Xiaomi appears to be making some real progress in the smartphone fast charging area, and might soon release handsets equipped with batteries capable of 100W fast charging. In a recent post on the Chinese social network Weibo, Xiaomi co-founder Lin Bin shared a video demonstrating the technology which is supposedly called “Super Charge Turbo” according to GizmoChina.
Making OPPO’s Super VOOC look slow
The short video is a timelapse of a Xiaomi device being recharged through the Super Charge Turbo technology in just 17 minutes. The unit powered by a 4,000mAh battery is compared side-by-side with an unspecified OPPO smartphone equipped with a 3,700mAh battery and 50W fast charging. Presumably, this is the OPPO Find X featuring Super VOOC technology.
The video shows that OPPO’s device recharged 65-percent of its 3,700mAh battery by the time Xiaomi’s smartphone fully charged its 4,000mAh unit. This is a considerable improvement to what is already an impressive performance displayed by OPPO’s 50W solution, which is considered the fastest in the industry as of this writing.
For reference, the standard OPPO Find X can recharge it’s battery in under 90 minutes using Super VOOC, while the Lamborghini edition can reach 100-percent battery charge in around 35 minutes. OPPO achieved this better performance on the more expensive model by splitting the internal battery into two equally-sized packs, both of which can be simultaneously recharged at a 50W rate. It’s unclear whether Xiaomi’s 100W solution relies on a similar design or if the impressive performance was achieved on a single battery pack.
Fast and wireless charging – the way of the future?
Several years ago numerous smartphone OEMs were locked in a race to create the thinnest-possible smartphone, which was arguably a trend fueled by Apple’s marketing surrounding its iPhone series, all the while consumers were begging for larger batteries or something that would increase the autonomy of their smartphones.
Today that race has slowed down and the industry is no longer looking at the dimensions of smartphone profiles under a magnifier. Battery capacities also increased on average but it seems like OEMs have reached a limit as to how much electrical charge their smartphones can store. Swappable batteries are becoming a thing of the past with the emergence of the glass-sandwich design, and without making smartphones as bulky as they once were, OEMs appear to be looking at fast charging and wireless charging technologies as the answers to alleviating what is colloquially referred to as “low battery anxiety.”
Xiaomi’s co-founder did not reveal when the Super Charge Turbo technology might be implemented onto a consumer-grade smartphone but it’s clear that the OEM is investing in this area and aims to make 100W fast charging possible.
Last week Xiaomi teased an upcoming model in the Mi MIX series with a render published on Weibo (embedded below) and if the naming scheme will remain unchanged then the OEM is seemingly preparing for the release of the Xiaomi Mi MIX 4. This is a flagship series and it would be appropriate for a new model to debut alongside Super Charge Turbo fast charging, but nothing has been confirmed thus far, and it’s possible that Super Charge Turbo is not yet ready for primetime.