Weekly poll: How fast should fast charging be?

In very rapid succession, the phones broke the 100W charging barrier, surged to 210W late last year, and at least one manufacturer is already touting 240W on an upcoming phone. Are these numbers quite astonishing – or maybe quite insane?

The 210W phone we talked about is the Redmi Note 12 Discovery. It has a relatively small 4,300mAh battery, but it only takes 9 minutes to fully charge. And if you only have 5 minutes to spare, the battery can go from empty to 66% charged in that time.

Smartphones are quickly setting and breaking new charging speed records

Battery capacity is a major consideration here. As we explored last year, phones with fast charging have smaller batteries – for example, a phone with a 120W charge usually has a 10% smaller battery than a very similar phone with a 120W charge. about 65W.

So with that in mind, how fast do you want your next phone to go from zero to 100%? We’ll be dividing the options by time instead of wattage since not all phones with the same wattage charge at the same rate. And there are also the aforementioned variations in battery capacity.

So how fast is fast enough? 15 minutes or less? 30? A long nightly charge? Vote below or using this page. Please note that we are only asking about wired charging here.

Alright, time to go wireless. We know some see this as an inefficient method that heats up the phone unnecessarily, but others appreciate the convenience. Things should improve with Qi2, which will take inspiration from Apple’s MagSafe (whether it’s backwards compatible with it remains to be seen).

Magnets align the phone’s charging coil with that of the charger. That means you can toss the phone to charge with your eyes closed, which you might do if you picked it up to check a notification in the middle of the night. More precise alignment also increases efficiency (and reduces waste heat). The first devices with Qi2 support will be launched later this year.

Want wireless charging on your next phone? And if so, how fast should it be? Vote below or using this page.