Galaxy Fold 2 could give up battery capacity for faster charging technology

Considering the price, the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 is no means immune to the physical limitations of Li-ion technology, forcing a compromise between charging speed and the actual energy reserve stored in the battery.

Samsung, like other smartphone manufacturers, would not willingly acknowledge the compromises in terms of reliability and energy storage capacity, imposed by the use of more aggressive implementations of Quick Charge technology. Trying to manage these limitations, most smartphone manufacturers stop charging batteries at a level below their nominal value on their own initiative, thus managing to deliver the promised charging speeds without shortening their lifespan too much.

Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, made on the assembly lines last year

This is how the Galaxy Fold 2, a foldable phone that must respect as much as possible the proportions of the case used with the model it replaces, displays in the list of specifications a low capacity of the battery.

The data published on the website of the Chinese authority 3C, responsible for the certification of mobile communications equipment, describes a certain smartphone codenamed SM-F9160, delivered with an AC adapter in compact version, capable of delivering 20W and 25W power via USB cable -C. Compared to the original Galaxy Fold, delivered with a 15W AC adapter, the power jump is considerable. For comparison, the Galaxy Fold 2 will charge up to 5x faster than a regular iPhone, delivered with a 5W adapter without fast charging.

Specifically, the two batteries installed in the case of Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 will give a cumulative capacity of 4365 mAh, decreasing from 4800 mAh.

Samsung will probably try to compensate for the lower power supply with more efficient hardware. The problem is that recent additions like the Snapdragon 865 (or 865+) 5G chipset come with an inevitable jump in battery consumption. In the end, Galaxy Fold 2 users will probably simply have to charge their phone more often, consoling themselves only with the idea that the waiting time for each charging round is a bit shorter.