One government regulator seemingly disclosed the exact fast charging specifications that the Galaxy S21 will support and while far from bad, they're hardly breaking any new ground. The source in question is from China, as the relevant information comes from official product certification documents concerning a smartphone identified as the SM-G9910, which is believed to be the local variant of the base Galaxy S21 model.
The certificate reveals that Samsung's next entry-level flagship will support 25W fast charging, i.e. the charger provided with the device was rated for outputting electricity at 11V at 2.25A.
25W is no slouch, but it's a pretty standard flagship baseline nowadays
The CCC documentation published earlier today does not contain mentions of other members of the upcoming flagship range – tentatively called the Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra. However, there is still a sliver of hope that the more expensive models will offer something beyond 25W charging.
Of course, it's possible the entire range actually supports fast charging beyond 25W levels but simply requires a separately purchased adapter to reach that potential. This wouldn't even be the first time Samsung fragmentized the feature set of one of its high-end devices in such a manner. But much like the regular Galaxy Note 10 missed out on 45W charging, the entry-level Galaxy S21 is at the very least unlikely to offer it. Even the recently debuted Galaxy Note 20 range lacks 45W charging support in its entirety.
So, not bad, just not terribly impressive either. Which is kind of a running theme when it comes to Samsung and charging technology in recent years. It's difficult to say whether that's simply a strategic decision meant to maximize the cost-effectiveness of its products or a byproduct of fear; fear of anything so much as resembling the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, that is.
It might be a mix of both because the only other explanation seems even less likely, which would be that Samsung lacks the R&D talent to engineer cutting-edge mobile battery tech and accompanying charging solutions suitable for flow production. In fact, the very existence of Samsung SDI proves otherwise, in addition to reminding us the chaebol can even handle a lot of its component manufacture needs internally.
