer $900 Galaxy S26. The also-$900 OnePlus 15 helps 80-watt speeds. 

Wireless charging has additionally made good points, because of the broader adoption of the Qi2 standard on telephones, with speeds as much as 15 watts, and Qi2.2, which may go as much as 25 watts. Some telephones even have embedded magnets (assume the iPhone and MagSafe) to correctly line up your telephone to allow them to obtain these speeds — a far cry from the early days of wi-fi charging, when for those who did not place the telephone excellent, it would not recharge in any respect. Whereas wired charging stays extra environment friendly and quicker, these newer wi-fi charging speeds can nonetheless present an honest bump in energy when your telephone is operating low.

However discovering the fastest-charging telephone is not really easy as choosing the one with the very best charging fee.

Even with advances in wired and wi-fi charging, the time it takes to recharge your telephone can fluctuate relying in your telephone’s battery. Some units have bigger batteries that last more by means of the day, but additionally take longer to recharge. Others have cut up batteries, which permit the telephone to recharge quicker by utilizing two smaller batteries. And a few telephones use silicon-carbon batteries, a more recent know-how that allows larger capability and quicker charging.

So which telephones recharge the quickest? We examined 33 telephones over the previous 12 months, from firms like Apple, Samsung, Google and Motorola. We additionally examined telephones out there solely internationally to check with what’s within the US, and in lots of circumstances, these units cost even quicker. However on the finish of the day, Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro earned CNET Lab Awards for quickest charging telephones.

Learn extra: Phone Batteries Are Better Than Ever. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way?

Total quickest charging telephone

Earlier than we get to the award winners, we ranked all of the telephones examined to find out which was the fastest-charging total. To do that, we averaged every telephone’s wired and wi-fi charging check outcomes right into a single rating. We discovered that Apple’s iPhone 17 Professional is the quickest total charging telephone we have now examined prior to now 12 months.

For the 33 telephones benchmarked, we ran every by means of two checks. The primary was a 30-minute wired charging check utilizing the charging cable that got here with the telephone and a wall charger that matched or exceeded the telephone’s most supported charging pace. Every telephone began the check with a ten% or much less cost, and we famous the ending proportion after half-hour.

We ran all of the telephones that assist wi-fi charging by means of the same 30-minute check. For every, we used a Qi (7.5 watts), Qi2 (15 watts) or Qi2.2 (25 watts) charger that matched or exceeded every telephone’s high supported wi-fi charging pace. Telephones began with a ten% or much less cost, and we captured the ending proportion after half-hour.

For telephones that assist quick proprietary wi-fi charging speeds, resembling Honor’s Magic 8 Pro, which may cost at 80 watts, we scored these individually. Most of those telephones are offered exterior the US, however we wished to check as many as we might. We included solely telephones that we might check on a producer’s precise proprietary wi-fi charger.

We decided an total charging rating by averaging our wired and wi-fi charging check outcomes for every telephone. Whereas the iPhone 17 Professional does not have the wildly quick wi-fi charging speeds of some Chinese language telephones offered exterior the US, it advantages from having a smaller 4,252-mAh battery than different telephones in its worth vary (which usually have a capability of 5,000 mAh or extra) — so with much less capability, it does not take as lengthy to cost. And as we discovered in our battery life testing, a battery’s capability is only one of a number of elements (together with processor and software program effectivity) that have an effect on how lengthy it lasts. 

The 17 Professional helps each a quick 40-watt wired charging pace and 25-watt Qi2.2 wi-fi charging. We must always observe that we used the US eSIM-only variant of the iPhone 17 Professional, which has a barely bigger battery in comparison with fashions with a SIM card tray offered in some worldwide markets (3,988 mAh). Apple says that eSIM-only variations get an additional two hours of video playback due to the marginally bigger battery (which takes up the area the place a SIM card tray would go).

