Xiaomi’s “100W” quick charging goes from 0 to 100 in 17 minutes

Enlarge / A 17-minute charging race puts Xiaomi at 100 percent, Oppo at 65. (credit: Xiaomi)

We all know battery density hasn't kept pace with the power demands of smartphones, but would you settle for a smartphone that just charged really, really quickly? Xiaomi is teasing a new high mark for speedy phone charging: a "100W" quick-charge solution. Xiaomi Senior Vice President Xiang Wang shared a video on Facebook of the new charging solution in action, saying that "Xiaomi's engineers have created a 100W fast-charging solution, which can fully charge a large 4000mAh battery in just 17 minutes!"

The video shows a charging race between two phones, Xiaomi's unnamed "100W" prototype and a phone with "50W" charging from "Brand O", which looks like it's an Oppo RX17 Pro. I put both of these wattage ratings in quotations because neither phone actually hits its rated charging speed. Xiaomi's video shows a live, in-line power reading, and the "100W" charging shows a sustained ~80W (18V / 4.5A) from about 5-30 percent, with a peak of 88W. The competing 50W Oppo quick-charge solution caps out at around 40W.

Branding aside, what matters is the actual charging speed, and Xiaomi's ability to fully charge a phone battery in 17 minutes is impressive. The test stops when the Xiaomi phone fills up, leaving the Oppo battery stuck at a mere 65 percent. Considering that Xiaomi was charging a 4000mAh battery and that Oppo only had a 3700mAh battery, Xiaomi's solution is about 1.6 times faster than Oppo's quick charge, which is currently the fastest charging scheme on the market.

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