Samsung Galaxy S27 series phones getting something iPhone can't match

The Samsung Galaxy S27 could come with 60W charging, taking speeds higher than anything it has offered before. For many years, Samsung has been conservative with charging speeds.

Fast charging has been championed by the likes of Xiaomi and Oppo, while brands like Apple, Samsung and Google have stuck to slower charging rates over the years.

That's seen recent Samsung phones offering 45W, but that could see a bump to 60W in the Samsung Galaxy S27 Pro and Galaxy S27 Ultra.

The details come from UniverseIce, a reliable source, but this bump in charging speed also matches changes that Samsung has recently made. The move from lithium-ion to silicon-carbon battery tech happened in the latest Galaxy Z devices and looks like it will continue into its flagship 2027 phones too.

Silicon-carbon isn't needed for faster charging: for many years, brands have offered charging up to 120W with lithium-ion, but the advantage that silicon-carbon offers is that the cells are more compact for the same capacity, meaning there's more room for cooling.

Fast charging generates a lot of heat, so dispersal of heat is needed to use higher powers, while heat build-up also leads to faster battery decay. That's likely to have been the reason that Samsung avoided it, so that the battery lasted longer and matched customer expectation.

Indeed, that's something we noted with the launch of the Galaxy Z 8 devices – they’re now rated to 1,200 charging cycles, rather than the 2,000 charging cycles previously supported. That's the cost of moving to silicon-carbon: batteries don't last as long.

However, slower charging speeds give rivals a competitive advantage and as we enter a tough time for smartphone sales, it looks like Samsung is looking for a better balance.

Apple might be better insulated against such competition, as it's much easier for a Samsung user to decide to jump over to a Motorola or Honor phone because the biggest part of the ecosystem is supplied by Google.

So while Apple only supports 40W charging on the iPhone 17 Pro – and rumoured to be 45W on the iPhone 18 Pro – the company may decide that keeping a slower charging speed to preserve battery longevity is more important to retain customers.

Faster charging will be welcomed on Samsung's 2027 phones: it will help close the gap with the competition. The side effects of that change might only be felt in a few years' time when the battery needs replacing because it no longer lasts as long as expected.