Have you ever tried using the very first iPhone in 2024? Or any of the Android phones that came out around that time? They are unusable. Smartphones have come a long way, but battery life hasn’t seen a similar leap.
Battery technology hasn’t kept up its end of the bargain. Processors have become more powerful and efficient. You can now legitimately play console games on modern phones.
The version of Resident Evil 4 that can be played on the iPhone 15 Pro is comparable in quality to the console versions released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. That is impressive.
Perhaps that’s why a full day’s use is about the best you can hope for when it comes to battery life. It’s crazy that most phones need to be topped up every day. If not, you’ll have to do so by noon on the second day.
So, as we wait for mbudzi-like battery life where you only charge your phone once a week, fast charging is the consolation we get. If the battery won’t last a week on a single charge, at least we can top it up in the time it takes to brush your teeth.
However, for some reason, the major players are not interested in cutting-edge fast charging. Samsung and Apple are lagging far behind the Chinese in fast charging.
The Chinese push fast-charging tech
Last year, we saw some eyebrow-raising updates in the fast-charging game.
Early in the year, Realme announced 240W charging on the GT Neo 5. You could top up that phone’s 4600mAh battery in just under 10 minutes.
That came to overshadow Xiaomi’s 210W charging, which had been announced just a few months earlier.
Xiaomi didn’t take this lightly, choosing to raise the stakes to 300W. At these speeds, they were able to charge the Redmi Note 12 Pro+’s 4000mAh battery in just under 5 minutes.
It was 4 minutes and 55 seconds to be exact, which is beyond impressive.
Realme wasn’t happy with this. Oh no, not one bit. They’ve come back with upgrades of their own.
Realme’s 320W fast-charging
Realme has retaken the crown with the announcement of 320W fast charging. Before you scoff at the 20W improvement, remember that Apple’s flagships charge at just 27W. So, Realme improved on Xiaomi’s record with 75% of what Apple can do.
Realme’s 320W SuperSonic Charge, as it’s called, can charge a 4400mAh battery from empty in 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
This sounds like a 25-second improvement over Xiaomi’s solution, but note how Realme charged up a 4400mAh battery, while Xiaomi charged up a 4000mAh one. The Realme battery is 10% bigger, which makes the comparison a bit more challenging.
Some basic math, which likely won’t be borne out in reality, shows that Realme charges at 16.3mAh/second while Xiaomi charges at 13.6mAh/second.
So, if Realme charged a 4000mAh battery, it would have been full after just 4 minutes and 5 seconds, all things being equal.
Whatever the case, I think we can agree that anything under 5 minutes is great. Even if you’re hit by an emergency and forced to rush out of your house, you can spare 5 minutes to charge your phone.
If you don’t have 5 minutes to spare, Realme charged their 4400mAh battery from empty to 50% in less than 2 minutes. If 2 minutes won’t work, you can still get it to 26% in just a minute. Surely, it takes you that long to put on shoes.
At this point, I don’t think any further improvements will make a massive difference to people’s experiences. No matter how quickly you have to rush out, you can spare 5 minutes to charge your phone.
So, while I would appreciate a phone that charges from empty to full in 30 seconds, it’s really no different from one that charges in 5 minutes. So, let them keep pushing the technology, and let’s hope those other smartphone vendors get on this train too.
The nuts and bolts
For those interested in how Realme is doing this, Realme has named their 320W power adapter the Pocket Cannon. It’s a cannon indeed.
Despite packing a powerful 3.3W/cm³ power density, it remains comparable in size to their 240W charger.
The Pocket Cannon supports major charging protocols like UFCS (up to 320W), PD, and SuperVOOC. Additionally, it features dual USB-C ports, allowing for 150W charging of Realme smartphones and 65W charging of compatible laptops simultaneously.
Realme also unveiled the “AirGap” Voltage Transformer. This technology uses contact-free electromagnetic conversion to isolate high voltage from the smartphone battery, preventing risks during charging faults like circuit breakdowns.
The transformer, smaller than a fingertip, reduces voltage to 20V for battery protection. It also boosts conversion efficiency and thermal management, contributing to the 320W SuperSonic Charge’s impressive ~98% power efficiency.
7 comments
What is the best off the shelf charging head and cable and shop that sells locally.
Thanks in advance
But what about the battery life? It’s all fine and good for the phone to be charged in 6 minutes flat but how long (years/months) does Realme say that you can get away with doing this?
But unlike the AI gimmicks this is definitely the type of tech that is most relevant to people.
They use poly ion batteries instead of li ion on those expensive galaxies and phones which last longer. So that is why the tech is mostly on mid range phones to make u want to buy again and again that’s what I think. But the Huawei P series has 60watt fast charging with the iPhone and samsung galaxy batteries-makes me wonder and me wonder
I thought the phone battery was following developments in the electric vehicle battery, but it looks like the EV is following the phone!
This is impressive technology. I can’t just imagine charging my phone in just under 5 minutes! However, I’m sure there is need for research into the implications of this, and any possible harzards this may cause. Charging at that rate means that chemical reactions in the battery are being “forced” to take place very fast and definitely it (battery charging) being an energy releasing process or should I say is a not so efficient process such that a considerable amount of energy is lost as heat energy per unit time. The phone might experience a sudden increase in temperature during charging, this may result in one of two things of many other possibilities in fact. I will list just a few: 1. Increase in volume (kufuta), 2. Decrease in charging efficiency 3. Short circuits. 4. Melting of its internal components, particularly ICs that are within the phone electronics. 5 Or even the high EM involved in the transformer you mentioned may result in some perturbations in signals during the charging period.
How much does this charging pack cost
This is the game changing tech that I’m interested in,truly game changing to charge a phone to full in 5 minutes, I’m enjoying 18W currently,I can only Imagine How even 45W can perform