If you thought charging speeds over the past few years were getting ridiculous, Redmi, the Xiaomi-owned brand, has more surprises up its sleeves. It was not that long ago when charging your phone overnight was the norm, but right now, anything that takes two hours to reach a full charge is considered slow.
In a demonstration on Weibo, Redmi uses a modified Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition boasting a 4,100 mAh battery. The normal one has a 4,300 mAh battery. Other modifications were also done to the device, including changes to the battery materials and structure to ensure it can safely handle the 300W fast charging.
Once the test got going, half of the battery was charged in just a little over two minutes, with the battery reaching hitting 100 percent before the five minutes were up. Despite being touted as a 300W charger, the battery only hit 290W during the charging process that was shown on Weibo.
This beats Redmi’s earlier record of 9 minutes for a full charge, which was also set by the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition, but using a ‘slower’ charging standard at 240W. However, the Realme GT Neo 5 released in early February still holds the record for the fastest-charging smartphone that is available for sale.
The realme GT Neo 5 with its 240W fast charging can fill its 4,600 mAh in just 9 minutes. While Redmi has shown they can hit faster charging speeds in controlled environments, it remains to be seen whether the technology will be introduced to their upcoming devices.
As is often the case with superfast charging speeds, the sticky point will always be in regard to battery health and longevity. Fast-charging batteries will always degrade faster than those devices charging at lower speeds.
Whether having a device that can quickly fill up its charge in less than 10 minutes but loses much of its capacity in a much shorter time is worth it compared to one that uses a relatively slow charging speed but retains much of its battery capacity for years is something that will greatly vary between different people and their needs. Then there is the cool factor of possessing a superfast charging smartphone to impress your friends and family.
