Is there ANY Charger that works properly with the S20 Ultra?

I think for that particular phone you are better off buying the official chargers from Samsung

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Yes and no. Cheap cables from brands that aren’t reputable is where you can start running into problems with them being faulty and not working right, sometimes even causing damage.

Yes. The stock charger is USB-C right? In that case, I’d recommend an Anker USB-C to USB-C cable like this one.

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I don’t own your phone but I had a parallel similar problem with my last couple of phones - Oneplus - which had a sufficiently weird charging technology you had to buy their charger to get fastest speed, or buy Anker which is slower. Sounds awful.

What I did was a bit of both, there are situations you need the fastest possible charge, for that I used the phone supplier’s fastest charger.

I also did exactly what @paulstevenewing did of use Anker chargers for everything else, not as fast, it is true, but fast enough for most situations and importantly works out lowest cost and still reliable.

Combined this works, lowest cost and cover all situations.

The bedside charging need doesn’t need much Wattage as it has all night to recharge.

Wireless charging is more of a top-up, and 10W is ample for that.

Portable chargers, by definition, are with you all the time, so they never need to be fast as you just plug them in for longer. All of Anker Powercore have at least a 10W Type A port, some also have 18W Type C which will negotiate down to 10W.

You only need to own 1 of the fastest possible charger, buy that from the phone supplier, that covers the corner case. Anker for everything else complements.

My prediction is when you buy the Samsung’s own 45W charger, to charge from flat to full in the shortest time, you will probably not use it often as with a 10W Anker Powerpad in a couple of common places and a 10W Powercore in your bag, will mean you rarely have a near flat phone anyway.

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Funny because it’s the opposite for brands like Apple :laughing:

You mean because Apple ships an anaemic charger and their most powerful ones have lower cost Anker alternatives?

2020 is an Android fast charging zoo. But for phones there is an underlying truth: the battery size is not increasing and a 10W charger is perfectly ample for 90% of situations. The Android vendor is trying to persuade you to pay $$$ for their chargers. But the scenario which needs more than 10W is an obtuse use case, you would have to spend the 6 hours (average) time using your phone with no Powercore nearby and never sitting down in a common place (office, home) and require to recharge as fast as possible before then repeating. A cure for a disease invented by someone wanting $$$ from you is a successful con.

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Precisely.

Exactly that @professor 99% of my charging is done overnight.
I’ll plug in the car if using Google Maps, or if likely to be out and about for long periods I’ll take my PowerCore just in case.

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I am annoyed with the entire industry but I can see it from all sides.

  1. USB and Wireless Power Consortium (who license Qi) want standards.
  2. Anker wants to sell in huge quantities. IQ, IQ2, IQ3 is all part of that effort to navigate a way through the below.
  3. device designers know what they can build and cannot wait for 1). So 2) is trapped in the middle.

In the case of phones, 2400 - 4000 mAh internal cells with 2-6 hours SoT (Screen-on-Time) , given 10W will recharge fully from flat in 2 hours, so someone has to try extremely hard to be obtusely avoiding all Powercore, all Powerwave, all Powerport, to need more than 10W.

So in phones, it’s a fake problem, created by marketing. The sentence “Anker support Samsung” is a sentence created by Samsung but pointed to Anker.

In larger tablets and laptops it is a real problem, if you need 45W or higher, if you don’t get near that your device will refuse the charger.

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So true. That’s how I got lured into buying a 15w wireless charger lol (in my defense, I only paid less than $5 for it).
It has come in handy when I need that extra charge but if it wasn’t for the price I never would’ve bought it

Agree.

Suppose I wanted to buy the OnePlus 8 Pro, it has a $70 30W wireless charger. I’d not buy it, as I’d buy a two-pack 10W for $15-$20 Anker and have one in kitchen and one by bedside instead, as I pass those areas enough for them to be top-up enough to be likely to be all I need along with carrying a Powercore.

I’d then both have “Anker doesn’t support…” and to be perfectly fine with that, save my money. So I read across to I’d say “… is there ANY charger that works properly with the S20 Ultra” and for the answer to be both “no” and “so?” at the same time.

Phones have a fake problem to solve. I am more bothered about the 30W-60W laptop wireless standard.

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Thank you everyone who responded I really appreciate it.

I am going to probably order 1 or 2 more Samsung bricks and a few C to C cables. I have a few 10ft ( maybe 6ft) Anker braided A to C cables also. I owned a 6T previously and I can relate to the weird charging capabilities. You are 100% correct on the charging at home. 90% of the time you don’t need the 45w charging. I am going to get a pad for my desk and one for my bedside. I will probably keep the Samsung charger with me in my backpack for work since I have 2 offices plus I go onsite a lot to do installs ( IT )
I have a free Corsair power brick I think I am going to replace with a powercore also. I could use the extra battery since I am always on the go.

