The new record fast charging technology can charge your smartphone battery faster than you can write an email.
Phone charger: Archive
Scientists have unveiled the world’s fastest smartphone battery charging technology, which can fully charge a smartphone in less than 5 minutes.
The 320-watt fast charging technology, called
“320W SuperSonic Charge”was developed by Chinese consumer electronics company Realme and beats previous chargers. Smartphone maker Redmi, a subsidiary of Xiaomi, previously showcased 300W technology to charge a device in 4 minutes and 55 seconds in February 2023, but no manufacturer has since been able to beat that – until now , writes livescience.com.
Realme representatives demonstrated the new technology at the Realme 828 Fanfest event in Shenzhen, China on August 14.
The record-breaking fast charging capability can charge a smartphone battery to 26% in 1 minute and 50% in less than 2 minutes. It takes 4 minutes and 30 seconds to fully charge a smartphone, according to GSMArena.
Unlike conventional charging, where energy is transferred to a single battery cell or to several cells in sequence, fast charging technology simultaneously charges several cells of a single battery.
In the demonstration, Realme representatives quickly loaded a folded battery design with a capacity of 4,420 milliamp hours, which stacked four cells on top of each other. This design offers 10 percent more capacity than conventional models, company representatives said.
The scientists miniaturized each battery cell into layered structures to pack more charging capacity into a smaller space, before folding four battery cells to mimic the shape of satellite panels, according to a promotional video posted on the platform social X.
The company also created a power adapter known as the “Pocket Cannon”, which has a power density of 3.3 watts per cubic centimeter. Other devices, including iPhones with a USB-C port, will receive power from the adapter, but not at the same rate.
By comparison, a 240W charger the same company unveiled last year was enabled with an adapter with a power density of 2.34 watts per cubic centimeter. This previous technology could charge the Realme GT Neo 5 smartphone in less than 10 minutes.
The new adapter can be used with many fast charging standards, company representatives said, including UFCS, PD and SuperVOOC, and has two USB-C ports so users can charge two devices at the same time. Maximum charging rates are up to 150W for Realme smartphones and 65W for compatible laptops.
Realme representatives also revealed the voltage transformer “AirGap”, which provides isolation of high voltages from smartphone batteries during any electrical failures such as circuit breakers. This is to prevent damage to the smartphone.
The transformer is based on something called “non-contact electromagnetic conversion“. The small transformer steps down to 20 volts to protect battery life and helps the fast charger maintain 93% energy efficiency while charging.
