Survey Shows Fast Charging Is Concerning But People Use It Anyway
Contents
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
It used to be the case that fast charging a flagship Android phone would have a notable effect on long-term battery health. I could personally attest to this with my old HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro, as several years of 40W charging resulted in a significant drop in battery life.
One way to measure the effect of fast charging on a smartphone is to check the device’s peak and average temperatures while plugged in. Colleague Rob Triggs did just this and found that the OnePlus 13, OPPO Find X8 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra all boasted cool temperatures while charging. We also posted a poll asking whether you’re still concerned about the long-term effect of fast charging a phone’s battery.
Are you still concerned about fast charging’s effects on long-term battery health?
Our poll accrued over 4,300 votes, and 42.5% of respondents said they were concerned about the long-term effects of fast charging but still used the feature. Meanwhile, ~23.5% of surveyed readers said they’ve never been worried about battery degradation when using fast charging. Interestingly, ~9.6% of polled readers said they aren’t worried about the effects of fast charging on battery health, but used to be.
Reader Christopher Marts, who was still happy with his OnePlus 12 despite frequently fast-charging it, raised an interesting point:
I imagine battery degradation is also exponential so it also helps having larger batteries like the 5400 mAh in the OP12 or 6000 in the OP13. That’s more to work with overall so less to degrade as quickly as phones coming with 4700 mAh (sic).
That’s a great observation as a small battery suffering from long-term degradation effectively becomes even smaller, making the degradation more keenly felt. In fact, I remember a former colleague’s Galaxy S6 having major degradation that resulted in the phone requiring two charges a day.
So we can see why some consumers still use fast charging on phones with huge batteries despite possible reservations. After all, even if there’s significant long-term battery degradation, it shouldn’t be a major obstacle for daily usage.
There are still some fast-charging holdouts
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
On the other end of the spectrum, ~24.4% of respondents said they don’t use fast charging due to battery health concerns. This is understandable, especially if you want to use the phone for as long as possible, or if you’ve got a phone from a brand that isn’t class-leading in terms of battery health.
Rob found that the Pixel 9 Pro series (and HONOR Magic 7 Pro) offered very high peak temperatures while charging, and Pixel owner jrharbort chimed in:
I charge my Pixel 9 Pro using a more basic 15W (5V/3A) charger versus a 25W or higher PD/PPS charger. The peak temperature difference is very noticeable, with my 15W charger resulting in much cooler temps. And interestingly, charge times between the two is about the same. The claimed peak 25W charging speed seems to be a gimmick and doesn’t speed up charging much at all.
In other words, it sounds like your opinion on the matter could also be colored by the brand you’re using. Google claims that its recent Pixel phones should last for 1,000 charging cycles before dropping to effectively 80% capacity. Meanwhile, OnePlus and OPPO say their phones take 1,600 cycles (roughly four years) to hit this same threshold. So we can see why you might not be too concerned if you’ve got a OnePlus 13 or OPPO Find X8 Pro.
Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at [email protected]. You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it’s your choice.
