How to choose a charger

A charger does not push power into a phone. The phone asks for how much it wants, and the charger answers up to the maximum it can supply. That is why a 65 W charger does not damage a phone that accepts 25 W: it supplies 25 W.

The number that matters is the phone's

Every phone has a maximum charging power. Going above it achieves nothing — a more powerful charger will not charge it faster than its own limit. What changes is that the same charger can also charge a tablet or a laptop.

The cable is part of the charger

This is the part almost everyone forgets. A cheap cable can limit charging even with an excellent power adapter, because the power that gets through depends on it too. If charging is slow and the adapter is right, the cable is the first suspect.

The acronyms

• USB-C PD (Power Delivery) is the standard nearly all recent phones use
• Some Android manufacturers use their own protocols to reach top speed
• A charger without PD works, but at the slowest speed

In practice

Tell us which phone you have. The power it accepts is a fact about the model, not an opinion, and every product states its wattage and connector.