Smartphone Charging Tech Explained

Technology is surely developing so fast that tech companies are motivated to come up with terminologies to describe specific features of their products. This peculiarity is more prominent with battery technologies that most, if not all, smartphone manufacturers introduce in the market.

These brand-specific charging technologies are often overtly expressed in their higher-end smartphone models although, sometimes, they do include them in some mid-range variants.

So, buckle up and prepare to be supercharged (pun intended) with knowledge as we will be looking into the world of smartphone charging technology of some of the biggest brands on the market, including Huawei, realme, Infinix, and more.

HyperCharge (Xiaomic/ Redmi)

Xiaomi‘s HyperCharge is one of the fastest ways to charge your phone, with speeds of up to 120W. It’s so fast that it can fully charge your phone in just 17 minutes! How does it do that? Well, it has dual charge pumps that adjust the voltage and amperage to the best ratio, allowing for a higher wattage intake. Plus, it uses a dual-cell battery design to double the available input.

Xiaomi also has a cool new battery technology called Multiple Tab Winding (MTW). This feature improves the flow of current into the battery by having multiple anode and cathode tabs, which creates a shorter current path, lower internal resistance, and better thermal control with a bigger current intake.

And if you’re worried about the battery slowing down as it gets to 100%, Xiaomi’s Mi-FC feature extends the time of high current and supports real-time cell current and voltage monitoring. This reduces trickle charging time.

Xiaomi 11T Pro has the HyperCharge with 34 charging and battery safety features that span the entire charging cycle, from the charger to circuit to battery. With 9 thermal sensors that monitor the temperature in real-time, charging is always safe, at least what Xiaomi says so.

Their current flagship, Xiaomi 13 Pro also implements the HyperCharge technology. While on lower tiers, they utilize the “turbo charging” with 67W charging rate at most.

SuperVOOC [ OPPO | realme | vivo | OnePlus ]

VOOC stands for Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging. It’s the underlying standard that SuperVOOC is based on. BBK Electronics, the mothership of Oppo, also operates OnePlus, realme, vivo, and Iqoo, thus even if they used unique branding in the past like OnePlus’ Warp Charge and realme’s Dart Charge, these standards are based on the same fundamentals of SuperVOOC.

OPPO’s SuperVOOC technology also uses a split battery system, doubling output power in the process. OnePlus and OPPO smartphones have already gone up the 100W and even 200W barrier. The latest OnePlus 11, for instance, ships with a 100W adapter that can fully charge up the phone within half an hour.

OPPO showcased their latest SuperVOOC charging technology in 2022, which can charge a 4,500mAh battery to 100% in just nine minutes, and up to 50% in just three and a half minutes. This charging technology will be featured soon in realme’s next flagship, the Realme GT Neo 5.

SuperCharge [Huawei | Honor]

Huawei and Honor have both utilized the SuperCharge charging technology, usually in their high-end models.

In the case of Honor 70 5G, the brand said it takes 20 minutes to charge the device at 60%. Huawei does mention that the device demands the original charger to achieve the 66W speeds.

Huawei and Honor have both utilized the SuperCharge charging technology with their high-end models.

In the case of Honor 70 5G, the brand said it takes only 20 minutes to charge the device up to 60%. Huawei does mention that the device demands the original charger to achieve the 66W speeds, emphasizing the importance of using the correct charger for optimal charging performance.

The SuperCharge technology is not only convenient but also safer to use. It has various safety features, such as overvoltage protection, overcurrent protection, and short circuit protection, ensuring that your device is protected while charging.

Flash Charge and Thunder Charge [Tecno | Infinix]

Tecno and Infinix are under the same umbrella of Transsion—a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer. And both these brands utilize Flash Charge at 18W and 33W.

With 18W Flash Charge, you can charge your phone for just 10 minutes and enjoy watching videos for 2 hours. While it takes about 60 minutes to fully charge. The faster 33W max Flash Charge charges the device from 0% to 70% in just 30 minutes.

Furthermore, Infinix’s Thunder Charge (currently implemented on the Infinix ZERO Ultra) reaches up to 180W of charging speeds.

Infinix’s Thunder Charge technology is pretty amazing. It has software and hardware security protection features that take care of the phone, battery, charger, and charging cable. Plus, the device has 20 thermal sensors all over it and a TÜV SÜD 36-Month Fluency Rating A certification that ensures the quality of its battery stays the same over time.

What’s more, Infinix uses Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology in its charger, which is a crystal-like semiconductor that has higher efficiency and power density than other chargers that use silicon. GaN components allow electrical current to flow through them more quickly, meaning faster charging times.

With Infinix’s Thunder Charge, you can charge your device from 0% to 100% in just 12 minutes! And the charger does this by using GaN technology, safety features, and a double-cell battery. The 4,500mAh battery of the Infinix ZERO ULTRA is actually two 2,250mAh cells that charge at the same time. This not only allows the 180W Thunder Charge to replenish the battery quickly, but it also does so safely.

To achieve the 12-minute charging time, the “Furious Mode” needs to be enabled, with the room temperature at around 25-degree Celsius. And just like other brand-specific charging tech, it demands Infinix’s standard 180W charger and its original data cable.

All-Round Fast Charge (Infinix)

Another one from Infinix is their recently introduced All-Round Fast Charge that reaches up to 260W wired and 110W wireless charging speeds.

This new charging tech is built from their 180W ThunderCharge. It can charge a battery from 0% to 25% in just one minute and up to 100% in under 8 minutes with a wired connection. Wirelessly, it takes around 16 minutes to charge fully.

They upgraded from a dual 8C battery (Thunder Charge) to a single 12C battery with a 4-pump circuit design that identifies power requirements and allocates the necessary charge pumps. They even developed a charging cable to specialize in carrying up to 13A, which ensures that insane 260W charging.

The charger also uses GaN material and AHB circuit infrastructure, providing high power density, small size, and safe charging control.

Infinix confirmed that this new charging technology will be available on an upcoming Infinix Note smartphone later this year.