[ad_1]
If you’ve been following the Chinese phone scene for a few years, you’ll have noticed the inescapable fast-charge arms race. It feels like every few months there’s a new champion, with high-powered chargers constantly reducing the time it takes to fill a phone battery.
This month, Xiaomi is making its biggest effort yet to bring its “HyperCharge” technology to a global mainstream audience. The upcoming Xiaomi 11T Pro has a 120W charger, a huge power boost over the current global flagship Mi 11, which uses a 55W charger that can get you to 100% in 45 minutes. Xiaomi has yet to reveal an estimate of charging times for the 11T Pro, but last year’s China-only Mi 10 Ultra also had a 120W charger that only took 23 minutes to fill up.
A common reaction I see to this type of fast charger is that they will surely have a negative impact on battery longevity, or there must be some safety issues, or both. So I spoke to Daniel Desjarlais, global communications manager and global spokesperson for Xiaomi, about the company’s fast charging technology efforts and what people outside of China should expect from the 11T Pro.
First of all, how does it work? “It’s like having two different inlets to fill the gas in your car and two separate tanks,” Desjarlais explains of Xiaomi’s dual cell battery design, which is similar to how other fast charging solutions work. at high power. “Now, rather than filling at a certain slow pace on one side, you can fill two at the same time. This is all done on the side of the phone, the charger delivers 120 watts and rather than trying to push the maximum of five volts, a single channel splits it into two, three, four channels. This allows us to increase everything – everything is done at 20 amps.
Desjarlais went on to explain in detail what is going on with the battery technology itself and how Xiaomi’s thermal monitoring systems work to maintain the optimum charging speed at every point in the cycle, but as a non-engineer, I’m frankly not qualified to comment on the electrical design here. What I’m qualified to comment on is the design of the phone and consumer expectations, and I know a lot of people are concerned about the tradeoffs with these fast charging systems.
On the issue of longevity, Desjarlais says you can expect endurance in line with other more conventional phones. “It’s something that we’ve really, really tested a lot,” he says. “In general, for this level of charge with the batteries we tested it with, after 800 charge cycles, you will still have 80% battery health. Now that 20 percent might sound like “oh wow, I’m losing 20 percent,” but that’s pretty standard in pretty much all charging technology. 800 cycles, for most people that’s going to be about two years. So it’s pretty solid.
For comparison, Apple – a company that has come under scrutiny for its long-term battery performance while offering slower-charging technology than most of its competitors – tells customers to expect a lithium-ion battery to retain “up to 80% of its original capacity.” at 500 full charge cycles. If Xiaomi’s test numbers are correct, a phone like the 11T Pro shouldn’t suffer from an unusually short lifespan, even if its owner only uses the fast charger.
When I ask if using slower chargers would further improve battery health, Desjarlais says, “There are relatively small differences between the two. Of course, the optimal situation would be yes, to use the slower charger if you are going to be charging overnight and to use the fast charger for more urgent situations. But Xiaomi’s testing was carried out with the presumption that you could get good battery health if you use fast charging all the time.
On the security front, Desjarlais says the testing was extremely thorough and included third parties, with 34 different battery protection features included in the device itself. “In general, that’s part of the reason this technology is now available in global markets,” he says. “We wanted to make sure we were following all the regulations, but also that it was incredibly safe for everyone.”
Yet I wondered about these potential compromises. Is there really no downside to a charging system like this? Could a phone with a more conventional charge be thinner or contain a bigger battery, for example? Desjarlais says there is no negative impact. That said, the actual charger is a bit bigger than the average phone pack and will of course use more power (albeit for shorter periods of time.)
Xiaomi believes its fast charging technology is here to stay and could be improved even further. Earlier this year, for example, the company showcased a prototype 200W system that filled a 4000mAh battery in 8 minutes, although Desjarlais only said, “Whether it comes or not. [in a commercial product] is something you’re going to have to wait and see, ”citing the need for additional security and performance testing. He had pretty much the same response about Xiaomi’s truly wireless Air Charge teaser, saying “It’s a wonderful concept and it’s something that we continue to examine.”
Obviously, security and efficient performance should be the least you expect from a given phone feature. With fast charging, the question is whether customers in Xiaomi’s global markets will see it as a selling point. “For us, I think the big goal here is that there are a lot of people who see fast charging as an alien feature,” Desjarlais said. “But there are also a lot of people for whom this is a great added value. This is something you don’t really realize how good it is for your day to day life until you have to run outside to get a five minute cab ride and your phone isn’t really charge.
Xiaomi’s international launch event for the 11T Pro and the rest of the 11T series will take place next week on Wednesday September 15th.
[ad_2]
Source link