I tend to actively use my smartphone for 8-10 hours each day, and I think Samsung’s line of Galaxy Note phones are easily the best hardware you can buy (Samsung’s software such as Bixby, however, is atrocious). I’ve been using the Galaxy Note 10+ since its August launch, and have once again been impressed by Samsung’s hardware.
The feature with the Note 10+ that has really changed how I use my device, however, is of all things the Super Fast Charging 2.0.
The Note 10+ ships with a 25 watt USB-C charger, but Samsung sells a 45 watt charger that promises even faster charging speeds. And Samsung more than delivers on that promise.
The 45 watt charger will charge the Note 10+ from completely dead to 100% charged in about 50 minutes. What this means practically is that simply charging the device a few times during the day–say during the 15 minutes between meetings–completely eliminates dead batteries for me.
I used to constantly have my phone on a wireless charger when I wasn’t using it, because the wired charging wasn’t that much faster. After my initial few days with the Super Fast Charging, the wireless chargers went in the gadget drawer–haven’t needed or used them since.
I had some initial concerns that the Super Fast Charging might generate excessive heat and degrade the battery. So far, though, I haven’t seen any indication of that. After 5 months of using almost nothing but Super Fast Charging, AccuBattery estimates that the battery capacity is 97% after the equivalent of 135 full charging cycles.
If my math is correct and that rate of degradation continues, that means I could expect a 20% degradation after 1,000 or so charging cycles. I will have long since moved on to another phone long before that.