If you have ever wondered what it would be like to charge Samsung Galaxy S23 without fast charging, let me tell you a story of what happened to me earlier today. You see, I found out the hard way.
I have a power bank (some of you call it a portable battery) that I have not used in many months. That is because I have 24/7 power at home and hardly go out. And even when I do go out, I have a fast charger in my vehicle which means I almost never have to worry about running out of battery juice.
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Hello, power bank!
Today, I had a wedding ceremony at a location that was a total distance of 37 miles (60 km) and many hours away. For the trip, I was sharing a bus with a group, so I wouldn’t have access to my car charger. Hello, power bank; where are you? I fished it out, made sure it was fully charged and hunted out a short cable that had come with one of the Bluetooth headset packs in a drawer.
Hello, slow charging
At 51% battery when I plugged the Samsung Galaxy S23 to the power bank, the phone displayed that it was slow charging. Which was odd. The power bank has 18W fast charging, so I am sure it wasn’t the problem. The phone also displayed possible sources of the problem: I was either using an unsupported charger or the cable was damaged. Like I said earlier, the short cable that I took along for the occasion was not a Samsung cable; it came with a pair of wireless earbuds.
To narrow down the problem, later on in the day when I was back at home, I used the Samsung S23’s cable with the power bank, and it provided fast charging to the phone without any warning. Next, I used that same short cable with the power bank to charge other phones, including the 18W fast charge AGM G2 Guardian: it worked without throwing up errors. My conclusion is that the short cable isn’t damaged; it just doesn’t support fast charging for the S23, which is why it delivered a slow charge instead.
Anyway, once the lock screen kicked in, it displayed that it had 4 hours 24 minutes till a full charge. What?! Over 4 hours? How?! Who was going to keep a phone tethered for a while 4 hours? Not me.
It is easy to forget how fast charging has made our lives so much better. Ten years ago, we had to plug our phones overnight for a full charge. During the daytime, there was very little chance that you could get a full charge at one sitting. You plugged your phone and left it alone so it could charge properly.
When you consider that Samsung S23 has only a measly 25W fast charge standard that I complain about, yet that makes a while lot of difference, because with a compatible charger, I go from a 50% battery to full in a little over half an hour. Without it, I am looking at 4 hours. Amazing.
25W fast charge is measly compared to 33W, 67W, and 180W fast charging, all of which I have used and drool after. But I would rather have 25W than nothing. Seeing the difference it makes in a real life setting was intriguing, to say the least.
How fast it takes to charge Samsung Galaxy S23 without fast charging
The answer is, forever. I am serious. Not only is it painfully slow, but because you likely have to use the phone at intervals, the battery really does not get topped up over time, which was why we used to plug in our phones to charge AND LEAVE IT ALONE over a decade ago before fast charging became a thing. I remember. I remember because it was super frustrating back then. And after years of enjoying the sweetness of fast charging, it is even more so now.
Today, while the Galaxy S23 was charging at normal, slow speed, I kept needing to use it, and before long, the battery had dropped form 51% to 48%. Aaargh! I had to put it down again. Make no mistake about it, you do not want to ever have to charge Samsung Galaxy S23 without fast charging. Every time I picked up the phone, the battery level dropped – while plugged in and slow charging.
I do not use my power bank much, but when I have to, I definitely want the full benefits of fast charging. As such, I either take the long Samsung cable with me next time, or buy a supported short cable, or perhaps replace my power bank with a fast wireless model so that I do not have need of a cable any more.