Charging might not be sexy, but it is something we all need to do – like going to the bathroom. But what are the fastest charging phones right now? Read on to find out…
OLED displays. Quad-lens cameras. Ultra-fast SoCs. These are all nice, but one of the most useful innovations that has happened during the last few years is the rise of ultra-fast charging – the type of charging that can take a phone’s battery from zero to 100% in less than 30 minutes.
As of right now, and as you’ll see in the table below, Chinese phone brands like OnePlus, OPPO, and RealMe (all of which are owned by the same company, BBK) are leading the way with fast charging – both wired and wireless standards.
Apple, Samsung, and Google are all lagging behind with respect to both wired and wireless charging speeds.
Fastest Charging Phones On The Market
The current KING of fast-charging, however, is Xiaomi – its Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra will do wired charging at 120W and wireless charging at 50W.
That means you’ll be able to juice the phone to around 70% charge inside five minutes.
And in 2021, Xiaomi cemented its lead with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra – it will do 67W wireless charging.
And right now, that makes the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra the fastest wireless charging phone on the market.
Apple’s iPhone 12 is still painfully slow by 2021’s standards, however, and there’s even talk of the iPhone 13 being completely portless. If true, that would mean the phone would literally have to support some form of ultra-fast charging.
And it’d have to be wireless too.
First, let’s take a look at the fastest wired charging phones. Once we’ve done this, we’ll look at the phones that charge the fastest wirelessly.
And after this, we’ll take a look at how the different charging standards used by different phone brands affect speed.
The Fastest Charging Phones (Wired Charging)
| BRAND | PHONES | Maximum Charge Speed | Charging Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xiaomi | Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra Xiaomi Mi 11 Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra | 120W 50W 67W | USB-PD |
| OPPO | OPPO Find X2 Pro OPPO Reno Ace | 65W | Super VOOC 2.0 |
| RealMe | RealMe X50 Pro RealMe GT | 65W | SuperDart Charge |
| Huawei | Huawei P40 Range Huawei P30 Range | 40W | SuperCharge |
| Samsung | Galaxy S20 Range Galaxy Note 10 Range | 25W to 45W (Depends on Model) | USB-PD |
| OnePlus | OnePlus 8 OnePlus 8 Pro OnePlus 7T | 30W | Warp Charge 30T |
| Apple | iPhone 11 Range iPhone X Phones – X, XS, XR iPhone 8 Range | 18W | USB-PD |
| Pixel 3 Pixel 4 | 18W | USB-PD |
Which Phone Has The Fastest Charging?
What’s odd about the numbers here is that the most popular phones, Apple’s iPhone and, in certain instances, Samsung ones, are actually the slowest. Google’s Pixel range is also very slow when it comes to wired charging speeds.
The fastest, by a considerable margin, is OPPO and RealMe.
The OPPO Find X2 Pro and the RealMe X50 pro will charge at 65W which is insanely powerful – especially when you consider Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro can only muster a mere 18W.
How does 65W wired charging perform in the real-world? Very freaking fast. With 65W wired charging, you’d be able to charge a 4000mAh battery from dead to 100% in less than 30 minutes. With Apple’s 18W charging standard, the same process would take around two hours…
Why are these Chinese brands beating Apple and Samsung when it comes to charging speeds? Simple: they’re investing in it. BBK, the company that owns OnePlus, RealMe, and OPPO, has been drilling-down on charging speeds – both wired and wireless – for a good couple of years now.
During this time, the company has come up with a range of novel solutions. The most notable of which is its Super VOOC, SuperDart, and Warp Charge which is available on OPPO, RealMe, and OnePlus phones respectively.
With any of these phones, you’re looking at a minimum of 30W wired charging and a top end of 65W.
125W Wired Charging & 65W Wireless Charging is COMING…
But it doesn’t stop there; OPPO has just unveiled its new charging tech that will bring 125W wired charging and 65W wireless charging.
To put that truly insane amount of power into context, with 125W wired charging you could charge a 4000mAh battery from zero to fifty percent inside five minutes.
“The accelerated 5G rollout worldwide, as well as the increasing diversification of high-power-consumption applications including gaming and video viewing, represent new challenges for the battery life of mobile phones and user charging experience,” said Jeff Zhang, Chief Charging Technology Scientist at OPPO.
He added: “OPPO has been leading the development of fast charging ever since VOOC flash charge was launched in 2014. Now, we are committed to continuing to build on our expertise and advantages in the field of high power, wireless and ultra-small charging technologies in order to provide users with a safe, efficient and convenient ultra-fast charging experience.”
When this standard is released, it will be the fastest charging solution on the planet. Bar none. With wireless charging, RealMe and OPPO are now offering faster wireless charging speeds than Apple and Samsung’s wired charging speeds.
Put in that context, it really does make you wonder how long before Apple and Samsung join the fray properly with solutions of their own…
The Fastest Wireless Charging Phones
We’ve talked about wired charging, looked at the phones that offer the best speeds, now it’s time to look at wireless charging – AKA the future of how we’ll all one day charge our phones.
If Apple releases a portless iPhone in 2021, you can expect Android phone brands to follow suit and this could mean, by 2023, the charging port has gone the way of the headphone jack…
| BRAND | PHONES | Maximum Charge Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 7.5W | |
| Samsung | 15W | |
| 10W | ||
| OnePlus | 30W | |
| Huawei | 20W to 40W (Depends on Model) | |
| Xiaomi | 30W | |
| OPPO | 40W | |
| RealMe | 65W |
As you can see, once again, it’s a pretty similar story to the wired charging speeds. Apple and Samsung and Google’s speeds tend to suck, while brands like OnePlus, RealMe, and OPPO are killing it with respect to wireless charging speeds.
In fact, OnePlus, RealMe, and OPPO are so good at wireless charging, you could technically charge one of their phones faster than you could an iPhone on a wired charge.
I know I made this point earlier, but it deserves to be made again because Apple and Google, and Samsung to an extent, have really dropped the ball here.
Let’s hope the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 make amends for this. I’d also like to see Samsung at least matching OnePlus with respect to wireless charging speeds, especially as wireless charging is going to become way more prevalent in the next couple of years.
Moral of the story? If you want a phone that charges INSANELY fast, both wired and wirelessly, you should probably think about picking up the OPPO Find X2 Pro or the RealMe X50 Pro – you wouldn’t regret it either; these two phones match nearly all the top flagships from Samsung and Huawei with respect to design, specs, camera, and overall performance…
And be sure to check out our iPhone 11 Wireless Charging Tips and Tricks!
Richard Goodwin
Richard Goodwin has been working as a tech journalist for over 10 years. He is the editor and owner of KnowYourMobile.