Over the last couple of posts, we’ve been posting about some of the cool innovations on the latest OnePlus devices and an overall, explained spec sheet. Today, lets talk about (wireless) charging and the latest OnePlus Warp Charge 50 Wireless supercharger.
Fast charging has been part of OnePlus devices since 2016, when OnePlus first introduced it one the OnePlus 3. Through a considerably different approach to charging, Warp Charge technology managed then and now to keep temperatures low even while gaming, with no drop in charging speeds.
OnePlus has continued to improve charging technology over the years. Starting from the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, OnePlus adopted the Warp Charge name while offering even faster charging speeds. With the OnePlus 8T, and thanks to a twin-cell battery design, OnePlus enabled a full battery charge in 39 minutes, who needs overnight charging, right?!
Now, with Warp Charge 50 Wireless and Warp Charge 65T, the OnePlus 9 Series will offer the fastest wired and wireless charging to date.
Warp Charge 50 Wireless – Better than Most Competitors’ Wired Charging
With the OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus introduced it’s first wireless charging solution – Warp Charge 30 Wireless. Since then, the wired charging solution sped up to a whopping 65W charging rate. With the OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus is again narrowing the gap between wired and wireless by greatly increasing the wireless charging speed to 50W, over the OnePlus 8 Pro’s 30W.
Now, you can charge the OnePlus 9 Pro from 1% to 100% in just 43 minutes, making it one of the fastest in the industry globally – and the fastest in Kenya and Africa, a market that is dear to us.
OnePlus applied similar principles to the wired fast charge solution. Leveraging the dual-cell configuration, both batteries fill at 25W each through the charging coil. The entire chain of components has also been optimized, specifically coils and charging ICs, leading technologies like the charging pump technology have been used.
How it works
Charging speed can be improved by either increasing amperage or voltage. With Warp Charge 50 Wireless, the voltage is increased to around 20V 2.5A. The high wattage is transferred into the OnePlus 9 Pro through the coils, after which 20V 2.5A power goes through our proprietary isolated charge pump, which turns 20V 2.5A power into 10V 5A power.
This power feeds into the new twin-battery system, two battery cells in series together. Each battery gets around 5V 5A, which translates to 25W each, 50W in total.
Heat management
Generally speaking, compared with wired charging, wireless charging is less efficient, meaning more heat is produced during the charging process. With wireless charging, higher amperages lead to an increased heat production, so, for Warp Charge 50 Wireless, high voltage power was used instead. OnePlus also came up with several additional innovative designs to reduce heat even further:
- The OnePlus 9 Pro’s twin battery design adopts a new, customized new battery cell, which has lower internal resistance, meaning it will produce less heat during charging.
- With an increased thickness of the coils inside the phone by 10%, compared to the 8 Pro, OnePlus resorted to a customized cable to help the heat dissipation.
- The OnePlus 9 Pro is designed to have better cooling performance than the previous generation of devices, with a larger vapor chamber, thicker copper foil and graphite that helps keep the phone cooler while gaming as well during fast charging.
The OnePlus 9 Pro is able to almost double the wireless charging speed while keeping the same level temperature compared to the OnePlus 8 Pro.
Newly designed wireless charger
To fully take advantage of Warp Charge 50 Wireless, OnePlus also designed a new wireless charger. There were two fundamental pieces of feedback from users that helped shape this new product:
- The wireless charger is now equipped with two coils – one on the top and one on the bottom – so that you can choose between charging vertically or horizontally, allowing you to charge wirelessly while watching videos.
- The new charger also uses a detachable cable design so now you can plug in the red cable of our Warp Charge 65 charger – which is still included in the box – or use other third-party USB-PD chargers to achieve up to 50W charging speed.
Last but not least, the new charger continues to offer bedtime mode. You can enable this mode through settings to schedule around your sleeping hours e.g., from 11 PM to 7 AM, giving you a quieter overall charging experience during sleep.
Compared with competing products, the wireless charging speed of the OnePlus 9 Pro exceeds the wired fast charging speed of other premium flagship smartphones.
Warp Charge 65T – Same Wattage but Better Performance
OnePlus also upgraded wired charging on the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro. We still use the same dual-battery layout present on the OnePlus 8T, with the two internal batteries charging at up to 32.5W, for a combined peak charging of 65W.
What’s changed with the upgraded battery is that there’s a select number of upgraded components, in combination with system optimizations. Compared with the OnePlus 8T’s Warp Charge 65, the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro use a brand-new custom battery cell to reduce internal resistance, thereby also reducing battery cell heating during charges. This gives the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro the ability to charge at a higher output for an extended period so the battery can fill up faster.
While the OnePlus 8T takes 39 minutes to charge from 1% to 100% with Warp Charge 65, the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro only take 29 minutes to charge from 1% to 100% with Warp Charge 65T, making it one of the fastest wired charging solutions on the market.
