The race for the fastest charging mobile phone is on

Realme just launched an Android phone in China that takes the crown of the fastest charging smartphone on the market. The Realme GT Neo5 promises to charge the smartphone's 4600 mAh battery fully in under 10 minutes.

Realme achieves this through the integration of up to 240W fast charging in the device.  It is interesting to note that Realme's new GT Neo model comes with two configurations. Only the more expensive one includes 240W fast charging. The other configuration supports 150W fast charging, which is still quite fast based on today's standards.

Both Realme GT Neo5 versions are powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. The main differences between the two devices, apart from the fast charging difference, is that the pricier version comes with 16 gigabytes of RAM and either 256 gigabytes or 1 terabyte of storage.

The less pricy variant of the Realme GT 5 Neo has 8 , 12 or 16 gigabytes of RAM and a fixed storage capacity of 256 gigabytes.

There is one additional difference between the devices. While the pricier version of the Realme GT Neo5 comes with faster charging capabilities, it is supported by a 4600 mAh battery. The less pricey version has a 5000 mAh battery instead.

According to Realme, the 240W adapter is capable of charging the GT Neo5 to 20% in just 80 seconds. In about 4 minutes, 50% is reached and the 100% is reached in under 10 minutes.

Prices for the GT Neo5 150W start at 2599 Yuan, which is about $380 United States Dollar. The most expensive GT Neo5 240W variant is available for 3499 Yuan, which is about $513 United States Dollar.

Realme demonstrated the live charging capabilities of its flagship smartphone two days ago during a presentation.

Comparison to other smartphones

Faster charging has become more and more of a requirement in the smartphone market. It is one of the areas that device manufacturers can distinguish their devices from others, at least in the Android world and for now.

GSM Arena lists 76 devices in its database that support 100W and faster charging. The vast majority of these devices are manufactured by Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Realme, vivo, OnePlus and ZTE. Increase support to 150W fast charging, and only 12 devices are returned.

Apple boasts on its Fast Charge your iPhone support page that Apple customers may recharge the iPhone "up to 50 percent battery  in around 30 minutes". That's three times as long as the Realme GT Neo5 requires to charge the phone to 100%. That is even more impressive considering that the GT Neo5 has a larger battery capacity than any Apple iPhone that is currently on the market.

Closing Words

The main caveat regarding Realme's GT Neo5 is that it is only available in China currently. It is unclear whether the device will be launched by the company in other regions and markets. The latest Realme phone that is available in other regions is the Realme GT Neo 3, which the company launched in March 2022.

Now you: is fast charging a criteria for you when buying a smartphone?

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