A Xiaomi phone was fully recharged in under 5 minutes with 300W charging
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If you hate having to wait for your phone to charge, Xiaomi might be the brand for you. In a recently released demo, the Chinese phone maker showed off one of its phones going from zero to full charge in less than five minutes.
At MWC 2023 – the major mobile technology fair in Barcelona – we were introduced to a whole range of new phone gadgets. OnePlus has shown off a mobile liquid cooling system, Motorola and Bullit are bringing satellite phone capabilities to (almost) every smartphone, and now Xiaomi has demonstrated the amazing capabilities of 300W charging.
In a new video, Xiaomi has reclaimed its crown for having the fastest phone charging technology by showing a modified Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus being fully charged in barely any time from a new 300W charger. It reached 25% in one minute and 15 seconds, 50% in two minutes and 12 seconds, and 100% in four minutes and 54 seconds.
Now, as you may have noticed, there are a few caveats to this achievement. The tweaks to the phone include the fact that the maximum battery capacity is smaller than usual – reduced to 4,100mAh from the usual 5,000mAh capacity. So it might charge faster, but it won’t last as long. What’s more, if the device doesn’t have proper heat control, charging at 300W can damage the battery, further affecting its maximum capacity.
Another thing to note is that the charger’s power source was able to deliver 280-290W fairly consistently for 90% of the charging process. Most sockets should cover this, but if you’re traveling on public transport, using a battery pack or relying on a source that doesn’t meet this rate, you may not be able to charge your mobile as fast.
Finally, not only is the custom phone not for sale, but there is currently no word on whether Xiaomi’s 300W charger will be available to the public anytime soon. So while it could theoretically give you blazing fast charging speeds, in reality you might be stuck with just 120W (which, frankly, isn’t too shabby).
That said, now that Xiaomi has proven this charging is possible, it probably won’t be too long before we see 300W charging become available in smartphones that we can actually buy. We’ll just have to wait and see; but it looks like the days of waiting a long time for our phones to charge are almost over.