Inside CNET’s 33-Phone Charging Speed Test
To find today’s fastest charging phones, CNET’s lab put 33 devices from Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola and others through the same controlled routine. Each handset was drained to 10% or less, then plugged in using its own charging cable and a wall adapter that matched or exceeded the phone’s maximum supported wired charging speed. After 30 minutes, testers logged the resulting battery percentage. The process was repeated for wireless charging on every phone that supports it, this time using Qi, Qi2 or Qi2.2 pads matched to each model’s top wireless speed. For phones with proprietary high-speed wireless systems, such as Honor’s 80-watt solution, CNET tested them only on the brand’s official chargers and scored them separately. By averaging each device’s wired and wireless results into a single charging score, CNET created a fair, apples-to-apples phone charging speed test across wildly different batteries and standards.
Two Charging Speed Winners: iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra
When the lab dust settled, two phones emerged as charging speed winners for mainstream buyers. Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro earned the title of overall fastest charging phone across the full 33-device lineup, thanks to a combination of strong wired and wireless performance and a relatively modest 4,252mAh battery that is quicker to top up than many 5,000mAh rivals. Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra, meanwhile, took the crown for fastest wired charging, driven by its upgraded 60-watt charging support. CNET’s fast charging comparison shows why raw wattage doesn’t tell the full story: battery size, cell design, and how efficiently power is managed all affect how quickly a phone gets from nearly empty to meaningfully usable. Still, both flagships demonstrate how far everyday fast charging has come, delivering large, practical boosts in well under an hour.
Why Chinese Brands Lead in Extreme Fast Charging
Look beyond mainstream flagships and the fastest charging phones are dominated by Chinese manufacturers. Devices like the OnePlus 15, Huawei, Oppo, Honor and Xiaomi models routinely advertise 100-watt-plus wired speeds and dramatically faster wireless charging than Apple, Google or Samsung. Pocket-lint highlights the contrast: the iPhone 17 Pro tops out at 40W wired and 25W MagSafe wireless, while the OnePlus 15 supports up to 100W wired and 50W wireless in its scaled-back version, with 120W available elsewhere. That is enough for the OnePlus to hit 50% in about 20 minutes and reach full capacity in under an hour, despite a huge 7,300mAh battery. These brands aggressively push charging innovation with technologies such as split battery packs and silicon-carbon chemistries, prioritising headline-grabbing recharge times even if that means more proprietary chargers and standards.
Different Markets, Different Priorities for Fast Charging
The gap in fast charging comparison scores between Western and Chinese brands is not just technical; it is cultural and commercial. Pocket-lint points out that markets dominated by Apple and Samsung have very different expectations and competitive pressures than those where Android makers battle each other with spec-driven marketing. In North America, for example, Apple’s entrenched position has encouraged rivals to focus on cameras, software and ecosystem rather than radically faster phone charging speeds. By contrast, Chinese brands, long competing in an Android-first environment, have used charging numbers as a clear, easy-to-explain differentiator on store shelves. That split in strategy explains why CNET’s lab found that phones sold only outside the US often outpace global models, even as mainstream devices like the iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra slowly raise the bar for everyday charging convenience.
What CNET’s Lab Results Really Tell Us About Everyday Charging
CNET’s testing underscores that true charging speed is a balance of battery capacity, cell design and charging standard, not just the wattage printed on a box. The iPhone 17 Pro tops the overall ranking not because it supports the highest numbers, but because its 4,252mAh battery and efficient power management allow its wired and wireless systems to refill quickly in real-world 30-minute windows. The Galaxy S26 Ultra shows what happens when a mainstream brand finally embraces higher power at 60W. Meanwhile, experimental features such as silicon-carbon batteries and extreme wattage systems remain limited to select models and regions. For most buyers, the lesson is simple: look at tested results rather than marketing claims, pay attention to both wired and wireless options, and remember that the fastest charging phones are those that get you reliably through your day after just a short time on the plug or pad.