Realme’s new Android phone charges to 100% faster than you can finish a coffee
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How fast should you charge your phone? Because Realme thinks – no matter how fast your current device is – it’s not fast enough. That’s based on the international launch of its new flagship, the Realme GT 3, which boasts an impressive 240W fast charging.
The company used Mobile World Congress 2023 as the stage for the launch of the Realme GT 3, which comes one year after the global release of the Realme GT Neo 3 – one of the first smartphones with 150W fast charging.
While Realme bills the GT 3 as its new flagship phone, in reality it’s essentially a rebadged Realme GT Neo 5: a premium mid-ranger that’s made are debut in China just a few weeks earlier, on February 9.
This is the first time we’ve seen a Neo-branded device emerge as a full-fledged GT flagship class phone in its transition to global markets and perhaps more interestingly, Realme has chosen to keep fire at the launch of a Realme GT 3 Pro model , like last year with the Realme GT 2 and GT 2 Pro.
Using a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip instead of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is common when it comes to the company’s non-Pro models. However, it’s still built to deliver a responsive experience through a 144Hz display, up to 16GB of RAM and, of course, next-generation fast charging.
It’s worth noting that while the Realme GT Neo 5 / Realme GT 3 now supports “the maximum charging power for mass-produced Type-C smartphones”, to quote Realme during the launch of the GT 3 just hours earlier, rivaling Xiaomi footage of a modified Xiaomi smartphone charging its 4,100 mAh battery to 100% in less than five minutes using a dedicated 300 W charger.
It’s the fact that Realme’s phone will actually go on sale soon that really cements its position as the current leader in fast-charging phones, and the stats the company dropped during its launch certainly suggest that those with battery anxiety you might find the GT 3 particularly attractive.
According to Realme, the phone’s 4,600mAh cell can charge to 100% in 9.5 minutes, but it’s perhaps the even shorter samples that really impress. The phone can be topped up from empty to over 20% in just 80 seconds (actually hitting 23% in the live demo we were treated to at launch), while just 30 seconds of charge should result in up to two hours of use.
Doesn’t such fast charging destroy the battery over time?
Of course, 240W SuperVOOC fast charging is nothing if the battery can only hold half of its charge after a year of use and Realme has thought of that too, promising a resiliency of 1,600 cycles (compared to what Realme says is a typical industry standard of 800) before the battery holds only 80% of its charge compared to new.
An integrated AI charging system also changes the phone’s charging behavior based on the usage situation. If the GT 3 detects that you are at the airport, it will give you the full 100% as soon as possible. However, if you are sleeping or driving it will cut off the power to keep the phone at about 80% charged until just before you wake up or arrive at your destination, then it will open the ports again to hit 100% while minimizing battery wear .
Assuming these ridiculous speeds are accurate (and we’ll be putting them to the test in a full Realme GT 3 review soon), you might want to know when and where to pick one up. We don’t have availability yet, but it should be making its way to European markets very soon, with a somewhat confusing starting price of $649 (confusing as there’s no US release planned), which works out to £540 or AU$960.
Even with no concrete plans to bring this ultra-fast charging to the US, the SuperVOOC technology is the same as found in Oppo and OnePlus phones. The latter mostly uses its small but growing footprint in the US to showcase leading design and technology.
In the meantime, check out our roundup of the best Android phones and our hands-on Xiaomi 13 Pro review: one of the other big mobile launches that just happened in Barcelona.