You Can Use the Samsung Galaxy S10+ As a Wireless Power Bank for Qi Enabled Phones

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ can now use reverse wireless charging which was first introduced by the Huawei Mate20 Pro. This allows the Samsung Galaxy S10+ to not only wirelessly charge itself but also act as a power bank to wirelessly charge its own Galaxy series or other Qi enabled phones such as the Apple iPhone XS Max and Google Pixel 3 XL. With this new feature on the Galaxy S10+, Samsung may seem very likely to tap more into wireless charging potential for its future phones.  

Other than reverse wireless charging, the Galaxy S10+ also added a third 16MP ultrawide camera to better compete with Huawei's camera stronghold. In terms of power, the Galaxy S10+ has upgraded from the Samsung Galaxy S9+ to include a newer and faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Samsung's Exynos 9820 chipset, Andreno 640 GPU, Android 9.0 OS and 1TB RAM.    

The Galaxy S10+ comes with a newer AFC 2.0 which is an update from its previous own proprietary Adaptive Fast Charge (AFC) charging scheme which it claims to enable faster charging for the phone. The Galaxy S10+ still continues to support USB Power Delivery and Qualcomm Quick Charge based charging as well as video output using DisplayPort Alternate Mode over Type-C in addition to AFC. In fact this Galaxy series is the first one to support >5V PDO (Power Data Object) negotiation using USB Power Delivery, where previously AFC or Qualcomm Quick Charge is required to achieve 9V PDO negotiation. The phone also comes with new accessories by Samsung such as the Galaxy Watch and charging pads.

We purchased the Samsung Galaxy S10+ from the AT&T online store to see how the phone looks like from inside the box.

The AT&T version of the Galaxy S10+ comes with a AT&T SIM card as well as similar accessories as with the Galaxy S9+ which comprises the Samsung 15W Adaptive Fast Charger, a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, ear buds, and a USB Type-C to USB Micro-B adapter.

The AFC charger still supports 15 watts (9 volts @ 1.67 amps) and 10 watts (5 volts @ 2 amps) charging even though the Galaxy S10+ can now use the newer AFC 2.0 technology for faster charging through the phone's USB Type-C connector. The charger also retains the USB Type-A port which can be connected using the supplied USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable accessory to the Galaxy S10+.

There are now three rear cameras on the Galaxy S10+ compared to only two on the Galaxy S9+, with a additional 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera on top of both existing 12 MP dual pixel cameras. Instead of having the fingerprint sensor at the rear, the Galaxy S10+ now has it under the display which can be a bit difficult to locate while the screen is off.

Compared to the previous model, the Galaxy S10+ has a more expansive screen to provide a larger display. The phone comes with a better quality Dynamic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 and HDR10+.

The Galaxy S10+ still continues to keep the 3.5mm audio jack rather than forcing users to use the USB Type-C connector.

The Galaxy S10+ has a dual front camera slot at the top corner of its extended display.  

To observe power capabilities of the Galaxy S10+, we used the USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs with the Granite River Labs USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester to produce the following test results.

The USB Power Test App first negotiates a power contract emulating the Source to determine the Power Delivery Sink capabilities of the Galaxy S10+. The USB Power Test App then reports out the voltage and current supported by the phone for each of the Source PDO's advertised to the phone.

Sink Cap.	Voltage (V)	Current (A)
5V	5.08	1.4
6V	6.07	2.48
7V	7.05	2.11
8V	8.04	1.85
9V	9.06	1.64
10V	5.09	1.89
11V	5.03	1.88
12V	5.05	1.88
13V	5.06	1.99
14V	5.08	1.89
15V	5.06	1.9
16V	5.04	1.89
17V	5.07	1.87
18V	5.05	1.97
19V	5.06	1.98
20V	5.05	1.89

The USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs also produces a voltage, current trace plot which graphically shows the voltage and current requested by the phone for each advertised Source PDO throughout the power negotiation.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we can see that the Galaxy S10+ supports charging using fixed PDO's of 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 18 watts (9 volts @ 2 amps) and 2.5 watts (5 volts @ .5 amps) as well as variable power supply of 5-9 volts @ 2 amps. Some compliance failures were also observed.

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_POWER_AS_SOURCE	2500
NUM_SRC_PDOS	1
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Peak Current #1	0x0(A)
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
Max Current #1	0x32(.5A)
PD_POWER_AS_SINK	18000
NUM_SNK_PDOS	3
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0xC8(2A)
Supply Type #3	Variable
Min Voltage #3	0x64(5V)
Max Voltage #3	0xB4(9V)
Op Current #3	0xC8(2A)

USB-IF High Level Mapping Summary

Sl No	Test Category	Test Group Description	Test Result
1	PHY_PRIMARY_TX	BMC Physical Layer Transmitter	PASS
3	PHY_PRIMARY_MISC	BMC Phyiscal Layer Miscellaneous	PASS
4	PROT_PRIMARY	Protocol Specific Primary	FAIL
5	POWER_PRIMARY	Power Source/Sink Primary	PASS

Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	TDA.2.1.1.1 BMC PHY TX EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	TDA.2.1.1.2 BMC PHY TX BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	TDA.2.1.2.2 BMC PHY RX INT REJ	FAIL
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	TDA.2.1.3.1 BMC PHY TERM	PASS
7	TDA.2.2.1	TDA.2.2.1 BMC PROT SEQ GETCAPS	PASS
8	TDA.2.2.2.1	TDA.2.2.2.1 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAP P PC	PASS
9	TDA.2.2.2.2	TDA.2.2.2.2 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAP NOMARK P PC	PASS
10	TDA.2.2.2.3	TDA.2.2.2.3 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAP CP ACC	FAIL
11	TDA.2.2.2.4	TDA.2.2.2.4 BMC PROT SEQ CHKCAP NOMRK CP ACC	PASS
16	TDA.2.2.7	TDA.2.2.7 BMC PROT BIST NOT 5V SRC	PASS
18	TDA.2.2.9	TDA.2.2.9 BMC PROT GSC REC	PASS
19	TDA.2.2.10	TDA.2.2.10 BMC PROT IGN PPS	PASS
20	TDA.2.3.1.1	TDA.2.3.1.1 POW SRC LOAD P PC	PASS
21	TDA.2.3.1.2	TDA.2.3.1.2 POW SRC LOAD CP ACC	PASS
22	TDA.2.3.2.1	TDA.2.3.2.1 POW SRC TRANS P PC	PASS
24	TDA.2.3.3.1	TDA.2.3.3.1 POW SNK TRANS C CP	PASS
25	TDA.2.3.3.2	TDA.2.3.3.2 POW SNK TRANS PC	PASS

BMC Eye Diagram