Oppo marketing isn’t shy about promoting the company’s proprietary fast-charging technology. With the multiple versions of Qualcomm’s Quick-Charge and USB Type-C already giving us all a headache, do we really another proprietary option? As it turns out… we might.
In my first few days owning the Oppo F1 Plus, I’ve been impressed by its charging capabilities. I could plug it in when virtually empty and have a full battery again in about an hour. What’s awesome about this kind of quick charging is that it changes the default behavior of plugging in a phone at night to charge while I’m asleep. Instead, I can leave it then plug it in when I wake up in the morning. By the time my kids are ready and out the house for school, the phone is fully charged.
To see how good it really is I had to compare it to some other chargers on the market. For the comparison I have the Moto X Style/Pure with its awesome TurboPower 25 charger, the Galaxy S7 Edge with its adaptive fast-charging power adapter, the Huawei P9 with its 10W (5V/2A) adapter and the Oppo F1 Plus with the VOOC charger and bespoke cable.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAS76EZ87dc]
For the all important specs, here are the figures you need to know:
Galaxy S7 Edge
- Battery capacity – 3600mAh
- Adaptive fast-charging adapter – either 9V/1.57A or 5V/2A (15 or 10W) output
Huawei P9
- Battery capacity – 3000mAh
- Switching power adapter – 5V/2A (10W) output
Moto X Style
- Battery capacity – 3000mAh
- TurboPower 25 Charger – either 9V/2.85A or 12V/2.1A (26/25W) output
Oppo F1 Plus
- Battery capacity – 2850mAh
- VOOC Charger – 5V/4A (20W) output
From looking at all the specifications alone, it’s clear the Oppo F1 Plus should be competing for top spot with the Moto X Style. Having 150mAh lower capacity will certainly help, but so should the VOOC charging technology itself. While most types of Quick-Charging get from 0-80% really quickly and then charge a little slower from 80-100%, VOOC can do a longer first stint of charging.
What’s more, it’s not affected by the phone being used anywhere near as much. That means, it’ll continue to charge quickly, even if you’re watching a video or gaming while the device is plugged in and it won’t get overly hot.
To test the charging speeds, and to test Oppo’s claims that it charges quickly even when the phone is being used, I drained all four devices below my own personal point of anxiety: The dreaded 15%. They weren’t all at exactly the same level, but I gave three phones a slight head start on the Oppo. I then lined up YouTube Playlists on all of them, plugged them in and streamed the video for 40mins non-stop.
Using Ampere, a free Android app, I could see battery level and temperature. The results after 40 mins charging while watching video simultaneously were as follows:
Galaxy S7 Edge
- Battery started at 12% with a temperature of 22℃
- Battery after 40mins was 30%, with a temperature of 27.6℃
- Approximate gain of 648mAh (18%) and 5.6℃
Huawei P9
- Battery started at 14% with a temperature of 21℃
- Battery after 40mins was 33% , with a temperature of 33℃
- Approximate gain of 570mAh (19%) and 12℃
Moto X Style
- Battery started at 13% with a temperature of 25.5℃
- Battery after 40mins was 74% , with a temperature of 41.7℃
- Approximate gain of 1964mAh (61%) and 16.2℃
Oppo F1 Plus
- Battery started at 10% with a temperature of 21.7℃
- Battery after 40mins was 88%, with a temperature of 31.5℃
- Approximate gain of 2223mAh (78%) and 9.8℃
In the end, not only did the Oppo F1 Plus get charged to a much higher percentage level than any of the other phones, it did so without gaining too much heat. Its internal temperature rose by less than 10 percent. The only phone that ran cooler during the charging process was the S7 Edge, which charged to a much lower level and about 1/3rd of the capacity.
What I did notice at random intervals during the testing process, was that the Motorola’s super powerful charger was really good for the first 20-30mins. But in that final 10 mins, as the phone got noticeably warmer and its charge rate dropped, while the Oppo F1 Plus continued at its fast pace and overtook it quite comfortably. Had I gone another 10 mins, I’m fairly sure the Oppo would have hit 100% (or been very close to it).
On initial testing then, it seems the VOOC charging tech is the real deal. It doesn’t just charge quickly when the phone is off and sat on a bedside table, it charges quickly when in use too.
Given the fact that the Type C standard charger in the Nexus 6P’s retail box is a 5V/3A 15W adapter, and that Quick Charge 3.0 devices like the LG G5 and HTC 10 have 16W and 15W chargers respectively, we’re hard pushed to believe that there’s anything much better out there right now in terms of fast charging capability, particularly during use.
The Oppo F1 Plus is available to pre-order in India now, and will be available on Amazon in the UK very soon.
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