While we were focusing on the OnePlus 10 Pro's global launch announcement, OnePlus brought us another exciting nugget of news: that in Q2 this year it will be launching a phone with 150W charging.
According to the reveal at MWC 2022, this unnamed device will be able to fill its 4,500 mAh battery to 50% after just five minutes plugged in. Needless to say, that's faster than any phone we've tested on our fastest charging phones list. Importantly, OnePlus says this device will keep up to 80% of its battery capacity even after 1,600 charging cycles, meaning that this high wattage shouldn't come at the expense of battery life as you use the phone over long periods of time.
For context, the OnePlus 9 Pro, with its 65W charging, filled to 61% in 15 minutes during our testing. The 80W charging for the OnePlus 10 Pro hasn't had charging times officially announced yet, but we still don't expect it to come anywhere close to the 50%-in-5-second speed promised by OnePlus for this upcoming device.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, top of our best Android phones list, has 45W charging, which promises to get the phone to 50% in 20 minutes. We got to 46% in our Galaxy S22 Ultra charging test.
The fastest charging phone I've ever tried, the Xiaomi 11T Pro, got to 50% in 10 and a half minutes, which astonished me at the time. But OnePlus is claiming to be twice as fast as that!
However, one thing that's stolen OnePlus' thunder is stablemate Realme, which also announced a 150W charging phone coming soon. It's likely the exact same charging system, too, since Realme also claims its GT NEO 3 will charge to 50% in 5 minutes and both companies are part of BBK, the electronics brand that owns them along with Oppo, Vivo and others.
Although Realme beat OnePlus to the punch in announcing its 150W charging system, and we actually know the name of the Realme phone that will use it, this unnamed OnePlus device is still the more exciting of the two. For one, Realme doesn't sell its phones in the U.S. yet, while OnePlus does. Also OnePlus' device (perhaps the OnePlus 10 Ultra we've heard rumors of) will likely be a premium device, and could steal away Samsung or even Apple phone users who are tired of these companies' adherence to sluggish charging speeds.
But as fast as 150W charging is, Oppo decided to reveal its even faster 240W charging speed at MWC. It's not production-ready, but it can charge a 4,500 mAh battery in only 9 minutes.
