Rumored Vivo phone makes 120W charging sound like a relic of the past
There’s no doubt that Chinese smartphones are plenty ahead of the curve on the charging front, with 65W charging now being the new baseline for 2022 mid-rangers, even asSamsung’s struggling to get 45W right. Such phones' batteries are perfectly capable of filling up to the brim in just about 30 minutes. But engineers over there seem to have a fire in their bellies for faster-yet juicing speeds. TheOnePlus Ace, for example, ships with an absolute bonkers 160W charging brick. And if that wasn’t enough, there are now rumors making rounds of a record-breaking 200W charging phone.
With aposton Chinese blogging site Weibo, popular tipster Digital Chat Station (viaGizmoChina) has revealed that Vivo is working on a new handset that will be paired with a 20V / 10A charger — that’s an insane maximum output of 200W or almost ten times faster than what the latest iPhones support. Competitor Xiaomi last year hadshowcased a modified Mi 11 Profilling up to 50% in an eye-watering three minutes at the same charging speeds, so it’s safe to assume that the upcoming Vivo will be just as stupefying at that.
Beyond those crazy speeds, the charger will also be backward compatible with Vivo’s other standards like 120W, 80W, and 66W, meaning you’d theoretically do just fine carrying around this single adapter for all of your devices if you are a multi-device kind of person. A charging brick may support some universal specs, but when it comes to ultra-fast speeds, they’re typically a proprietary affair.
But all this raises the question: do we need anything faster than 120W? Anything above 100W already means that your charging worries are virtually a thing of the past — even at 0%, you can simply plug in your phone before going for a shower, unplug it in a few minutes, and head out with enough battery to last you through the day. Then there are also concerns about the impact on battery health (as sister company Oppo acknowledges), and the charging bricks themselves — the faster they get, the larger they grow: the 160W charger we mentioned above competes with laptop chargers in size, and a 200W unit could be even chonkier. Still, we’re happy to give Vivo a chance and see how it will all turn out.
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