Samsung isn't even trying to make you mildly excited about the 'vanilla' Galaxy S26
If the Galaxy S26 came with 45W charging, that would make some of you (relatively) happy. But it probably won't, and you have every right to be upset.
Following an avalanche of speculation and leaks over the past few months that painted Samsung's next base flagship a pretty boring and repetitive picture, one of the first truly positive Galaxy S26 rumors emerged around this time last week, generating some... moderate excitement among PhoneArena readers.
But that didn't last long, as the 45W charging rumor was quickly contradicted by... its very own original social media poster (as well as a separate and even more reliable source), which instantly killed everyone's enthusiasm over the fast-approaching handset, bringing it back to zero.
Is 45W that much better than 25W?
Almost 60 percent of the people who voted in our little poll below these last seven days seem to think so, although more than 34 percent of respondents were rather hesitant to declare their total excitement over the upgrade... that's probably not happening after all.
Now, if you ask me, Samsung should be pretty concerned with the more than 40 percent of survey respondents who wouldn't have been satisfied even if the Galaxy S26 supported 45-watt charging speeds, viewing the number as unsatisfactory by 2026 high-end standards, or in the case of a small minority of very demanding PhoneArena readers, by any current standards.
These are clearly folks who won't give the S26 a second thought if the device actually retains its predecesor's 25W charging limit, and Samsung is going to have a hard time connecting with this audience even with the 60W-capable Galaxy S26 Ultra and 45W Galaxy S26 Plus.
A separate poll conducted after the 45W charging speculation for the "vanilla" Galaxy S26 was refuted made it even clearer that a 25W cap is a big problem for the vast majority of the phone's prospective buyers, which puts Samsung in a seriously delicate situation right now.
Playing devil's advocate
While I don't typically like to defend the compromises and cost-cutting measures of tech giants like Samsung (and especially Samsung), I do find myself compelled to point out that numbers can often be misleading in today's mobile industry.
That doesn't apply to charging speeds quite as often and as obvious as it does to megapixel counts (which are almost irrelevant for a smartphone camera's real-life performance), but in a lot of cases, there's not that much of a difference between a handset equipped with 25W charging technology and one capable of 60, 90, or even 120-watt speeds.
The S25 is not the world's most impressive high-end phone, but it's not the most disappointing one either. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Don't believe me? Then go ahead and check out our comprehensive Galaxy S25 review from last year. You'll find some very rigorous and reliable charging tests there (among many others), and the results are... not terrible. The 6.2-inch device needs 82 minutes to get its 4,000mAh battery from 0 to 100 percent capacity, hitting the 54-percent mark after a half-hour wall-hugging session, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra, for instance, takes 69 minutes to fill up its 5,000mAh tank, which goes from 0 to 68 percent in 30 minutes.
That's definitely a significant but maybe not a huge gap between a 25 and a 45W-supporting phone, and while something like the OnePlus 15 certainly puts its 80W charging technology to good use by filling up a massive 7,300mAh battery in just 45 minutes, the Motorola Edge (2025) doesn't exactly produce mind-blowing charging times with its 68W support.
In other words, numbers aren't everything, so perhaps Samsung will find a way to improve the Galaxy S26's charging times without technically going over the 25W mark.
So should you be excited about the Galaxy S26?
Unfortunately, I really don't think so, but not (only) because of this charging speed compromise. I hate to be overly negative about an unannounced product, but the leaked design, specs, and release date of the S26 give me very few reasons to be positive and expect meaningful upgrades over the Galaxy S25.
At least for now, the S26 feels too similar to the S25 to set the world on fire this year.
A slightly bigger battery and a new primary camera sensor will probably not drive a lot of S25 or S24 owners to get the "new" phone, especially if it ends up costing more than said forerunners while potentially packing an Exynos processor instead of a Snapdragon in many regions.
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