Xiaomi's New Smartphone Can Fully Charge Itself In 9 Minutes

Xiaomi's sub-brand Redmi is mostly known for making affordable, feature-loaded devices that sell in huge numbers in emerging markets like India and China. The company's Note lineup of smartphones has historically performed well in these markets and often ranks among the most popular smartphones there. One of the reasons for the massive popularity (Via Gadgets 360) of Redmi devices in these countries is the sheer value for money they offer. Most devices from Redmi's mid-range lineup offer decent camera quality, come with a fast enough processor, and receive regular software updates. In some areas, these mid-range smartphones even outclass flagship-grade smartphones.

Take the case of fast charging. While even the latest iPhones top out at 20W and the fastest charging Samsung smartphone tops out at 45W, it is common for even a two-year-old Redmi phone to feature 30W fast charging. The battle for the fastest-charging smartphone reached its pinnacle in 2021 when Xiaomi first announced its Redmi 11T Pro with 120W fast charging. Xiaomi's archrival OPPO bettered that record a few months later when it announced its 150w SuperVOOC charging standard — which eventually made it to the international variants of the OnePlus 10T.

These ultra-fast charging speeds let these companies make extravagant claims about the fast charging capabilities of their phones. For example, OPPO's sister brand OnePlus claimed that its OnePlus 10T smartphone could be fully charged in 19 minutes using its 150W fast charger. Determined to take back the fast-charging crown, Xiaomi recently announced the launch of a new phone that supports a mind-boggling charging speed of 210W.

The Redmi Note 12 Discover Edition is a mid-tier handset that uses the MediaTek Dimensty 1080 chip. The Discover Edition's claim to fame is its 4300 mAh battery that can be charged from 0% to 100% in just 9 minutes using a 210W charger. Xiaomi had to make several changes to the phone's design to enable this feature. To begin with, the phone uses three different 100W charging chips to handle the charging and to allow optimum heat dissipation. Xiaomi also used a 10C dual-cell battery that has a revamped structure and is made using a new manufacturing process. The 210W charger supplied with the phone uses a dual GaN (Gallium Nitride) design to improve power density. Even the charging cable has been modified to 10.5A specifications and had its current carrying capacity increased by 75%.

In addition to breakneck charging speeds, the camera specs of the Redmi Note 12 also look impressive. The phone is the first to use Samsung's 200MP HPX image sensor. It can capture images in 12.5MP, 50MP, and 200MP resolutions. The primary lens also supports OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). In addition to the 200MP primary sensor, the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition also gets an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 12MP selfie camera. The 6.67-inch, FullHD display used on the device supports a 120Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi confirmed that the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition will go on sale in China starting October 30 with a price tag of RMB 2399 ($330).