Xiaomi has debuted Oppo recently announced it is developing. It was just over a year ago Xiaomi revealed the world’s first 30W fast wireless charging device. Having superseded the 30W device with what it says was the world's first 40W wireless charger in March, the firm then rolled out its first mass-produced 50W wireless charging technology in the Mi 10 Ultra.
To understand wireless charging, one must first understand mAh, which is the standard unit for measuring smartphone battery capacity. mAh stands for milliamps per hour and refers to an amount of charge over time. All other things being equal, the bigger the figure, the longer the battery will be able to power the phone. Of course, different components all need different amounts of power. The most obvious example is that devices with big screens will need bigger batteries if their battery life is to be as long as a similar device with a smaller screen. As the manufacturer of devices like the Black Shark 2 gaming smartphone, it's unsurprising Xiaomi would have a keen interest in fast-charging tech.
Xiaomi now stakes a claim to have created the first 80W wireless charging technology. With this, the firm says it's the third such record it has set in less than 12 months. The 80W Mi Wireless Charging Technology is said to be capable of filling a 4,000 mAh battery to 10% in 1 minute, 50% in 8 minutes, and 100% in just 19 minutes. To put that into perspective, only the largest smartphones tend to have a 4,000 mAh battery or larger at the moment. The newly announced iPhone 12, for example, is believed to feature a 2,815 mAh battery, which is actually slightly less than the iPhone 11 as size and performance are traded off.
Efficient Architecture
To charge compatible phone batteries wirelessly, a process called electromagnetic induction is used. Wireless chargers an electric current through a coil to create an electromagnetic field, which in turn induces a current in a receiving coil. There are a number of challenges, such as fitting all the required components into a device of a reasonable size and managing the heat the process produces.
In a post on Weibo, Xiaomi Vice President Zeng Xuezhong explained how the firm achieved the 80W Mi Wireless Charging Technology's speed of charging:
We have specially customized a more efficient wireless charging architecture and chip, and independently designed a composite coil system, using MTW multi-pole fast-charging batteries, dual 6C series batteries, with multi-stage variable current control and MiFC fast charging.
Although there is no word yet on when Xiaomi might include fast wireless charging of this order in one of its devices, for which there would be good reasons, the firm did separately convey its belief wired charging will soon be replaced by wireless charging. This would mark an exciting change in the technology industry.