Fast charging is a technology that has been around for a long time. Today it has become the norm to put a smartphone on charge and in an hour to get a 100% charged device, which will last for another one and a half to two days. Someone says that fast charging harms the battery, eating away its resource, but common sense suggested that this is completely wrong, and this technology can and should be used. In the end, it's much more convenient than charging a smartphone for 3-4 hours in the hope of an apparent extension of battery life. But does fast charging power matter?
High power charger – not always a sign of fast charging
It is generally accepted that the charging speed depends on the power of the power supply, of course, provided that the smartphone itself supports such power. That is, if you connect a 40- or 60-watt charger to a device with a 20-watt charging, it will not be able to realize its potential, which means that it will not be able to charge faster than the manufacturer provided. Therefore, manufacturers are competing in every possible way with each other in whose smartphone supports more powerful charging and, accordingly, charges faster.
Fast charging charges slowly
See how fast the Huawei P40 Pro + is charging
Huawei P40 Pro +, which is already on sale in Russia, supports 40-watt chargers. This is quite a lot, since most modern devices are only compatible with 20W power supplies. Therefore, colleagues from the PhoneArena publication decided to check how quickly a 40-watt charger will power Huawei the P40 Pro + up to 100%.
As a result, it turned out that the battery of a smartphone with a capacity of 4200 mAh when charging over a wire is filled in 70 minutes. Not bad, but clearly not a record, considering that my Honor View 20 on a 20-watt charger charges to 100% in just 72 minutes, although its battery has a capacity of 4000 mAh. That is, this will already allow us to conclude that there are no fundamental differences between 20- and 40-watt power supplies. Anyway, in relation to the flagships Huawei.
Another thing is wireless charging. It turns out that the Huawei P40 Pro + supports 40-watt Qi charging and charges up to 100% in just 12 minutes longer than a wire – in 82 minutes. To achieve this charging speed, the manufacturer goes for a little trick and equips the wireless charging station, which produces 40W of output, with a 65-watt power supply. Obviously, this is done due to energy losses, which cannot be avoided in the case of using induction.
Fast wireless charging
But since wireless charging is a phenomenon that very few people use, let's go back to the classic way of recharging the battery. If you take a closer look at the comparison chart above, you will notice that the 40-watt charger charges Huawei the P40 Pro + 50% in just 30 minutes. It seems to be a little. But here's my Honor View 20, which – let me remind you – comes with a 20-watt power supply, charges up to 50% in 24 minutes. What does it mean? And the fact that in this case the 40W offered by the P40 Pro + is a near-marketing trick that does not give real advantages.
Wireless charging is traditionally slower than wired
And this applies not only to smartphones Huawei, but to a fairly wide range of devices. The same Galaxy Note 10+, which supports 45-watt chargers, charges up to 100% in 56 minutes, and the Galaxy Note 10, which is only compatible with 25-watt solutions, reaches the same mark just 8 minutes after the big brother. As for me, the difference is not so great as to overpay for a super-powerful charger, which, moreover, has to be bought separately.
Undoubtedly, there are smartphones on sale with really fast charging. For example, Xiaomi Mi 10, which charges in 45 minutes thanks to a 65-watt power supply, and Oppo Reno Ace, which has a charge time of 29 minutes. These are really outstanding results, but you need to take into account that you still will not be able to find out the real charging speed in advance, let alone the need to purchase the charger separately. And what difference does it make if most of us leave our smartphones charging overnight anyway?