Weekly poll: how fast should fast charging be?

In a very rapid succession phones crossed the 100W charging barrier, went up to 210W late last year and at least one maker is already promosing 240W on an upcoming phone. These numbers are quite amazing – or maybe quite insane?

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

Smartphones are quickly setting and breaking new charge speed records

The battery capacity is an important consideration here. As we explored last year, phones with fast charging come with smaller batteries – e.g. a phone with 120W charging usually has a battery 10% smaller than a very similar phone with around 65W charging.

So, keeping that in mind, how fast do you want your next phone to go from zero to 100%? We will divide the options by time instead of by wattage as not all phones with the same power rating charge at the same speed. And there are the aforementioned variations in battery capacity too.

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

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

The magnets align the phone’s charging coil with that of the charger. This means that you can toss the phone to charge with your eyes closed – something that you might do if you picked it up to check a notification in the middle of the night. The more precise alignment also increases efficiency (and reduces waste heat). The first devices with Qi2 support are set to launch later this year.

Do you want wireless charging on your next phone? And if yes, how fast should it be? Vote below or using this page.