For as long as smartphones have been around, each new release has tried to improve one thing every time: battery life. But what if making your phone last longer didn’t matter any more. Most of the best smartphones can easily last two days, with up to 10 hours of continuous usage. That’s long enough for most. So what if instead, your phone was made to charge faster, so an extra hour of battery life didn’t matter? That’s exactly what Realme is trying to do with its new 320W fast charging tech.
During a live demo in Shenzhen, China, Realme fully charged a smartphone with a 4,420mAh battery in just four and a half minutes. This blistering charging speed is no magic trick, but rather the result of two key innovations Realme’s cooked up.
First, the brand turbocharged its previous 240W charger to a whopping 320W without increasing its size. They’ve even gone so far as to name it the “Pocket Cannon.” This beast not only cranks out 320W, but also comes with two USB-C ports. One can deliver 150W to your smartphone, and the other can spit out 65W to power up your laptop.
The second bit of wizardry is a new 4,420mAh battery with four individual cells, all charging at the same time. This clever design squeezes into a smartphone without any extra bulk. For comparison, Apple and Samsung still use single-cell batteries, which offer more capacity but can’t quite compete in speed.
Realme is no stranger to breaking records. Last year, the brand rolled out the GT Neo 5, which could charge a 4,600mAh battery in a nine and a half minutes using 240W tech. That title of “fastest-charging smartphone” didn’t last long, though, as Redmi quickly followed with its 300W tech, capable of juicing up a 4,100mAh battery in just about five minutes. Now, Realme is back on top.
But before you start scouring the web for the next Realme phone to hit the market with this lightning-fast charging tech, there’s a catch. Realme didn’t reveal which smartphone was used in the demo or when – or even if – we’ll see this tech launch in a device. We suspect it’s coming soon, but you may have to wait a little while.