Chinese phone maker Oppo just unveiled a new 125 watt fast charging system that the company says can fully charge a 4,000 mAh battery in 20 minutes, or give you a 41-percent charge by plugging in for just 5 minutes.
And that’s just one of four new fast charging announcements from Oppo.
The company also introduced a 110W mini flash charger that’s almost as speedy, but which takes up a bit less space, a 50W mini SuperVOOC charger that measures just 3.2″ x 1.5″ x 0.4″ and weighs less than three ounces, and a 65W AirVOOC fast wireless charger.
The new top-of-the-line 125W charging system includes three parallel charge pumps, two 6C battery cells, and fuse overvoltage protection technology that should hopefully keep your device from burning up while charging.
Oppo’s smaller chargers are slower, but still pretty speedy. And the wireless charging stand can take a 4,000 mAh battery from 0 to 100-percent in about 30 minutes. It’s also compatible with the Qi wireless charging standard if you want to use it with a phone that doesn’t support Oppo’s 65W fast wireless charging.
It’s unclear when the first Oppo phones to use the new technologies will be available. But what is clear is that fast charging is one of the technologies companies are using to set their phones apart at the moment.
Just a few days ago, iQOO unveiled its own 120W fast charging system. That’s probably not a big surprise though, since both iQOO and Oppo share a parent company (BBK). But in recent years Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo (another BBK subsidiary), and other companies have used speedy charging as a way to help set their devices apart.
I guess it’s hard to stuff phones with bigger screens, better cameras, or more RAM than the competition these days, and the war on bezels is practically over too. So fast charging it is, I guess.
Where the 99W Super-Fast Charging was impressive… dunno but the 110W and 125W makes it feel dangerous. We don’t want another Note7 situation. And if it leads to quicker degradation of the lithium batteries, well that sucks for consumers, but probably means more money to the OEM in terms of parts, service, or quicker return sales (ahem Planned Obsolescence).
What’s most interesting is that 65W WIRELESS charger.
I wonder how likely it can hit and sustain those speeds. Like does all the stars have to align perfectly, or is it quite a simple thing. And if the latter, than the follow-up question is… is it safe to humans and pets? And what about the phone? If all four of those things are great, the last barrier is: can this be mass-scale manufactured at stupidly low cost?
-If YES, then we can actually end Battery Life Anxiety.
Just have these fast-charging wireless pads everywhere; like your home, your car, your office, and all around public in all restaurants, libraries, airports, bus stops, etc etc. We wouldn’t have to keep increasing battery capacities by several folds, or make crazy-tech like Graphene or Solid-State Batteries. The modest Lithium Ion with it’s 3,000 – 9,000 mAh capacity will be enough for the next decade. And it would make the bitter taste of losing the User Removable Battery much easier to deal with (since PowerBanks aren’t a feasible solution, and there will always be scarcity of power-ports or chargers around in public).