Realme has teased the forthcoming arrival of the its fastest smartphone battery charging technology yet. It’s called 150W UltraDart Charge, and it will deliver 50% battery charge in just five minutes. To make sure the technology is safe Realme has also announced its UltraDart Charging Architecture (UDCA), designed to balance speed and battery longevity with safety and heat management.
UltraDart Charge will launch on an as yet unannounced phone called the GT Neo 3, but Realme has not given a release window for the device, and seeing as the Realme GT Neo 2 came along in September 2021, it may not be all that soon. It’s good to see Realme confirm UltraDart Charge will come to a mid-range phone, rather than a more expensive flagship, first though.
Delivering 50% charge in five minutes will put strain on the phone’s battery, especially long term, and that’s where the UDCA comes in. Under it, Realme says it will use lithium batteries that will still have 80% capacity available even after more than 1,000 full charge cycles. It will also ensure temperatures do not exceed 43 degrees centigrade so the phone remains usable and comfortable to hold.
What Realme hasn’t said is how long the battery will take to fully charge. Currently, Realme’s 65W SuperDart Charge system recharges a 4,500mAh battery from flat to full in about 35 minutes. Just because 50% charge comes up in five minutes, it doesn’t mean 100% will come in 10 minutes, as the more full the cell is the slower it will charge.
Realme may be making a big deal about 150W UltraDart Charge at Mobile World Congress, but it’s not the first to announce such fast charging. Qualcomm’s 100W Quick Charge 5 delivers 50% charge in five minutes, and is part of Xiaomi’s 120W HyperCharge fast charging system, which can fully charge a phone in 15 minutes. You can experience this for yourself already, as it’s a feature on several phones including the Xiaomi 11T Pro. The company has also demonstrated a 200W HyperCharge system which promises to fully charge a battery in eight minutes.
Super fast charging also runs in the family. Realme is part of the BBK Electronics empire with Oppo, OnePlus, and Vivo. Oppo has already talked about its 125W Flash Charge technology, which will provide 41% charge in five minutes, and OnePlus is also rumored to introduce a similarly powerful charging technology soon.