While we were cooing at the news of a 150W-charging OnePlus phone, Oppo has been showing off what it claims is the world's fastest phone charging system at MWC 2022.
As you can see in the video below, Oppo has created a 240W charger that can power up a compatible 4,500 mAh phone to 100% in 9 minutes. It's not ready for commercial use yet, but the fact it exists at all is pretty wild.
The issue with offering faster and faster charging speeds is that they have a negative impact on the health of the battery being charged, particularly when you consider the daily charging cycles that most phones go through.
This doesn't seem to be a problem for the slower 150W standard that Oppo worked on, and that we'll see used in OnePlus and Realme phones later this year. This charging system, in addition to being capable of a 50% charge in five minutes, apparently keeps the battery in good condition too, with up to 80% of the original capacity sticking around after 1,600 charging cycles. That's equivalent to charging the phone once a day for over four years, and is double what the normal two-year standard for battery health on smartphones is considered to be.
Fast charging is just one of the reasons it's a shame that Oppo phones have yet to reach the U.S.. The company's most recent flagship, the Oppo Find X5 Pro, rivals the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra for specs while boasting Hasselblad-tuned cameras and 80W charging. It's shaping up to be one of the best Android phones of the year, but only for U.K. and other non-American markets.
It's probably going to be at least a year or two before we see 240W charging on a phone you can actually buy. However today, big phone makers like Apple and Samsung are sticking with much slower charging speeds (20W and 45W specifically for their latest phones), even while 80W and higher charging standards are becoming more common. Unless future iPhones and Galaxys up their charging speeds soon, companies like Oppo are going to leave them even further and further behind.
