Xiaomi’s 300W demo fully charges a phone in five minutes | Engadget

Back in late October, we saw Xiaomi releasing its 210W mobile charging tech by way of its Redmi sub-brand, and this was eventually beaten by a 240W version from Realme — part of the Oppo and OnePlus family — in early February. Given that it’s MWC week, today Xiaomi swiftly responded with a whopping 300W demo, which brought the charging time down to a little under five minutes — almost half that of the two aforementioned achievements. Xiaomi added that this new 300W charger comes in the same size as its earlier 210W counterpart, thanks to a better modular design plus heat dissipation on the inside.

The 300W demo featured a Redmi Note 12 Pro+ modified with a 4,100mAh battery, which is a little smaller than the 4,300mAh in the 210W Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition (and the Realme has a far more generous 4,600mAh). As you can see in the video, the phone reached 20 percent in just a little over one minute, followed by the 50 percent mark in 2 minutes 12 seconds, and then 100 percent in just a little under 5 minutes. The power meter indicated a peak input of a little over 290W for the charger, and it also managed to sustain 280W and above for around two minutes at one point.

The company said the battery here pack more powerful 15C cells (as opposed to the 10C cells in the Discovery Edition), which consist of new carbon materials in place of some of the conventional graphite parts, thus reducing the electrodes’ thickness by 35 percent. Together with an improved electrolyte formula, this lithium ion battery can pack a higher power density with a faster charge and discharge rate, while apparently reducing the amount of heat produced in the process. These ultra-thin cells are then stacked with thermal materials in between as part of a new “sandwich” design, in order to optimize heat dissipation while making better use of internal space. As far as safety is concerned, Xiaomi claimed that there are over 50 features built into the system to keep tabs on the current, voltage and temperature on each charging chip.

Xiaomi’s announcement today has definitely set another milestone for the mobile industry, though the company didn’t mention whether this 300W charging tech will be mass produced. Nor did Xiaomi share figures on charging cycles, which makes for a sober reminder of how battery lifespan can be affected by higher charging power.