As we are heading towards a completely digitized society, smartphones and other gadgets are at the forefront of connecting us to the world. Consequently, our energy requirement is increasing every year, with portable devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops becoming increasingly thin but more powerful than ever before. But unfortunately, we havent been able to achieve a breakthrough in battery density technology to satisfy our growing requirement.

So whats the workaround to this obstacle?

One way of meeting the growing energy needs of portable devices is to develop fast charging technology that tops up a battery in minutes.

When it comes to smartphones, OPPO leads the market with its innovative VOOC charging technology. And earlier this month, the company unveiled the worlds fastest wired charging solution for smartphones the 125W Flash Charge technology. It can charge a 4000mAh battery in just 20 minutes.

This is a significant development in smartphone charging technology, doubling charging speeds to never before seen values.

But how safe is it to pump in such high wattage into your compact smartphone battery? We have already seen laptops like the Dell XPS 15 charge at up to 130W. However, doing the same on an exceptionally compact battery raises a lot of questions.

So I decided to ask OPPO about 125W flash charging and how safe it is for the device and the end consumer.

When you are charging a 4000mAh battery at 125W, essentially topping it up to 100% in just 20 minutes, two primary questions come to your mind.

Before we find answers to these two questions, its crucial to understand how OPPOs 125W flash charging works.

OPPOs 125W flash charging is made possible with the help of many proprietary components and technologies working together in synergy.

To make things simple, here are some of the specialized components that allow the smartphone battery to flash charge at 125W.

When all these components come together, your smartphone can charge at up to 125W.

Heres a simplified version of how OPPOs 125W Flash Charging Works

When you connect OPPOs 125W charger to your phone via USB-C, the charger outputs power at 20V and 6.25A. This power is sent to the phone via a customized USB-C port that supports current over 6A. The power from the USB-C port is then transferred to the three charge pumps. However, the bi-cell batteries inside the phone do not support such high voltage. So the three charge pumps work together (along with the other microcontroller chips) to bring down the voltage to 10V and increase the amperage to 12.5A. Thus each of the three charge pumps outputs 42W (so 125W in total) of power to the battery with an impressive efficiency of 98%. OPPO claims that using three charge pumps significantly improves efficiency and reduces heat generation. Remember that heat is bad for your battery, and the less heat generated, the better it is for your phone.

An essential component that makes fast charging at such a high current possible is the quality of the batteries. OPPOs 125W flash charging technology works because the 6C batteries can charge at 12A.

The C-rating of a battery is the ratio of the maximum current draw and the battery capacity. Here, the 2000mAh ( equivalent to 2Ah) battery has a 6C rating. This means that the bi-cell batteries can charge effectively at a high current of 12.5A. But this would also mean that these batteries discharge at such a high rate, which is why OPPO added another charge pump to slow down the discharging rate. So in total, OPPOs 125W flash charging technology utilizes four charge pumps, three for controlling the power coming into the phone via the charger and one for controlling the discharge rate.

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Now that we have got a basic idea of how OPPOs new flash charging works, lets come back to the questions.

Heat is an inevitable byproduct of fast charging. Every smartphone battery has internal resistance, and when you pump in 125W of power during the charging process, the resistance generates heat.

But OPPO explained that they have taken additional measures to monitor and address this issue.

Moving on to the second question.

If heat is an inevitable byproduct of fast charging, then faster battery degradation is also an unavoidable consequence.

Remember how OPPO revealed that the 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 degrades the battery faster than standard slow charging?

OPPO Reno Ace with SuperVOOC 2.0 that charges at 65W degrades itsbatterys capacity to around 90% in 800 full charging cycles.

So if you think 125W would degrade the battery capacity even more rapidly, then you are correct.

OPPO revealed that according to their tests, the 125W flash charging reduces the battery life expectancy at 80% after 800 charging-discharging cycles.

This figure isnt really surprising. And it can be acceptable if you consider the convenience of ultra-fast charging in our day to day lives. If you charge your phone once every day, the 800 charging cycle amounts to over two years.

Unfortunately, this is the price you pay for not having to spend hours charging your phone.

Historically, OPPO has had an excellent track record with its VOOC and SuperVOOC 2.0 fast-charging technologies. Given that the 125W flash charging is built upon its earlier generation, safety seems to be given due priority on this new technology as well.

OPPO did well with its Reno Ace models 65W SuperVOOC 2.0, keeping the heat to manageable levels while charging. But well have to wait and see if the 125W flash charge technology with the additional temperature control measures can keep the phone relatively cool even when it charges a battery in just 20 minutes.

OPPO has confirmed that the technology is ready for mass production, but we dont know which product will get it first. Probably, the next OPPO Ace3 model (OPPO has dropped Reno branding from the Ace series) will launch with this flash charging technology later this year.

So what do you think of ultra-fast 120W+ fast charging technologies? Super cool or unnecessary?

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How Safe is the OPPO 125W Flash Charging Technology? - gizmochina