Samsung has taken to releasing new wireless chargers every year with the S series phone launch in January.  This year, the company debuted the Super Fast Wireless Charger and Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo.  The latter model especially useful to people with a Samsung Galaxy Watch, and after 18 months with last year’s Wireless Charger Duo, I decided to pick up the newer model to keep at the office I’m now back working at part time. Is it a good upgrade from last year’s model? Let’s dig in.

I reviewed Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo about 18 months ago. It was one of my shorter reviews, since there really isn’t that much to talk about with a wireless charger.  But over the past 18 months that review has been, strangely, one of the most visited pages on this little website.  People are clearly interested in the Samsung first party charger, or maybe there aren’t a ton of reviews of it.  Either way, the interest is there, so let’s talk about the new product.

Hardware wise, There isn’t much to speak of.  The Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo has two charging pads with LED indicators, a USB-C port, and intake vents on the bottom and exhaust vents on the top surrounding the larger charging pad.  Compared to last year’s model, the Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo is slightly bigger in every dimension, though not significantly so.  The second charging pad is flat, where on last year’s model there was a concave section for watch placement.  The newer model still uses magnets to ensure a watch gets placed correctly.  Overall, I like the design of last year’s Wireless Charger more.  It Duolooks more like a device designed to sit on a nightstand or a desk and fit in, where the Super Fast Wireless Charger looks boxier, and much more like a “technology” product.

The Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo has a couple main differences from last year’s Wireless Charger Duo.  The first is support for 15W wireless charging for phones which is up from 9W on last year’s model.  To achieve that, Samsung has included a fan in the charger that runs when devices are on the charger.  The fan is definitely loud enough to hear in a quiet room, which makes the charger less than ideal in certain circumstances.  In a room with other noise, you likely won’t hear it, but in a bedroom at night, I can definitely hear the fan.  If you have a Samsung phone, you can turn off fast  wireless charging, which will charge a phone at 5W instead of 15W and that will turn the fan off.  That works fine for overnight charging, but is less useful if you actually want a wireless charger with good charging speeds.

Annoyingly, the fan runs with any other kind of device charging.  When charging my Galaxy Watch 4 by itself the fan still runs on the charger.  The Galaxy Watch 4 charges at less than 5W so the fact that the fan runs while charging such a low power device is unfortunate.

The last thing worth noting is that 15W wireless charging support on phones is still somewhat limited.  My Galaxy Z Fold3 from 2021 only wireless charges at 10W, so I can’t even take advantage of the faster charging speeds, even though that little fan runs all the time.  Last year’s Wireless Charger Duo managed to charge my phone at 9W and my Watch at 5W without a fan.  The Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo cannot.

  The second difference between this year’s model and last is the ability for the second charging pad to charge earbuds as well as Galaxy Watches.  This is a useful feature that makes the Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo a viable option for someone that doesn’t have a Galaxy Watch.  The second, smaller pad can’t charge a phone (I tried, it doesn’t work) but it did charge my Galaxy Watch 4 as well as a couple different pairs of headphones with wireless charging.  This is genuinely useful, and a welcome update.

Lastly: Price.  Samsung has continued the tradition of charging an absurd amount of money for its wireless chargers.  The regular price of the Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo is $120 which is too much money for what is essentially a device of convenience.  Just like last year’s model, I cannot recommend anyone buy it at full price.  I do see it go on sale on a semi regular basis for $60, which is what I purchased it at.  It is still expensive for what it is at that price but people with a Galaxy Watch that want a way to charge it that is more elegant than the small puck charger that comes in the box have few options aside from this.

There really isn’t much more to say about the Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo.  As was the case last year, I can only recommend the Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo to people with a Galaxy Watch.  It is expensive, but useful.  I think that for most people last year’s model might still be a better buy if you can find it.  The wireless charging speeds are slower and the second pad only works with Galaxy Watches but the trade off of not having a fan, and a nicer design might be worth it.  If you really think that charging headphones on the second pad is an important feature to you, then the Super Fast Wireless Charger is a good product.  Otherwise, look out for last year’s model and enjoy a charger that doesn’t need a fan.  The Super Fast Wireless Charger Duo is a miss by Samsung.