Samsung 25W Adapter, 3W Output. Is Nothing Serious?

MotorcycleIn

Using a Samsung 25W PD/PPS certified adapter — the same one that fast-charges Samsung flagships in under an hour — and my Nothing phone is pulling a laughable 3 to 4 watts. That’s slower than a basic 5W wall brick.

Three hours for a full charge in 2026 is genuinely embarrassing. I’ve tried multiple cables, different outlets, and rebooting the phone. Nothing changes (pun intended).

Is anyone else facing this? Is it a software bug throttling charging, a PPS handshake failure, or just poor third-party adapter compatibility? Would love to know if a fix or workaround exists before I lose my mind.

Have solutions? Kindly share.

Raaa1

This is likely a PPS compatibility or handshake issue. Even though the Samsung 25W charger supports PD and PPS, it doesn’t always negotiate properly with non Samsung phones, so it falls back to slow charging (3 to 5W).

Also worth checking the cable. If it’s not a good quality USB C to C cable with 3A or 60W support, it can limit speeds.

Try a different PD or PPS charger like Nothing or CMF and a better cable. That should fix it.

Skitte

Since there is NO WAY to get the official Nothing Charger (nowhere in stock. NOWHERE), I had to resort to another with PPS and PD, 45W. I have the same issue. Max is 22-23W. I noticed it with other similar chargers. On top of that, the touch sensitivity would go insane with the charger plugged in. Ghost touches, multiple touches and I don’t even touch the screen, I touch on the left, the screen executes it on the right… It was driving me insane.

I ordered an Ugreen charger with better specs and a better cable… I can’t say where the fault is, so I will need to investigate with the charger when it arrives today.

I just wanted to chime in and add that I have also encountered this and it might be a bigger issues.

I will update this when I get to charge with the new charger and see the values.

I hope Nothing reads this and investigates anyway - it seems that more times than not, big, old issues are addressed only when a loooot of people make noise. That is not ok and people are right to be angry and demand more leaning in from teams to see what issues people encounter - you cannot find every bug and inconsistency during internal/ mixed testing.

MotorcycleIn

Skitte At what Watt your mobile is getting charged with old charger ? And also share the feedback with new one. Because earlier i m getting 20-24W but for 25 days around I am getting 4-5W only.

Skitte

MotorcycleIn I have AccuBattery, but that doesn’t show historical max speed for charging, so I got Battery Guru, which does.

What I found and what I can say:

To see differences, I charged the phone with Wi-Fi off, no apps in the background, low brightness and mostly not touching the phone while charging. These are not common conditions, most people I know just plug the charger and see high or max. speeds with no tweaks.

I need to ask you here how do you charge it and if yoy use it during charging?

The 17W is the speed I get under basic conditions, so just plug the charger and maybe use it from time to time to check messages, search stuff etc.

I understand that plugging the charger and using it for youtube, extracting files, playing video games, downloads, pictures (basically any activity that just use resources moderately or intensely) would decrease the speed considerably.

Still, I don’t think the massive drop is normal, or common. Also, 30W is better than 3, 5 or 18, but still not high or max speed, ESPECIALLY when the phone is basically sleeping, no wifi, no apps, no screen on, nothing using the resources.

Again, I will have to see the new charger, but this is already telling that something is off somewhere.

I shouldn’t have to almost turn off the phone to charge at higher than 18w speeds, but still far from max, nor should you drop that much for any reason.

I will update this.

MotorcycleIn

Skitte Okay so the charging speed is just okay okay type, not great. After your suggestion I installed Battery Guru to check the historic pattern and bro it’s the same 7-8W every single time 😤 Doesn’t matter if I’m using the phone while charging or if it’s just sitting idle with data off and no screen touch — same slow speed.

Honestly so annoyed with this brand. Really regretting this purchase now. Next time I’m just going with a well established brand, not taking these risks again 😒

Skitte

I understand and feel your frustration. I feel about the same…

What I can suggest for now - use Accubattery to actively monitor charging speeds and other real-time values if you need. Use BatteryGuru to check historical values (after charging).

I know it’s stupid, but try charging it under different conditions - charge and light usage from time to time/ charge and turn off everything, basically letting it sleep (just don’t touch it until it charges to your desired %) and maybe charge and heavy usage to see how much it drops in real time.

You will need a few sessions to compare and draw some conclusions, but that might help more of us if we have more proof.

Lastly, I’d like to say that I had Samsung, Xiaomi, LG, OneNote, Asus and all of them had other issues that were never resolved or addressed. My experience with Nothing is, so far, considerably better (although not perfect) because the software is generally much better to begin with, from the beginning and it’s very customizable, throwing no obstacles to do whatever you want in your phone or installing stuff. It may sound like that should be normal, but I had other issues with the other brands that Nothing does not have. It has other issues that, to me, seem fixable via patches and updates.

No brand is perfect, but yeah, it depends on your tolerance and priorities. Don’t forget that Nothing is still a child compared to the other brands. I try to not forget that whenever I feel like something should be fixed or improved or added. For now, I reserve my judgement and believe that it just takes longer for Nothing to fix and add than other brands, but it has other pluses. The fact that we have a forum and have team members check and comment is a huge deal for me.

Anyway, let’s see what’s going on with the charging for now haha.

@MotorcycleIn

EDIT: Came with an update -> the new charger DOES NOT change anything… it’s the same values.

The new charger and cable: (maybe someone else could indicate something I missed)

Charger: Ugreen Nexode Air 65W

Charging Cable: Anker Zolo USB-C 240W

I’m slightly upset about spending money on a new charger to see nothing changing and more upset about me believing it would change anything… 😂

We need more people to test and comment. I will monitor the situation in the next few days.

This is on a Phone 3a Pro.

For my sanity, I should see 45W where Charging Current is in AccuBattery, right? 🫠