I also need to figure out how to position the mounting magnet for my car mount so it doesn’t interfere with wireless charging

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So I guess I need to buy the wall bricks also for the wireless charging pads?

What would you guys suggest for Pad + Bricks?

One of the bricks needs to support two phones, mine and my wifes which is a iPhone X SE

Essentially I am going for 2 pads in the house plus 2 bricks for now.

Top-up 10W pads?

Any Anker charger to suit you needs will do fine, 2A 5V 10W ports.

And any Powercore to suit your needs for slower charging while moving. A good complementary system would be:

  • the dual port 18W + 12W C + A (I see you in USA so)
  • Powercore 10000 PD Slim. 18W and 12W output. I recommend getting two, you can then serve 2 people or recharge one while using the other. Or backup for the corner case of a long weekend no power (power outage, zombies, etc)

That Powercore+Powerport is a good combo as the Powerport is 18W output to match the Powercore 18W input, so in a 2-4 hour period you can fully recharge phone and a Powercore which can do about 2 phone recharges to then last 1-2 days until the next wall socket visit.

Then the Samsung official charger, the fastest they sell, for the corner problem for phone flat, no powercore, limited time near wall socket.

So then in total you’d have:

  • official charger for 45W, to solve the phone empty, no Powercore, need to get fastest charge problem.
  • two Powerport which each can power a wireless charger, or wired, or recharge the Powercore (in about just under 4 hours)
  • Powercore, preferably two, is about 2 full phone recharges, that keeps you going a long day.
  • two 10W pads.

These look expensive if you simply bought all now but if you wait 1-3 weeks a discount will be along shortly. Prices drop to around $20-$25 for the 10K Powercore if you’re in no rush.

A typical day you’d leave home with a charged phone + Powercore. You’d arrive back home with a mostly charged phone + mostly charged Powercore. You’d then drop the phone on the pad and plug in the Powercore, both full in 1-4 hours depending how busy the day.

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You could just order this for those times you are driving and low on battery

Thank you so much professor for the guidance.

I do have a Corsair branded portable charger I won at a convention that I think is 7500 which is fine for now. I’d actually like to get the 20k Anker soon since I travel alot with Phone laptop and tablet.

Im going to order the two Dual port Powerports and two wireless pads.

Is it worth getting the newer wireless pad or just get the 2 pack one?

If you are going to own the portable charger and the Samsung fast wired charger, then I’d make the pad decisions purely on price because they are not going to have to any heavy lifting, they do top-up and no-hurry overnight roles.

The Qi standard at 15W requires a QC charger which sometimes is bundled, while if you keep to around the 7.5W - 10W level any kind of charger will suffice.

10Ah vs 20Ah portable charger, personally I’d prefer two 10Ah than one 20Ah, my reasons are:

  • if i’m in a remote off-grid situation, it is much less likely both 10Ah are bust than one 20Ah is bust. These products are extremely reliable, tend to die around aged 3 years so it’s a minor concern.
  • Two 10Ah charge in parallel using two ports and so charge in half the time of a 20Ah. When you try to make a 20Ah charge as fast as two 10Ah it works out more expensive. If you’re in an off-grid or home power outage type scenario, often access to power is intermittent and you want to eat as much energy as fast as possible when there is power. So imagine the corner case you use your Samsung fast charger and recharge both 10Ah all at the same time, in about 3 hours you’re going to end up with a week’s worth of power stored.
  • You can independently charge two items each off short cables to each 10Ah. If you have one 20Ah you use longer cables. Cable power efficiency drops with cable length.
  • you can be using one while recharging the other, which also helps in power outage scenarios as power often comes on/off/on/off while they fix the problem.
  • Depending how a 20Ah is wired, it is possible for a 20Ah to die earlier than a 10Ah as it can have the cells wired in serial and any cell in serial can brick the entire portable charger. Bigger portable chargers have more parts to fail.

But then I’m a geek, some people think less about gadgets.

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That explanation is fantastic. Completely makes sense also!

I will wait for them to go on sale and order.

I think I got it all figured out now I really appreciate the help.

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That’s a fine cable. I have the Powerline IIs. Do you think they’d ever make them with right angle plugs?

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Well, they recently release 180° ones.

Thanks. I’ve seen that and not interested in USB-A.

Right-angle Type C on both ends or on one end would be desired.

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