Fast charging – How fast is too fast & do you need it?

So it looks like OnePlus is definitely pushing its upcoming 65W fast charging on the 8T as its major USP. So I really wanted to pull your focus on the fact that for who is it really necessary and what’s going on in the fast charging market.

I mean I have seen a lot of comments from people recently looking to buy either the OnePlus 8 and even 7 series immediately and not wait for 8T especially when now most of us know that its main advantage is the 65W fast charging.

OnePlus is using 30W warp charging for a long time and when Oppo introduced the 65W fast charging with the Oppo X2 Pro, it kinda cleared the speculations that yes the next phones from OnePlus will also be coming with the same 65W charging as rebranded wrap charging of course.

So let us first assess the fast-charging market and then let’s contemplate for whom this super-fast charging is really for. I made sure to only assess the phones which come with these fast chargers, as really, I have rarely seen someone buy a better charger after buying a phone. 

I am not assessing the cost factor here of these phones at all mostly because that is not the point here. But I might just mention it here and there as companies are using the fast charging factor as their main marketing material anyway.

Charging the battery to complete 100% depletes the battery life drastically so I made sure to assess the scenario until the 90% mark here.

And as you can see the Mi 10 ultra is crazily fast. It has 2 separate batteries inside of it instead of 1 so that the depletion of the battery life and longevity can be moderated as that 120W is a frigging too fast charging speed for a phone and especially for the health of its battery.

And as others follow the cheaper Realme 7 pro just takes 9 mins more to charge the same amount of battery by using a 65W charger instead of 120W which the Mi used. As both of these phones come with 4500 mAh batteries and 90% of 4500 is 4050. So clearly, twice the charging wattage from the power brick doesn’t mean twice the charging speeds. 

The oppo X2 pro will take 3 mins more to charge a capacity which is about 170 mAh less than the way cheaper realme 7 pro and as we see the Oppo Reno 4 take 1 more minute than to X2 Pro to charge about 200 mAh less on it with the same 65W charging. So these phones are really optimized quite differently so that they don’t blow up on your face with that insane amount of fast charging.

And you can probably see what the oneplus 8 pro and the s20 ultra are doing with respect to fast charging speeds. The 8 Pro takes 15 mins more to charge than the X2 Pro with half wattage provided by its power brick. And the iPhone 11 pro max dropping dead last in the comparison but I think Apple knows how much charging speed is enough for their phones and also not deplete a battery’s life if you plan to use your iPhone over several years like how most the users prefer. 

So now that we have looked at these comparisons and as we now understand that twice the charging wattage doesn’t actually mean twice the charging speeds, I hope this will help you decide better on which phone to invest in especially if you are someone who desperately wants to own the fastest charging phone right now. 

But to always achieve those speeds you have to make sure to always carry the supplied charging brick and the cable with your phone. I mean, with laptops people do, so an extra charger can’t really hurt you right?

But if you do this in practice and really love charging your phone until 100% with these insane speeds then, first of all, you will be drastically depleting the life of your phone’s battery which will suck in a couple of years, in case you plan to use your phone for long. But really, the proposition of this is even more absurd knowing that just to get that 30 odd mins of charging you actually carried your charger with you all throughout the day just for that extra bump in charging speeds. I mean, I hope it was worth it. 

And if you own a phone which actually needs charging before your day ends, then my friend – you bought a bad phone in the first place. 

So now coming on to the question of who really needs it?

Well, gamers. Gamers who game a lot on their phone and can’t really wait for an hour before their next gaming battle I suppose. I mean the asus rog 3 did introduce putting the cable right at the centre whilst you game but if you want to enjoy the sheer portability then you’d hate that cable anyway. 

The other case is people who travel or tour a lot on their motorbikes or those couple of days trip on bicycles and when you take your lunch break or short coffee breaks at a highway diner, a fast charge top-up on your phone can really help you push your phone for more hours and even help you conserve that extra power bank you are carrying for ultra emergencies. I mean you can definitely hook up an insanely slow charging adapter on your motorbike and even in a car, but it will be really reassuring that you know that in your next 30 odd mins break you can really charge your phone that fast which can give you at least 3 hours or more of navigation usage. And because you won’t be traveling 365 days a year, even if you fast charge your phone to 100% with these insanely fast chargers on your trips, you won’t be depleting your overall battery life much as compared to someone who is charging them till 100% on a daily basis.

That’s all for today. Take care humans. MuBot out.