In the last period we have often heard of "fast charging". It is a term that has now been used to the extreme, so much so as to be associated with even 18W chargers, which usually manages to carry the smartphone from 0 to 100% in about an hour and a half (it reaches 50% in about half an hour). Certainly fast charging times compared to the standards of a few years ago, but clearly the future looks far beyond this result. Let's go and take stock of the situation.
The current situation
Already the present is able to offer us much better solutions than the one mentioned at the beginning: think that OPPO Reno Ace, device on sale in China from 17 October 2019, supports technology 65W SuperVOOC Flash Charge, able to fully charge the smartphone in just half an hour. Staying on the Italian market, the devices to consider are Realme X2 Pro and Galaxy Note 10+. In fact, the first supports a 50W fast charge able to bring the smartphone from 0 to 100% in about 35 minutes, while the second reaches 45W (even if the charger in the package in the latter case reaches 25W). All the devices mentioned mount a 4000 mAh battery, except Galaxy Note 10+ which has a 4300 mAh battery. We are not talking about utopia, but real results already available on the market (as you can see in the video below).
In short, already at the end of 2019 it is possible to buy a smartphone like Realme X2 Pro, capable of fully recharge in just over half an hour. There is little to say: the era of devices that charge really quickly has begun. If there are still few on the market to support these technologies, surely in 2020 we will see some beautiful ones from this point of view.
Xiaomi's 100W and other technologies
About the technologies coming in the next year, there are already some rather interesting solutions announced by the various manufacturers. One above all Xiaomi's 100W charging system, which has also been implemented on some working prototypes (as seen from the video you find above). Do you think this technology is capable of performing a full charge in just 17 minutes, a monstrous result if we think of the hour and a half required by the 18W chargers mentioned at the beginning. According to many Xiaomi will launch the first smartphones compatible with 100W charging during 2020.
An even more advanced solution is that presented by the Chinese company Vivo. We are talking about a 120W charging system, able to pass the smartphone from 0 to 100% in 13 minutes. The results mentioned always concern a device with a 4000 mAh battery. According to several international sources, it will still take a year or two before seeing this technology on a consumer level, but understand that we are seriously approaching "breaking the wall" of the 10 minutes, a result that would be sensational.
Meanwhile, it appears that Google is "forcing" manufacturers to adopt the USB-PD (Power Delivery) standard, based on USB Type-C. This means that in 2020 we will probably see more and more Android devices with support for fast charging. What will be the future of these technologies? A possible clue may have been given to us by a researcher from Alumni University in Beijing (China), who recently managed to charge several smartphones, including a Huawei P30, from 0 to 80% in just one minute. This using a technology that can exploit carbon and nitrogen. We are therefore not talking about a solution applicable for the moment in the consumer field, but it seems clear that the future can go in this direction.
Fast charging technologies are the future, although at present many people seem to be afraid of these speeds can damage the battery. On the other hand, several scientific studies indicate that fast charging systems degrade the batteries of smartphones much faster than normal ones. Clearly the manufacturers ensure that they only put tested smartphones on the market and without too many problems of this type, but it is not clear where the limit is to guarantee a good durability. We just have to see what will happen during the next 12 months.