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Extremely was the fastest-charging Android telephone examined and second total. Despite the fact that this telephone has a bigger 5,000-mAh battery in contrast with the iPhone 17 Professional, it helps 60-watt wired charging speeds and 25-watt Qi2.2 charging, which offers quick recharge speeds with out requiring a proprietary charger.

Quickest wired charging telephone

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Extremely earned a CNET Labs Award for quickest wired charging. In half-hour, it added 76%. Rounding out the highest wired charging outcomes are the iPhone 17 Professional with 74%, Motorola’s Moto G Stylus (2025) with 74%, the OnePlus 15 with 72% and at 69% are the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Professional Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. These telephones are a mixture of midrange to premium selections, however all assist 40-watt wired charging speeds or larger.

Sooner wired charging speeds are more and more widespread, as most telephones use the USB-PD energy supply commonplace, which is supported by many broadly out there energy adapters. In sure circumstances, quicker speeds are nonetheless being achieved by means of proprietary charging methods, and in these telephones, firms normally nonetheless embody their energy adapter within the field.

Most telephones with 80-watt charging speeds or larger use silicon-carbon batteries, which supply larger capability and quicker charging with out growing battery measurement. Silicon-carbon is a brand new kind of lithium-ion battery through which the anode (the detrimental finish) is fabricated from silicon slightly than graphite. (The carbon is there to stabilize the silicon.) Telephones just like the OnePlus 15 recharged 72% of its large 7,300-mAh silicon-carbon battery in half-hour utilizing its personal proprietary 80-watt charger that comes with the telephone (although it might probably recharge quicker with a 100-watt charger OnePlus sells on its web site).

Motorola’s upcoming Razr Fold has a silicon-carbon battery, as does the corporate’s total line of recent Razr flip telephones, however for now, OnePlus, RedMagic and Poco are the one telephone makers immediately promoting silicon-carbon battery-powered telephones within the US. Firms generally seen within the US, like Apple, Samsung and Google, have not but used such a battery.

Quickest wi-fi charging telephone

Apple’s iPhone 17 Professional earned a CNET Labs Award for quickest wi-fi charging, including 55% in our 30-minute wi-fi charging check. The 17 Professional doubtless advantages from Qi2.2 wi-fi charging and magnets (which Apple debuted in 2020 as MagSafe) to maintain a wi-fi charger within the optimum charging place. For this class, we examined solely telephones that assist Qi, Qi2 or Qi2.2. For telephones with proprietary wi-fi charging, we have now them in a separate part beneath. 

Different telephones that scored in our high 5 for wi-fi charging are the iPhone 17 Professional Max with 53%, the iPhone 17 with 49%, the iPhone Air with 47% and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely with 39%. Most of those telephones assist Qi2.2 wi-fi charging at 25 watts (the iPhone Air helps 20 watts), and on this check, it was doubtless battery measurement that separated the 17 Professional from the 17 Professional Max — since each have the identical processor and software program benefits. Amongst this high 5, the Galaxy S26 Extremely is the one one that does not have built-in magnets, however Samsung does promote first-party magnetic circumstances to assist guarantee correct alignment with a wi-fi charger.

There are a whole lot of variables with wi-fi charging to think about. Usually, getting the quickest wi-fi charging speeds requires each a charger that helps your telephone’s quickest pace and a good quicker energy adapter to plug it into. As an illustration, Apple’s MagSafe support page says that to get the quickest 25-watt wi-fi charging pace for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17, you will want a 30-watt or higher energy adapter together with Apple’s MagSafe charger. I ought to observe that Apple doubtless says this as a result of it sells a 30-watt wall plug, as a substitute of carrying a number of chargers to assist numerous speeds like 7.5 watts, 15 watts and 25 watts. And whereas we have been in a position to get the Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely’s quickest speeds, our sister web site PCMag stories that sure mixtures of telephone circumstances and charging equipment would possibly trigger the telephone to drop to fifteen watts.

Model with the quickest charging telephones

We analyzed our testing information to search out which telephone model has probably the most constant quick charging. And by far, it is Apple. 

