New Tech Charges 4,000mAh Phone Battery In Just 13 Minutes

I thought the Huawei Mate X’s 55-watt fast charging tech was crazy for loading up a battery from 0 to 85% in just 30 minutes, but a new 120W tech introduced yesterday at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2019 is absolutely insane, fully charging a 4,000mAh battery in just 13 minutes.

The technology is called Super FlashCharge 120W, and it’s made by Chinese phone manufacturer Vivo — known for pushing the technology envelope with phones like Nex, Nex 2, or its latest Apex prototype. Vivo uses a customized Type-C data cable and 120W travel charger (20V/6A). The tech only takes five minutes to charge the same battery up to 50%.

Vivo’s fast charging beats Xiaomi’s 100W charging technology, which claims can fully charge a battery of the same capacity in 17 minutes. However, both technologies have not been implemented yet in any commercial product. Recently, scientists discovered the reasons why batteries die faster the faster they charge, so perhaps both companies are trying to figure out the long-term effects of such technologies. 

The fastest shipping charging tech is Oppo’s 50W SuperVOOC. Huawei planned to introduce a 55W charging with the foldable Mate X this summer, but that phone has been delayed. For comparison, Apple’s USB-PD 29W fast charging can loads the iPhone XS’ ridiculously tiny 2,658 mAh battery from 0 to 50 percent in 30 minutes.

At this time there are no technical details about how Xiaomi or Vivo plan to compensate for the long-term deterioration of fast-charging batteries’ molecular structure. There is also no figures published about how long these batteries will last without significantly reducing their capacity. But we do look forward to seeing this tech show up in phones so we can test it out.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/vivo-120w-fast-charge-super-flash,news-30461.html