Redmi’s new 300w fast charger
Back in the day, you’d plug your phone to charge and it would take anywhere from 1-2 hours for a full charge. As time went on, companies such as Samsung introduced Fast Charging and other smartphone manufacturers followed suit, doing their own take on who can make the faster charger. Words like Super Fast Charging, Warp charging, VOOC charging, and Turbo Charging were, and continue to be all the rage.
As the battery capacities of phones tend to grow, the amount of power needed to charge these devices has also seen a steady increase. It’s not uncommon to see a phone with a 5,000mAh battery get shipped with a 67W fast charger or even a 100 or 120W charger. The latter can charge a phone from 0-100% in a little under 30 minutes and can sometimes even be powerful enough to charge your laptop if it supports charging over USB Type-C.
There are a few caveats though. For example, charging a phone’s battery at these high wattages will invariably lead to the battery heating up and even the charger heating up. Repetitively topping up the battery can also lead to battery degradation over time, so the recommended solution is to charge your phone to around 85-90% and then plug it in when your phone says the battery is low. I personally charge my phone to 100% and then plug it in only when the battery reaches 5%, which has provided me with positive results.
But what if fast charging was to get really really fast? Well, that’s not too far away. Redmi, a phone manufacturer owned by Xiaomi, showed off their next generation of fast-charging technology, boasting a whopping 300W of charging power. Yes, that’s 300W of power going into your phone. According to Redmi, a 300W charger can power up a phone in a little under 5 minutes.
Using a customized version of their Note 12 Discovery edition, the company used the new 300W charger to fully top up the 4,100mAh battery (usually a 4,300mAh) and set a timer. The results? Most impressive indeed. The double GaN (Gallium Nitride) adapter brought the phone to 50% battery in a little over 2 minutes and did a 100% charge in just 5 minutes. Redmi also modified the battery materials, charging structure, and apparently used over “50 safety protection items” in the charger to achieve said charging power. It’s not technically a full 300W, but rather only around 290W, but hey, that’s still pretty impressive, beating the company’s previous record of a 9 minute full charge at 210W.
That’s not all though. Redmi’s new charging technology (which is yet to be named) also leaps ahead of the competition, namely Realme, who showed off their fast-charging technology where they fully charged a Realme GT Neo 5 in just under 10 minutes. Companies like OnePlus too have taken strides at making ultra fast chargers the norm. OnePlus’ latest OnePlus 11 Pro packs a 100W wired charger capable of 50% charge in 10 mins and a full charge in just 25 mins.
Gallium Nitride chargers are known for their efficiency and heat dissipation when compared to regular chargers, so it’s not surprising that Redmi was able to develop a 300W charger. But charging at such speeds can also raise as many issues as it helps solve. Yes you can charge your phone in
just 5 minutes, or maybe
6-7 minutes if it’s a 5000-6000mAh battery. This means that you can put your phone to charge and literally by the time you make a cup of tea, your phone is almost done charging. But this can also have a detrimental effect on your phone’s battery. Battery degradation can occur if the battery is not properly insulated or protected when charging at such high speeds, which can become dangerous. Gallium Nitride chargers are also not cheap, so if you misplace or break it, replacing it could also burn a hole in your wallet.
It’s interesting to see if Redmi will implement this new charging technology to their future smartphones and how expensive these smartphones will be. On the plus side, a 300, well 290W charger should be able to charge most, if not all your USB Type C devices, so at the very least, you’ll have one charger to rule them all.