The Galaxy S20 series has been certified by the USB-IF for fast charging, up to 45W.
This makes the Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra the first smartphones that are certified for USB Power Delivery 3.0 and Programmable Power Supply or PPS.
Now the Galaxy Note 10+ did technically support both of these technologies with its 45W charging, but it wasn’t official and certified. This was because it broke some technical requirements, but now, that is fixed and official.
You can trust your Galaxy S20 to charge fast, and safely
For Galaxy S20 owners, this means that you can trust your phone is going to charge faster and safely. Meaning we won’t have a repeat of the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. And this is all part of the steps that Samsung has taken in the aftermath of the Note 7 fires.
The Galaxy S20 and S20+ still support up to 25W for fast charging, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra does up to 45W. And all three models come with 25W chargers in the box.
This also means that other smartphones do not support USB Power Delivery 3.0 and Programmable Power Supply, at least not officially. Since the Galaxy S20 series is the first to support it officially.
These standards are put in place to protect your smartphone and yourself. So it’s really good that Samsung did go the extra mile to get it certified by USB-IF.
What is “Programmable Power Supply”?
USB Power Delivery is pretty well known, it essentially allows the USB-C outlet to do both input and output and at faster speeds. But what about Programmable Power Supply? That’s a new technology that Samsung was the first to use, and why your laptop’s charger can’t charge the Galaxy S20 Ultra at 45W.
Basically, with PPS, it is able to get the right voltage and current that both the charger and the phone is capable of. This way it doesn’t overcharge the device. If this doesn’t work, it will automatically default to a lower charging rate, which results in slower charging.
It’s a pretty simple technology actually, and one that we should see more smartphones incorporating in the very near future. Especially as we’re seeing faster and faster charging speeds with newer smartphones. Heck, Huawei just announced a phone with 65W fast charging. So it’s a technology that is much needed in smartphones, so that we don’t end up with them catching on fire or exploding again.