Realme has launched the GT Neo 5 in China, which is most notable for being the first phone to pack 240W fast charging – the limit for USB Type-C.
Oppo launched its own 240W charging standard in February of last year, but we haven’t seen it in a phone as yet. For now, there’s the Realme GT Neo 5.
Interestingly, in the press blurb it sent over, Realme said nothing about how quickly its new 240W phone would actually charge, merely that it can achieve a “full charge in minutes”. Perhaps it’s simply the case that we’re in the region of diminishing returns, so you have to pump in a lot more power to shave a minute or two off that 0 to 100% time.
Realme seems more keen to highlight the technology that’s gone into making 240W charging possible – and safe – on the GT Neo 5. In the ‘possible’ stable comes the world’s first 12A charging cable, which is customised with four 21AWG wires, and an unusually dense dual GaN charging brick.
On the safety front (more power means more heat, after all), Realme mentions “a PS3-leveled fireproof design and 13 temperature sensors to monitor charging heat in real-time”.
The fast-growing brand has also incorporated a meaty graphene heat dissipation system, which it claims to be the industry’s largest. It also reassures us that it has tested the phone vigorously “under 85 Celsius temperature and up to 85% high humidity for 21 days of continually charging and power releasing”.
Longevity shouldn’t be an issue either, with this peak charging standard said to be good for 1600 battery charging cycles. With an average smartphone battery often rated for between 500 and 1,000 cycles, that’s pretty good.
As Realme points out, 240W represents the limit of the USB-C standard, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s next.
That’s all Realme is talking about with the GT Neo 5, so we don’t have any other specs to confirm, nor even any product images to show off. We do know that it’ll be hitting mainland China in February 2023, while the brand’s 240W charging system will be “coming to the next flagship for the global market this year”.
