We have a new contender for the fastest charging smartphone technology.
Chinese electronics company Realme dropped a new battery charger that can fully charge a smartphone in less than five minutes, completely changing the game when it comes to charging speeds.
The technology, known as “320W SuperSonic Charge” was developed by Chinese consumer electronics company Realme, and becomes the world’s-fastest, eclipsing the previous mark of four minutes, 55 seconds to full charge that Redmi, a Xiaomi subsidiary, boasted.
The 320W SuperSonic Charge can power up a smartphone’s battery to 26% in 1 minute, to 50% in less than 1 minutes, and can fully charge in just 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
So how does it work?
While most chargers rely on a single-cell approach, Realme is attacking multiple cells at the same time, allowing for much faster charging speeds.
They also throw a ton of wattage at the problem; the average smartphone charger tops out around 20 watts (with many maxing at 5) while so-called “fast chargers” hit 30 watts at best.
You can often find after-market chargers that will run between 60-100 watts, so the 320 offered by Realme more than triples the current options.
Which brings up another issue: it won’t work with just any smartphone.
In fact, for the demonstration, the manufacturer used a specially built 4,420 mAh battery with four separate cells instead of the usual single-cell that was placed inside a smartphone to be able to show the full capabilities of the device.
So what’s more likely to happen first? Super-duper fast chargers hitting the market or multi-cell smartphones?
Since multi-cell batteries tend to have lower capacities, it seems the answer might be the former, but more testing will need to be done to determine if charging at that wattage is even safe for the average smartphone.
Now we know the technology is possible, it’s just a matter of making it useable for consumers.
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.