Some Galaxy S8 users are having a hard time wirelessly charging their phones

By Adam Ismail Published April 25, 2017

Users on XDA Developers are reporting some headaches with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and wireless charging. According to a thread on the forum, Samsung’s latest flagship is exhibiting problems maintaining a steady charging rate when paired with certain wireless chargers and power adapters. Worse yet, those affected can’t determine whether the erratic behavior is by design, or is being caused by a defect.

An individual by the name of ObsidianGT started the thread on the forum and shared his findings. According to the post, using Samsung’s proprietary fast charging power adapter with a first-party charging pad will achieve the desired result. However, mixing that same adapter with a third-party charging surface will prevent power delivery, unless the authentic Samsung fast charging adapter is switched out with a standard, non-QuickCharge brick. At that point, charging will continue, but at regular speed.

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That seems simple and clear enough, and would suggest that Samsung may be actively preventing the Galaxy S8 from using the company’s fast-charging tech with third-party devices whose quality it cannot verify. Given the company’s troubles with batteries, this wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. However, it may be a bit more complicated than that because, as the responses to the thread show, not all users are seeing the same results.

For example, some are finding success using Aukey’s charging pads in tandem with Samsung’s fast charging brick, while others are noticing that charging pauses after a short time. Moreover, Anker’s devices appear to be working for some users, but not everyone. And one commenter claims the same all-Samsung setup they had for the Galaxy S7 isn’t functioning for the Galaxy S8, despite the fact that the two devices reportedly use the same technology with regard to wireless charging.

Overall, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of consistent behavior between Samsung’s just-released flagship and wireless chargers. Is it possible the company implemented measures to weed out unsafe accessories? Certainly. But, right now, users are having a hard time figuring out precisely what those measures are, how they work, and, consequently, what products they should buy.

If you’re having issues wirelessly charging your Galaxy S8, let us know in the comments. We’ll update this post as we hear more on the issue.

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