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Premium AFC Based Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger Not Providing 25 Watts of Fast Charging On Most Phones

Prior to USB Power Delivery technology being available, Samsung created its own proprietary charging technology called Adaptive Fast Charging (AFC) which is used in the chargers shipped together with Samsung Galaxy phones. Many of these phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 come with the 15W based Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging Charger.

The Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger is the fastest AFC based charger by Samsung offering a max of 25 watts charging. While it is initially targeted for the Galaxy Note 7, the 25W Samsung charger can be used with other compatible AFC  capable mobiles. Unfortunately, it was hard for us to find phones which could take advantage of the 25W that you get by paying a premium for this charger. 

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was initially assumed to support 25W charging like its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 7. However, this phone could only charged at 15W as recently tested.

What's more disappointing was that when we tested the Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger with other USB Type-C phones that don't use Samsung AFC, we saw low charging performance. An example is the USB Power Delivery based Google Pixel phone which we analyzed to get only 5W based charging as can be seen from this review.

We purchased our Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger at a Best Buy in Dublin, California.

Samsung has its own dedicated display area in Best Buy like many other major labels. Over there we could see the latest Samsung products including the Galaxy Note 8 being heavily promoted.

The Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger was sold as a more premium accessory for the Samsung Galaxy models that it claims to mainly support.

The packaging follows Samsung's typical styling which still refers to the ill fated Galaxy Note7. The box also shows support of USB Type-C and USB micro-B enabled phones but includes only a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable.

The Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger comes with a separate USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable for plugging into a compatible phone. 

In addition to 25 watts (12 volts @ 2.1 amps) charging, the Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger also supports the same 15 watts (9 volts @ 1.67 amps) and 10 watts (5 volts @ 2 amps) power profiles as the Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging Charger.

The Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger is a little bigger than the standard 15W Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging Charger.

The USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable accessory should be able to support USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s) speeds. To charge your USB Type-C phone, just attach the cable to the USB Type-A port on the Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger and the USB Type-C connector on your phone.

Find out in the next coming reviews to see how your phone charges with the AFC based Samsung 25W USB-C Fast Charging Wall Charger.