With an total scoring common of 54.6% throughout the 4 iPhone 17 units and the iPhone Air. In contrast with Android, which must assist quite a lot of telephone shapes, sizes, batteries and processors, Apple’s lineup advantages from its smaller batteries because of its extremely environment friendly processor and software program. Most 2025 fashions assist 40-watt wired charging and as much as 25-watt wi-fi charging. Despite the fact that recharging pace is totally different from total battery life, it is also price noting that Apple’s iPhone 17 Professional Max had the most effective battery life in our testing, with the iPhone 17 and the OnePlus 15 tied for second.

Samsung, Google and Motorola additionally got here very shut to one another. Samsung’s 38.5% common was calculated throughout 9 telephones, with the Galaxy S26 Extremely being the quickest with a 58% rating and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 having the bottom rating at 29%.

Motorola and Google had 4 and 5 telephones, respectively, included on this pattern. For Motorola, the Moto G Stylus 2025 scored the very best — benefiting from the telephone’s 68-watt wired charging pace and 15-watt wi-fi charging pace. The Moto G Stylus can be one of many least expensive telephones in our examine, priced at $400. Google’s high performer was the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which was boosted by being the one Pixel 10 system to assist 25-watt Qi2.2 wi-fi charging.

What about fast-charging Chinese language telephones?

Whereas wi-fi charging has largely standardized on Qi, Qi2 and Qi2.2, a number of telephones tout even quicker wi-fi charging speeds. The Honor Magic 8 Professional, which is not out there within the US, makes use of its personal commonplace for an 80-watt wi-fi charging pace and recharged by 61% in our check — simply one of many quickest we have seen. 

The problem is whether or not you’ll be able to even discover an adapter that helps them. For telephones just like the OnePlus 15, its quicker wi-fi charging pace depends on the proprietary AirVooc system. This implies it’s important to purchase a specific wireless charger from OnePlus to make the most of its 50-watt wi-fi charging pace. 

There have been additionally various circumstances through which a telephone firm would report a pace functionality, nevertheless it’s almost unattainable to discover a charger that might allow us to check this. As an illustration, the RedMagic 11 Pro helps 80-watt wi-fi charging speeds. However there are not any 80-watt wi-fi chargers available to make use of it with.

Motorola’s 2025 Razr Ultra helps 30-watt wi-fi charging, however we could not check it as a result of the corporate offered a suitable charger solely throughout a quick post-launch window. In these circumstances, we examined with the charger that’s out there, however in any other case left them out of competition because it’s unrealistic that anybody would profit from these speeds.

The way to get the quickest recharge speeds in your telephone

If you wish to get the quickest attainable charging pace that your telephone provides, you will have to be sure to have the appropriate energy adapter. In case your telephone helps 68-watt quick charging however you are utilizing an older charging brick, your telephone will cost solely as quick as that adapter permits.

Usually, older charging bricks that use the bigger USB-A port do not attain the very best charging speeds, however that may fluctuate. As an illustration, OnePlus usually makes use of energy bricks that assist quicker charging, however use the older port as a part of its proprietary charging commonplace. 

Usually, when shopping for a brand new telephone, you will wish to discover a energy adapter that makes use of a USB-C cable and helps at the least the utmost pace your telephone provides. Many of those energy adapters can be found for underneath $30, together with fashions that assist faster 68-watt charging and may also cost your laptop computer.

If you need the quickest wi-fi charging pace, I might suggest checking whether or not your telephone helps Qi2 or Qi2.2, and if that’s the case, utilizing a charger with these requirements. A simple approach to inform in case your telephone does is whether or not it has magnets on the again of it or helps a case with magnets. Not all Qi2/Qi2.2-supported telephones have magnets, however the profit for people who do is that, when used with a magnetic wi-fi charger, you’ll be able to connect the telephone and be assured it is in precisely the appropriate place for the most effective charging speeds. In any other case, there’s some variability. In case your telephone is just a bit bit off the optimum place on a wi-fi charger, its charging pace might be dramatically slower — or it could not cost in any respect.