How the Galaxy S26 Ultra changed how I charge my phone

I've had the Galaxy S26 Ultra as my daily driver for a while now, and somewhere along the way I stopped using a wired charger entirely. Not because I made a deliberate choice to, but because I just stopped needing it.

As a long-time Samsung smartphone user, I've finally embraced wireless charging with the Galaxy S26 Ultra — more than ten years after Samsung first added it to a Galaxy phone — and it's all thanks to the jump to 25W. On previous phones, wireless charging topped out at 15W, which was excruciatingly slow.

I know many people swear by the convenience of wireless charging, but that convenience wasn't enough to make up for the speed for me. So I used a 45W charger for every Galaxy S Ultra phone I had before this, and a 25W charger whenever I switched to a different device, like a Galaxy Z Fold or one of Samsung's mid-range smartphones.

25W isn't a super fast number on paper, but it's fast enough — in half an hour, the phone charges to a little over 40% — that wireless charging finally makes sense for me. My day-to-day life doesn't demand more than that, and I haven't touched the cable for weeks.

It's also worth noting that 25W wireless charging gets you pretty close to what 25W wired charging would. It's not identical — wired is still faster — but the gap is small enough that for everyday use, you're not really giving much up by going wireless.

And it helps that Samsung now supports the Qi2 standard, which allows the use of magnetic cases and chargers. Having the phone automatically stick to the charging pad instead of having to place it just right manually is more useful than some might think — just be sure you buy the right charger.

As someone who will be moving to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 when it launches later this year, I'm hoping Samsung brings the same 25W wireless charging to that phone as well. Most people won't be making such a switch (for me it's part of the job), but it speaks to a bigger point: Samsung's top-end foldable should offer similar specs to its top-end flagship bar phone.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is, after all, getting a much bigger battery — going from the 4,400 mAh Samsung has used on every Fold going back to the Galaxy Z Fold 3, up to 5,000 mAh like the Galaxy S Ultra lineup. A larger battery is welcome, but keeping wireless charging at 15W would make it only half the upgrade it could be.

And, frankly, Samsung needs to make 25W wireless charging standard across all its flagship phones. Apple has already done it with the iPhone 17 lineup, now it's Samsung's turn.