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How Fast is OnePlus’ WARP CHARGE? Spoiler: It’s RAPID…
Worth the wait? Perhaps. Reports suggest the OnePlus 8 will have positively RAPID wireless charging. But just how fast is positively rapid?
OnePlus hasn’t used wireless charging in any of its phones to date. No one really knows why, either. OnePlus has long maintained that with things like Fast Charge, whereby a phone can be topped-up to full in under 30 minutes, wireless charging is surplus to demand.
Still, that hasn’t stopped the company from developing a new type of wireless charger that’ll launch alongside the OnePlus 8 later on this year. According to the company, OnePlus’ Warp Charge wireless charger will be able to charge a dead phone to 50% in 30 minutes. And for a wireless charging station, that is properly quick.
OnePlus’ Warp Charge Wireless Charger – What’s The Deal?
How can it charge so fast wirelessly, when nearly all current wireless chargers are slower than Forest Gump on ketamine? Simple: it outputs power at 30W. This means that the charging plate can deliver more power in a shorter amount of time, resulting in dramatic reductions in charging times.
30 minutes for 50% is still kind of slow, however, especially when you consider that a wired Fast Charge connection will be able to do almost 100% in the same amount of time. Still, compared to the competition, OnePlus’ 30W Warp Charge wireless charging is, so far, the fastest option available, as you can see below:
- Samsung – 10W
- Huawei – 27W (on Mate Pro 30)
- iPhone 11 – Around 6-8W
Most other Qi-compatible devices are limited to just 5W, which is painfully slow. OnePlus’ method of unlocking faster charger speeds is significant but it does come at a cost: you’ll only be able to use the Warp Charger for the OnePlus 8 – it will not work on anything else.
Why? Because OnePlus developed a special chip for the OnePlus 8 to allow for 30W wireless charging. On the plus side, this will likely force Samsung, Huawei, and Apple to do the same.
Me personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of wireless chargers; I’d rather just use a wire and get it over and done with quicker. I’ve even got a wireless charger that also backs up my photos and I still don’t use it!
However, with 30W of power for wireless charging, things start to look a lot more attractive. I mean, that’s almost as fast as standard, non-fast-charge cable charging. Once we get up to around 50W, then things will really start to get interesting.
Over to you, Huawei/Samsung/Apple…