Fast charging technology has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years. Early smartphones were content with 5-18W of “fast charging”, but these days, we’re used to seeing smartphones with 120W charging reach consumers. Companies continue to innovate, and we’ll be seeing more OEMs pushing the boundaries of smartphone fast charging tech this year. At MWC 2022, OPPO has just announced a significant milestone for its proprietary fast charging technology in the form of the 150W SuperVOOC, and it will be making its debut with a OnePlus smartphone in Q2 2022.
A Brief History of SuperVOOC
OPPO announced the first version of its proprietary fast charging technology with the OPPO Find 7 back in 2014. The VOOC (Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging) Flash Charge technology could charge the Find 7’s 2,800 mAh battery from 0% to 75% in 35 minutes, which was a rather impressive statistic eight years ago. 20W VOOC 2.0 found its way onto several F-series and R-series smartphones in that era, alongside being rebranded to Dash Charge for OnePlus smartphones and also being extended to Realme smartphones. One of the most important highlights of this fast charging tech was the fact that all of the heat was contained within the charging brick itself, letting the smartphone charge itself very quickly without being punished thermally.
XDA-Developers VIDEO OF THE DAYVOOC evolved into 50W SuperVOOC in 2016, with a claimed full charge on a 2,500 mAh battery within 15 minutes, although it took two more years to reach consumers. Parallelly, in 2019, VOOC evolved into 25W VOOC 3.0 and then further to 30W VOOC 4.0. And in 2020, SuperVOOC reached version 2.0 with 65W fast charging, which we have seen widely across phones from OPPO, OnePlus, and Realme. OPPO has also been working on releasing thinner and more portable charging bricks as well as implementing similar speeds in wireless tech (AirVOOC) all through these years. In 2022, SuperVOOC bumped itself up to 80W on flagships like the OnePlus 10 Pro and the OPPO Find X5 Pro. And we’re now on the verge of another major milestone.
150W SuperVOOC fast charging
This year at MWC, OPPO has announced 150W SuperVOOC flash charging technology. OPPO claims that this new tech can charge a 4,500mAh battery to 50% in 5 minutes, and all the way to 100% in 15 minutes. The tech also comes with what OPPO is calling “Battery Health Engine” (BHE) that nearly doubles battery longevity.
150W SuperVOOC with BHE can output up to 20V at 7.5A. Within the setup, there are two charge pumps that output energy to a twin-battery setup. Each pump originally outputs 20V at 3.75A and this is converted into 5V at 15A for each cell. OPPO mentions that the tech has been tested for heat dissipation and safety. So expect your next OPPO flagship to charge very quickly. Do note that the fine print indicates that these figures were achieved with the phone idling in airplane mode, and the screen shut off. Outside of these conditions, we expect to see some more time added, but it should still present some impressive stats all through, even better than OPPO’s current 80W fast charging tech.
Charging Brick
As we had seen with the 65W SuperVOOC charger, the 150W SuperVOOC charger is a Type-C charger that is compatible with USB PD and PPS protocols. The 65W charger thus is an excellent option as the only charger that I carry around for all my devices, and the 150W charger seems to be on the same track. OPPO is making it even better, as the charging brick now uses Gallium Nitride (GaN) to reduce the size of the power conversion devices and thereby reduce the size of the adapter. With dimensions of 58 x 57 x 30 mm, the 150W charger is said to be just slightly larger than the 65W charger. It weighs 172g.
Battery Health Engine
One of the biggest worries with fast charging tech is the effect it has on battery longevity. OPPO is addressing these concerns with Battery Health Engine, which will make its debut on the Find X5 series. It includes a customized battery management chip alongside two technologies: Smart Battery Health Algorithm and Battery Healing Technology. In a nutshell, BHE is able to maintain a battery at 80% of its original capacity after as many as 1600 charge cycles, which OPPO says is effectively doubling the lifespan of batteries (800 charge cycles).
The customized battery management chip performs system-level management of the phone battery, including tasks like monitoring the working status, the state of the current, battery usage status, and battery charge cycle. It also controls the temperature of the battery and prevents overcharging. The Algorithm tracks real-time electric potential across the negative electrode inside the battery, and then dynamically adjusts the current within a range, minimizing the occurrence of dead lithium while maintaining the maximum charging current. Battery Healing Technology comes about by an improvement to the electrolyte formula within the battery, which helps reduce damage to the electrodes and even repair them during charging and discharging cycles. This effectively extends battery lifespan.
OnePlus debut
If everything about 150W SuperVOOC sounds exciting to you, you’d be glad to hear that the tech will debut on a OnePlus smartphone in the second quarter of 2022, as OnePlus shared in its 2022 plans.
OnePlus has not provided any further details about what else to expect — we don’t know if this will arrive on a flagship device or a mid-range lineup like Nord, nor do we have any further details on which regions it will release in.
Nonetheless, we look forward to seeing what OnePlus has in store. Most users would be just fine with 65W and 80W fast charging, and with diminishing marginal utility coming into play, it would be interesting how much of a real-world benefit it brings over what is now a standard experience on OnePlus smartphones.
Realme debut
OPPO’s sister organization Realme has also debuted its 150W fast charging tech at MWC 2022. It uses the same underlying technology, but Realme calls it UltraDart. Like OnePlus, Realme also plans to bring the new fast-charging tech to the market later this year.
The company has already confirmed that its 150W fast charging tech will debut with the Realme GT Neo 3. But it hasn’t shared a launch date yet.
What are your thoughts on 150W SuperVOOC? Let us know in the comments below!