00:00 – Mishaal Rahman: Samsung may finally give its next flagship Galaxy S26 the charging speed upgrade we’ve always wanted.
00:05 – C. Scott Brown: And Android is entering a new era of more frequent feature updates, but will your phone actually get them?
00:12 – Mishaal Rahman: I’m Mishaal Rahman.
00:14 – C. Scott Brown: And I’m C. Scott Brown and this is the Authority Insights Podcast where we break down the latest news and leaks surrounding the Android operating system.
00:23 – Mishaal Rahman: So Scott, you and I, we’re both phone reviewers. We have had access to a ton of different Chinese phones, but for the longest time they’ve always blown Samsung, Apple, and Google out of the water when it comes to charging speeds. But that gap may soon finally start be closing thanks to a charging speed upgrade that Samsung is working on for its next flagship devices.
00:43 – C. Scott Brown: And speaking of the next flagship devices from Samsung, the Galaxy S26 is expected to ship with Samsung’s latest One UI 8.5 out of the box, which we’re expecting will be based on Android 16 QPR2. Google just released QPR2 this week and with it, we’ve entered a new era of frequent Android updates or at least more frequent than they’ve been in the past. This could be a big deal.
But you know what else is a big deal? Android coming to PCs. Well, eventually coming to PCs. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Google’s Android on PC operating system, but we finally know the answers to some of them, including its potential name, which is kind of confusing, but I’m excited about it.
01:29 – Mishaal Rahman: Right. But before we move on to the Android PC news and the QPR2 stuff, let’s circle back to the Samsung charging news because it’s quite a big deal because for the longest time, Samsung phones have been stuck to relatively slow charging speeds topping out at 45W for the Ultra model for the past couple of years now and 15W wireless charging speeds for a lot of their devices. But now thanks to an analysis of leaked One UI 8.5 software from our team at Android Authority, we’ve discovered evidence that Samsung is working on a new Super Fast Charging 3.0 update, potentially for the Galaxy S26 Ultra that will enable the phone’s rumored 60W wired charging speeds. And simultaneously, they’re also working on a new Super Fast Wireless charging upgrade presumably also for the Galaxy S26 Ultra that will enable 25W wireless charging speeds.
So Scott, Samsung for the longest time has been calling their charging Super Fast Charging. But in light of how fast competitor devices can reach in terms of when you use their proprietary chargers, it kind of feels like it’s misleading or they’re just kind of jumping the gun a bit calling it Super Fast Charging. How do you feel about these rumored upgrades? Are they a big deal or is it just a nothingburger?
02:53 – C. Scott Brown: I think it’s a big deal just in the sense that this is a big deal for the United States. Chinese manufacturers, like you said at the top, have been making fast charging phones for a long time now. And 60W is not nothing. It’s kind of insulting for Samsung to be like Super Fast Charging and still not even close to what OnePlus has been offering for the past five years. That’s a little bizarre. But still, Samsung doing this is going to push everyone else to do this in the United States. Google and especially Apple will no longer be able to just be like, oh, no one does that in the United States so therefore it’s not a big deal, nobody wants this. Samsung’s going to do it, people are going to talk about it. It’s going to be a big deal. If Samsung is smart, they’re going to make it a huge part of their marketing campaign and that’s going to push all the other companies to follow suit. So by Samsung taking this step it could be that the days of getting a smartphone for $800 or more and getting whatever, 25W charging speeds or whatever it was a few years ago, those days might be over thanks to Samsung taking this leap.
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