The Galaxy S26 Ultra is a reminder that faster charging only matters if you can use it

Ben Schoon | Mar 15 2026 - 9:00 am PT

Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn’t have the best battery, nor does it have the fastest charging, but a recent experience reminded me that faster charging isn’t useful if you can’t easily use it.

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Fast charging has been a priority on smartphones for years now, with numbers increasing for the better part of a decade now. The “average” offering is usually somewhere around 30W, depending on brand and a host of other factors. But there are some truly wild numbers out there, and they’re not super new either. 80W, 100W, 120W, 125W, and even 150W have been around for years, and it’s great. I’ve been super impressed by the speedy charging of various OnePlus devices, for example, which can literally show the 0.01% charge added often by the second.

Yet, there’s one big problem with a lot of these fast charging systems.

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You can’t always use them.

SuperVOOC and the host of other unworldly fast charging systems out there work really well, but only if you have the hardware on hand. That usually means a very specific charging brick and cable. There’s a reason, after everyone else ditched them, that OnePlus still includes a charger in the box. You can’t simply go out and buy one.

I feel this comes into the picture even more when it comes to battery banks, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra really reinforced the point for me.

As mentioned in our Galaxy S26 Ultra review this week, I was recently stuck in the Atlanta airport due to some severe weather delays and, after having already been on a 9-hour flight back from London earlier in the day, the additional several hours in Atlanta were stretching my phones to their limit. With hundreds of other travelers stuck in the same situation, outlets were increasingly hard to find, which meant I was pushed to stick with my battery bank instead. The Galaxy S26 Ultra I was primarily using was completely up to that task, with the 100W battery fully utilizing Samsung’s new 60W charging speeds. Within just a few minutes, I’d gone from under 20% to around 60%, leaving me fairly confident I’d be able to make it through whatever madness laid in store for night ahead — it easily ended up lasting through 3am when I finally made it home.

In thinking back on the experience, it really turned out to be the selling point for Samsung’s faster charging. Not only was I able to quickly fill up my battery, but I did so without anything special. No specific charging brick, no specific battery. Just the standard charger I had on hand. Seeing as my Galaxy Z Fold 7, Pixel 10, and other main devices barely hit 30W wired charging speeds, that 60W really came in handy, otherwise I would have had to rely on keeping my phone plugged in a whole lot longer — or using one of those Qi2 batteries that I do love, but are objectively slower.

That’s not to say this is particularly unique to Samsung. The OnePlus 15, for example, features 120W SuperVOOC charging, but also USB-PD charging speeds of around 45-50W. SuperVOOC is great, it has its place, but I think USB-PD is the more important spec just because it’s broadly available in so many devices and accessories.

What do you think? Would you rather have faster charging but limited charging options, or slighty slower charging with near infinite options? I know my answer.

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