If you hate having to wait for your phone to charge up, Xiaomi might be the brand for you. In a newly released demo, the Chinese phone maker has shown one of its phones being juiced from zero to full charge in under five minutes.
At MWC 2023 – the big mobile tech expo happening in Barcelona – we’ve been introduced to a slew 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 awesome capabilities of 300W charging.
In a new video, Xiamoi has reclaimed its crown of having the fastest phone charging tech by showing a modified Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus being fully charged in barely any time at all via 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 54 seconds.
Now, as you might have picked up on, there are a few caveats to this feat. The modifications to the phone include the fact that its maximum battery capacity is smaller than it would be normally – reduced to 4,100mAh from the usual 5,000mAh capacity. So it may charge up faster, but it won’t last as long. What’s more, if the device doesn’t have proper heat control, 300W charging could cause damage to the battery, further impacting its maximum capacity.
Another thing to note is that the charger’s power source was able to output 280-290W fairly consistently throughout 90% of the charging process. Most mains sockets should have this covered, though if you’re on public transport, using a battery pack, or relying on a source that can’t achieve this rate then you might not be able to recharge your mobile quite as quickly.
Lastly, not only is the modified phone not on sale but currently, there’s no word on if Xiaomi’s 300W charger will be available to the public any time soon. So while it can theoretically offer you lightning-fast charging speeds, in reality, you may be stuck with just 120W (which isn't too shabby in fairness).
That said, with Xiaomi having now proved that this feat of charging is possible, it likely won’t be too long before we see 300W charging become available in smartphones we can actually buy. We’ll just have to wait and see; but from the looks of things, the days of waiting for ages for our phones to recharge are almost over.
