You can no longer assume you’ll find a charger in your new smartphone’s box. It’s more likely there won’t be a charger than there will be a charger. So, if you want to enjoy the fastest possible charging speeds on the best Android phones and don’t have a compatible charger, you’ll have to buy one separately. Moreover, suppose you are getting a Google Pixel or a Samsung Galaxy phone. In that case, you’ll need a charger that supports Programmable Power Supply (PPS) on top of USB Power Delivery (USB PD).

As PPS is a supplemental specification to the USB PD standard, not all PD chargers support it, which means it can be tricky to find a suitable charger. To help, we have handpicked the best USB PD chargers that support PPS. These are the best chargers for your current and future phones, laptops, tablets, and anything else that uses USB Power Delivery and PPS.

Why does PPS matter?

With smartphones getting more powerful than ever with each new generation, manufacturers are opting for fast-charging technologies to compensate for the relatively little innovation in battery technology. If the batteries can’t last long, at least making them charge superfast is the new mantra.

USB Power Delivery (USB PD) is one fast-charging standard that has gained prominence in the last few years. It comes from the folks responsible for maintaining the USB standard: USB Implementers Forum or USB-IF. USB PD is excellent, and its latest Extended Power Range specification (EPR) supports up to 240W of power delivery to mobile devices using the USB standard — though EPR chargers and cables are still a few years off for most of us.

Regular Power Delivery already powers millions of smartphones, tablets, speakers, earbuds, gaming consoles, and laptops. However, the early versions of the USB PD standard didn’t support step-wise voltage variation, so chargers would send more voltage than required to the devices. The device battery would then have to adjust the voltage and current as necessary. As a result, the voltage difference between what was sent from the charger and what was used by the battery would be lost in the form of unnecessary heat.

PPS was introduced as a supplemental specification to the USB PD 3.0 standard to fix this issue; PPS allows devices to request specific voltage and current to optimize battery charging time. As a result, there is less power conversion loss and heat dissipation, which helps the battery’s health in the long term. This is why the manufacturers like Google and Samsung use the PPS technology in their smartphones and tablets.

Which fast charging protocol does your phone use?

Although you can practically pick up any power brick to charge your phone, there is no guarantee that your phone will charge quickly. For that, you must be mindful of your phone’s fast-charging protocol and get a compatible power brick.

Here are the different fast charging protocols commonly used by smartphone manufacturers and the charging speeds you can expect.

• Samsung: The company uses Samsung Super Fast Charging and Samsung Super Fast Charging 2.0 technologies, which are based on USB Power Delivery (USB PD) and Programmable Power Supply (PPS). Most Samsung phones have 25W fast charging support, but some flagships also support 45W charging.
• Google: Pixel phones use USB PD with PPS, with fast charging speeds ranging from 18W to 30W.
• Motorola: The company’s TurboPower fast charging technology uses both Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 and USB PD, depending on the phone. The top charging speeds range from 18W to 68W. If your Motorola phone supports higher than 20W charging, there is an excellent chance its TurboPower module is using USB PD instead of QuickCharge 3.0.
• OnePlus: The OnePlus phones employ SuperVOOC and WarpCharge fast charging protocols, with top speeds going up to 125W. There is support for USB PD as well, but you’ll likely get anywhere from 10W to 30W, depending on your phone.
• Asus: ROG phone models use USB PD 3.0 and Qualcomm QuickCharge 5.0 with a top speed of 65W. However, ZenFone models use QuickCharge 4.0 or USB PD and PPS with a top speed of 30W.
• Sony: USB PD with a top speed of 30W
• Apple: iPhones also use USB PD with an official top speed of 20W.

Choosing the right charger for your phone

You’ll find quite a few chargers claiming to support various fast charging standards, but not all are made the same. While some chargers can offer 45W PPS charging or higher, others top out at 25W. Many don’t support Samsung’s Super Fast Charging 2.0 protocol, which uses PPS and is vital for phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. So when picking a charger, it’s a good idea to make sure it can deliver the necessary power to charge your device at its top speed.

Our best overall selection, the Anker 313 Charger, can deliver the fastest possible charging speeds to pretty much any phone that uses USB-PD and PPS standards. You can also use it to juice up Chromebooks and other USB PD-compatible laptops. In addition, the Anker power brick is compact and uses foldable prongs, making it perfect for travel and storage.

But if you want multi-device charging and can spend a bit more, Anker also offers its Prime 67W GaN Wall Charger. It has three USB ports, which can use to top up your phone, laptop, or earbuds simultaneously. And since it uses the company’s PowerIQ 4.0 technology, it supports the fast charging protocols of most smartphones.

Lastly, the Nekteck 45W USB-C charger is an incredible value at $18. It’s not only rated for 45W PPS charging, but it’s also USB-IF certified. Plus, it comes with a permanently attached USB-C cable. While this means you won’t have to buy a separate cable, it can be problematic if the attached cable gets damaged. Just make sure to pick up one of the best USB-C cables, like the 5A USB-C, to use Super Fast Charging 2.0 on any charger you buy.