Technology

Redmi One-Ups Realme With Ludicrous 300W Fast Charging Tech

The Realme GT3 being charged at 240W. Realme
By Rahul Srinivas/

For several years, BBK Electronics, the Chinese conglomerate behind OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme, has been involved in a fast-charging speed war with archrival Xiaomi. While these two companies have been going up against each other for several years, the fast-charging wars took off in 2018 after Xiaomi announced the Mi 8 with 18W fast charging. BBK responded quickly and came up with the OPPO Find X Lamborghini Edition, which supported 50W fast charging.

While BBK-owned brands had the upper hand over Xiaomi in charging speeds, Xiaomi caught BBK unaware when it announced the Mi 10 Ultra in 2020 with support for 120W fast charging. It took BBK over two years to catch up and overtake Xiaomi's feat when it launched the OnePlus Ace in April 2022 with 150W fast charging. A few months later, in October 2022, Xiaomi took the crown back from BBK with the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition which featured 210W fast charging. Unsurprisingly, Redmi's record only lasted a few months when Realme launched the Realme GT Neo 5 — a few weeks ago — in February 2023 with 240W fast charging.

While the Realme GT Neo 5 was a China-only device, on the eve of MWC 2023, the company confirmed the international availability of the phone under a new name — the Realme GT3. As of February 2023, the Realme GT Neo 5/ GT3 is the world's fastest-charging smartphone. Not wanting to be left behind, on the same day Realme announced the GT3, Redmi showcased a phone being charged at a ludicrous 300W.

A fully charged smartphone in less than 5 minutes!

Xiaomi demoing 300W charging speeds. Xiaomi

When Realme announced the GT Neo 5, the company revealed that the 4,600 mAh battery powering the phone could be charged in nine minutes. While this is similar to what the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition achieved a few months ago, the Redmi used a smaller 4300 mAh battery. Today, however, Redmi outdid itself and demoed a modified version of the same smartphone being charged at an insane 300W.

Redmi shared details of the company's 300W fast charging tech via a Weibo post and revealed that the phone gobbled up 290W of peak power during some phases of the charging process. In fact, the phone took just less than two minutes (82 seconds) to get from 0% to 50% charge. The modified 4100 mAh battery on the smartphone was fully charged in less than five minutes, taking 4 minutes and 54 seconds, to be precise. Redmi also confirmed that the specially modified GaN charger had an average power draw of 280W during the entire process. To prevent the phone and the charger from being fried during the process, Redmi claims to have equipped them both with over 50 safety protections — including using carbon parts instead of graphite for electrodes and a new "sandwich" design for the battery that helps in better, faster heat dissipation.

Given that the timing of Xiaomi's announcement coincided with the Realme GT3's global launch, it is clear that the company planned to take the thunder away from Realme. However, Realme has still won the war, given that Redmi's 300W charging tech has yet to make it to a commercially available smartphone.

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