From Xiaomi comes the new 11T Pro model, which offers in the sales package a 120W charger.
Luca Viscardi Technology divulger and blogger
Radio host, blogger and writer. For years engaged in the dissemination of digital culture, he is founder and chief editor of MisterGadget.Tech
One of the most important technological innovations of recent months has come from Xiaomi, in a segment, that of smartphone batteries, which for years has been trying to find new ways without really succeeding.
The Chinese company, recently crowned number one in European sales by research firm Canalys, has in fact presented the new Xiaomi 11T Pro smartphone, capable of recharging completely in less than 20 minutes.
The result of the research carried out in recent years by Xiaomi engineers is truly amazing, because the charging time is even halved compared to that of direct competitors OPPO and OnePlus, which had stopped at about 36 minutes, recently dropping to about 28 minutes, but with a smaller battery.
How we got to 20-minute charging
For years, tech companies have been trying to make batteries that recharge faster with the same amount of power: when they realized that the cost-benefit ratio didn't allow for better solutions than those currently in use, they changed course, looking for solutions that would allow batteries to be recharged more quickly using a far greater amount of power.
While in the past a smartphone charger had a power of 5 W or at most 10 W, in relatively recent times an escalation has begun, first to 15 W, then to 30 W, up to the seemingly incredible figure of 65 W made available just a few months ago.
Thanks to its 65 W chargers, with a solution called VOOC Charge, OPPO has put smartphones on the market with charging times of less than 40 minutes, but it has already announced an evolution that will allow it to reach times very similar to those of Xiaomi.
Xiaomi itself, however, has meanwhile already unveiled a further step for its Hypercharge, with a 200-watt charger capable of going from 0 to 100%. in just 8 minutes, but for now it's just a lab product.
Because batteries don't get damaged with such a powerful charge
The first doubt arisen among users, shared also by experts, concerned the battery's tightness in front of such a real charge: however, Xiaomi's engineers explain that this issue has been taken care of with great attention, not only for the durability but also for the safety of the charging process. From China they let it be known that after 500 charging cycles the battery maintains 80% of its original capacity, which is remarkable, because we're talking about 5000 mAh.
All this is possible because in reality this large battery is divided into two blocks with identical capacity, which are reached by two different energy flows, which are further divided in half to charge the battery from two opposite sides. In practice, each point of contact with the power system receives a maximum of 30 watts of power.
Not only that, because for the control of the Charging process there are 36 safety systems, with as many as 9 thermal sensors scattered inside the device, ready to interrupt the charging cycle in case of anomalies.
For the dissipation of heat generated by the processor when the smartphone is used and during the charging process, the new Xiaomi 11T pro has an even larger steam chamber, so that the temperature is always under control.
That of battery charging times will probably be the new battleground for smartphone manufacturers, looking for those elements of differentiation that can create an advantage over the competition, at a time when from an aesthetic point of view smartphones all look dangerously similar.
Of course, the presentation of the new Xiaomi 11T Pro has given us confirmation that the Chinese company, in addition to producing cell phones with excellent value for money, also knows how to innovate: proof of this is the development of the camera software, capable of harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to create very complex cinematic effects, with a few simple clicks.
There are many details that we liked about this smartphone, but the super-fast charging remains the most disruptive element compared to competitors: for those who suffer from low battery anxiety, the dark times are over.