About a month ago we talked about the Realme GT 5 Neo. Okay, we didn’t talk much about the phone itself but about its impressive charging tech. It charges at a mind-bending 240W which can charge its 4600mAh battery in just under 10 minutes.
That’s a real phone that’s on sale right there. It was only a year ago that Realme’s parent company showed off the 240W charging concept. It took just a year to get to market with the concept. Impressive stuff from the OPPO group there.
The only problem with that was that Xiaomi had shown off a 210W fast-charging concept and brought it to market in Q4 2022. In less than 4 months, Xiaomi’s 210W speeds were old news. 240 was where it was at. Of course, Xiaomi was not going to take that lying down.
300W fast charging
We are getting into ridiculous territory now. Xiaomi showed off a 300W fast-charging concept at the recently held Mobile World Congress. With them on stage, Xiaomi had a Redmi Note 12 Pro+ which had a 4100mAh battery and this is how the charging went:
- 1 minute, 5 seconds to get to 20%
- 2 minutes, 12 seconds to get to 50%
- 4 minutes, 55 seconds to fully charge to 100%
If you thought the Realme fully charging in about 10 minutes was bonkers what are you going to say to this phone charging up in half the time? A full charge in 5 minutes is wild to even think about, let alone see in a demonstration.
Let’s mention though that the Realme has a battery that’s 500mAh (12%) larger. So, it’s an Oranges to Naartjies comparison.
These Chinese phone manufacturers are not messing about and I am more than confident that we will see this 300W charging in a phone that’s on sale in Q1 2024, if not Q4 2023. They are taking this fast-charging race a little too seriously. Not that I’m complaining.
My only complaint is that no manufacturer outside China has really joined this race. Apple seems happy with its 27W charging filling up a 14 Pro Max in 2 hours and Samsung is patting itself on the back for getting to 45W.
How they achieved it
When we are talking about such a wattage, we start worrying about heat and explosions. Xiaomi says the battery has new cells that have carbon materials in place of some conventional graphite parts which allowed them to reduce the electrodes’ thickness by 35%.
They were also able to come up with an improved electrolyte formula. What those two improvements mean is that Xiaomi was able to improve power density allowing for faster charge and discharge. Somehow they were able to reduce the amount of heat produced in the process.
Is 300W safe?
Higher wattage, less heat if you can believe it. Xiaomi really is working magic with those thinner cells we talked about above, arranging them in some sandwich design which optimises heat dissipation whilst taking less space in the process.
Apparently, there are also 50 features built into the system to keep track of voltage, current and temperature on each charging chip. Which Xiaomi says should lead to safe 300W charging.
It’s not just safety that we are worried about when talking about crazy fast charging. We also worry about the battery life span. How many times can you charge a Lithium-ion battery at 300W? Here is the first hurdle that 300W charging may not have scaled yet.
Xiaomi did not talk about the charging cycles we can expect at 300W. That means it’s probably still bad at this moment. This explains why they also didn’t mention if they will even mass-produce the tech at all in the future. So maybe my confidence is misplaced, maybe 300W is still years away.
Even so, it looks like Chinese phones will be plugging into electric vehicle charging stations in a few years if this race continues.
Tell us what you think about all this in the comments section below. I personally think we should end this race right here at 300W. Let’s start improving electrode sizes and arrangements to improve on the 240W and 300W standards.
I mean, my laptop takes 150W and that’s enough to power a GTX 1650 GPU. We really can’t have a 500W charging smartphone in the future. That would be insane, in the membrane kind of way.
Also read:
240W charging phone now official, charges from 0-100% in less than 10 minutes
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29 comments
They should keep going till we have nano fusion reactors in place of batteries!
It looks like that’s where we are headed. They have to be stopped.
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
If they could also try a nuclear power on phones. About radiation they already emit radiation
It is getting ridiculous, isn’t it? 😂
Of day phones will be charge from the heat of our bodies.
One day phones will be charged with the heat of our bodies
That would be a game changer. That or if they manage to defy physics again and allow us to charge using radio frequencies.
If u get the location in Zim were we can find this fast charger please tell me also
😂🤣😂🤣😋
were can i find this charger in Zimbabwe
It’s not yet available, it’s still in the concept phase. And even when it comes out, it will only work with the device it was designed for. Your device won’t be able to accept 300W even if you use the charger.
These charging times are for people with a crippling phone addiction, I mean the type of addiction that results in severe withdrawal symptoms as soon as the phone leaves their hand!
30 minutes is reasonable, 20 minutes is excellent anything below that is madness and will result in niche phones at best or phones that will never leave the concept stage at worst.
I would prefer a bit of faster charging coupled with longer lasting/larger batteries it’s a nice middle ground.
I like what they did here. It wasn’t just a simple ‘split the battery into 20 cells, crank up the juice and pray’ solution. The material, thermal and chemical science improvements they made here are significant, pushing forward a tech that has stagnated for a while. It makes the improved charge time improvement worthwhile beyond being a spec sheet gimmick.
Agreed. The only question is on how it affects battery drain and lifespan. It is telling that they didn’t mention charge cycles and the like. It’s probably still terrible. If they can figure it out, we will be in for a treat.
I kinda agree here. I just need my phone to charge up in the time it takes me to bathe and I’m good. Of course, no one would really oppose 5 minute charging if it doesn’t affect the other aspects of battery life.
There is little in the way of innovation in smartphones that the wise thing these days is to use a phone for a good few years. The likes of Apple and Samsung also support their phones for a long time now, allowing for that. I would hate to see phones go back to 2 year usable lifespans because of crazy fast charging.
With Electricity only available for 2 secs in this Country this fast charging is the way to go…
Zimbabwe and fast charging are a match made in heaven. We now need the other manufacturers that people actually like over here to get on this bandwagon.
Ndiyo yega phone charger inopedza magetsi … pullingpower like a Hoover
😂At least its on for just 5 minutes!
Unodhingura magetsi uchida kucharger phone ukarohwa nevanhu 🤣
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
this is a brilliant development,
Please share
the number of charging cycles once you have the information
effect on battery degradation/lifecycle
and how long does the battery last after a fast charge like that, will it discharge normally or discharge faster as in will a person need to charge the device more frequently ?
I’m sure as they work on it they will release that information and we will make sure to talk about it when they do.
Vanhu ava tikavasiya vachienderera ka.Tichaona phone inochargiswa nehomwe dzedu.Zvekuti uchifamba inenge ichi charger.Kana phone inocharger ne weti chaiyo.
What if I told you both scenarios are already proven concepts (just not on a scale to run a phone yet)? Thermal differentials and kinetic energy captured from the body can be converted to power. A fuel cell that uses urine as a main component also exists. Fun times 🤣
Dai vatoenderera kudaro ka. That way we won’t need to depend on Zesa. Just walk around and charge your phone whilst getting some exercise and when you expel the water you need to stay hydrated, having that add kamwe ka30% ke battery.
I don’t think this will ever come to phones even if in theory, the science may allow for it in the future.
OMG this is fantastic charger, this gys are brilliant
Phone ikafa tongotenga imwe gys
Very true. Zvawanda zvinhu izvi