OnePlus8T Killer Upgrade Revealed - and it blows up the iPhone12

OnePlus8T Killer Upgrade Revealed - and it blows up the iPhone12

The OnePlus 8T will indeed feature a dual-battery system that charges at breakneck speed, providing a day's worth of battery life on a 15-minute charge.

Yesterday, OnePlus posted a teaser animation of the charging technology that the OnePlus 8T will feature, but did not elaborate on how it will work. But we now know that it's super fast; the OnePlus 8T Warp Charge 65 technology should blow away the iPhone 12, which is rumored to offer only 20W of charging.

Speaking to PCMag, Oneplus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that the OnePlus 8T uses two battery packs with a combined capacity of 4,500 mAh, and that OnePlus' new Warp Charge 65 technology can charge to 100% in 39 minutes. OnePlus' new Warp Charge 65 technology can charge the phone to 100% in 39 minutes.

"It's like filling a pool with water using two pipes of the same size. If the pipes are the same size, it is definitely faster to run water through two pipes instead of one," Lau said.

"By the same logic, we could increase the voltage while maintaining the same current level so that the charger could charge two batteries at the same time, resulting in a more efficient and powerful charging solution."

This is considerably more powerful than other phones on the market, such as Samsung's Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, which charges a 4,500mAh battery to 56% in 30 minutes on a 25W charger. The upcoming iPhone 12 is also expected to support 20W charging, but it will not charge as fast as the OnePlus 8T.

Splitting the battery is not new, as it is used in folding phones. However, doing this in a non-folding phone would give the OnePlus 8T a significant charging upgrade over the OnePlus 8, which uses the Warp Charge 30T.

In our review of the OnePlus 8, we saw the battery regularly fill up from depleted to 68% charge after 30 minutes. However, with the Warp Charge 65 and the twin battery system, the OnePlus 8T will be fully charged in just nine more minutes of power siphoning.

This is likely to come in handy because of the 120 Hz refresh rate display, as opposed to the 90 Hz of the previous model; a 120 Hz display can be quite power hungry, so battery life is expected to be a bit faster.

The OnePlus Plus 8T is also likely to feature the Snapdragon 865 Plus, which offers improved peak performance over the Snapdragon 865 in the OnePlus 8. Therefore, when running at full speed, the OnePlus 8T is expected to consume more power.

Lau also revealed that other tidbits about the Warp Charge 65 include that it will be the first OnePlus charger to use USB-C connections on both sides. This is a big change, but it does mean that the Warp Charge 65 block will work with phones that use the USB-C PD charging standard.

Lau also noted how voltage conversion will take place in the charger rather than the phone to prevent heat buildup due to increased charger power, which is fairly standard for OnePlus chargers. The Warp Charge 65 also keeps the charging voltage low, thus preventing heat buildup due to increased electrical resistance.

However, this charging technology comes at a price: the OnePlus 8T will not feature wireless charging.

One of the things that prevented OnePlus phones from becoming true flagship devices was the lack of wireless charging; OnePlus finally bought into wireless charging with the OnePlus 8 Pro, but that seems to have stopped. Lau noted that the OnePlus 8T's chassis does not have room for a wireless charging coil, probably due to the dual-battery design.

"We feel that implementing the coil components needed for wireless charging would increase the thickness of the phone and affect the overall design and user experience," Lau explained.

Some may lament this omission, while others who don't use wireless chargers much may shrug their shoulders. We'll reserve judgment until we get our hands on the OnePlus 8T, and with its full reveal scheduled for October 14, we won't have to wait too long.

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