Move over, puny 10W, 15W, or even 30W wireless chargers, there is a new boy in town, and they are a 40W bully. That's right, just two years ago we were wow-ing at Huawei's 40W wired charging brick, and now this output can be achieved wirelessly, while we are already at 65W bricks with cable.
Thus, the company now has a full set of 40W charging devices - from adapters and car chargers to 40W power banks and a record-breaking wireless charger. Huawei sent us its new SuperCharge Wireless Charger Stand, and we got cracking to test if it would indeed top off our dying devices with the full 40W power of its promises. Well, it only works in full capacity with the excellent P40 Pro+ whose coils are born for this stuff, but still...
Huawei SuperCharge 40W Wireless Charger Stand review and charging test
The inconspicuous-looking SuperCharge stand would fool you that it is like any other such device on the market. The telltale signs that it is something different, however, are its sheer size, the presence of a fan exhaust grille, and the whopping 65W power brick it comes with. We aren't big fans of the black charger coming with a white cable but what can you do.
The charger is so powerful that it has to actively dissipate the heat with a fan inside, which turned out to be no biggie, as it's not making a racket, and even switches to ultra-silent mode from 21:00 to 07:00 so that it isn't disturbing light sleepers.
In order to reach its maximum 40W charging power potential, the Wireless Charger Stand needs to fulfill a few prerequisites. First, in order to output the record 40W of wireless goodness, it needs to itself be powered by a Huawei SuperCharge adapter with an output power above 50W, and the standard data cable that comes with it. Thankfully, a 65W brick and a dedicated cable can be had from Huawei as well.
You'll need that full setup in order to reach a maximum charging rate of 40 W for the Huawei P40 Pro+, and at least Huawei's standard 40W adapter and corresponding data cable for hitting the P40 Pro and Mate 30 series maximum charging rate of 27 W.
How fast is the SuperCharge 40W Wireless Charger Stand with the P40 Pro Plus?
Very fast. We are talking just an hour and twenty minutes to wake the 4200mAh battery of the P40 Pro+ from a dead state and bring it all the way up to 100%. That's cable-charging-speeds crazy indeed.
For comparison, here are the P40 Pro+ wired and wireless charging speeds at the same points in their charging sessions:
Huawei P40 Pro+
40W wired charging
40W wireless charging
15 minutes
30%
25%
30 minutes
50%
44%
50 minutes
80%
74%
70 minutes
100%
95%
82 minutes
-
100%
As you can see, the phone charges only slightly slower with the 40W wireless than with the 40W cable charging - for instance, who cares that in an hour the cabled charging has brought the phone up to 90% and the wireless stand to 85% or so.
The 100% mark does have some psychological merit, so hitting it ten minutes or so later with the wireless charger may look like a bummer, but, given that the power losses that sending electrons through the ether entail, it's a remarkable achievement nonetheless.
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Wireless charging efficiency is dependent on so many variables that, as you can see, the input that the ginormous 65W brick is able to realize, result in 40W output at the emitting end of the charging coils on the stand, with active fan cooling involved in the process.
Add a fraction of an inch of plastic and glass covers between the emitting and receiving coils under the back cover of the P40 Pro+, and the 40W output efficiency drops a bit further down, and that explains the slight speed misalignment in 40W wired and wireless charging.
As you can see, it's nothing to worry about, though, so kudos to Huawei for constantly pushing the boundaries in both wired and wireless charging speeds in the past few years, bringing everyone on board now.
Huawei SuperCharge 40W Wireless Charger price and phone compatibility
The $50 price that the 40W SuperCharger itself can be found for won't break the bank for you, but if you want to add the 65W charging brick and cable that result in said 40W output you'd have to add $29 more. Needless to say, as the 40W SuperCharge Stand gets wider availability in the following weeks and months, we expect the price to drop as well.
The fact that the full 40W charging speed can only be achieved with the P40 Pro+ shouldn't discourage you, as the SuperCharger is also able to top up, say, the Galaxy S20 or iPhone 11 series at their respective charging rates, too. Here's a full phone compatibility list for the Huawei SuperCharge 40W Wireless Charger:
Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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