The Xiaomi 11T series was just announced today and is an almost completely different phone from the Xiaomi Mi 11 that was introduced earlier this year. At this point, however, we're going to lay aside almost every feature of this phone and concentrate on its tremendously powerful charging.

Xiaomi has included a 120W charging system in the Xiaomi 11T Pro; the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra uses the same standard, but it was only sold in China and is not Xiaomi's first 120W phone. But the wait was worth it, as the 11T Pro has jumped to the top of our list of fastest charging phones.

Xiaomi has its own numbers for the 11T Pro's charging speed, but of course we had to test this purported lightning-fast speed ourselves: after draining the phone's battery (using a combination of YouTube and Civ VI), we plugged in the phone and stoppedwatch started.

After 10 minutes, the 11T was at 43% and reached 50% at about 11 minutes 30 seconds. It was 23 minutes later when the cell phone chimed and announced that it was 100% full. After that, the cell phone was indeed warm to the touch, but not uncomfortable to hold.

Twenty-three minutes to completely fill a cell phone is unprecedented for a commercial cell phone. Currently, the fastest charging phone we have tested is the OnePlus 9 Pro, with a 4,500mAh battery and a 65W charging system that was able to charge to 61% in 15 minutes and 99% in 30 minutes.

Thus, the Xiaomi 11T Pro is nearly a third faster than the OnePlus 9 Pro, but this is only looking at capacity percentages; the Xiaomi's battery capacity is 5,000 mAh, larger than the OnePlus's 4,500 mAh, so in theory it is faster The charge should last longer, but we have not yet tested how long the 11T Pro's battery will last.

Samsung and Apple's latest models make poor comparisons. Samsung's Galaxy S21 series charges at up to 25W and charges to about 50% in 30 minutes. iPhone12 can also charge to 50% in 30 minutes, but uses 20W wired charging. However, neither phone even achieves these speeds by default, as neither phone comes bundled with a charger.

Unfortunately, our test results were a bit slower than Xiaomi's numbers. According to Xiaomi, the 11T Pro can be fully charged in just 17 minutes. The difference is probably due to the fact that Xiaomi tested the phone under strict lab conditions suitable for fast charging.

If you're worried about how this extreme wattage will affect battery life, Xiaomi says there's no need to worry. Xiaomi claims that even after 500 repeated charges, the battery will maintain up to 80% of its original capacity. In other words, assuming you drain your phone every day, you'll be using it for about a year and two-thirds before you start to see any meaningful change in battery life.

Beyond this fast charging, the two new Xiaomi 11T models are very different from the Xiaomi Mi 11 launched in the UK earlier this year.

The 11T and 11T Pro feature identical flat 6.67-inch AMOLED displays that feature 120Hz adaptive refresh rates. They also share the same camera system, consisting of a 108MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 5MP telemacro camera, and a 16MP selfie camera on the front. Both models have the same 5,000 mAh battery, but the base 11T uses a slower but still rapid 67W wired charger.

Other than charging speed, the main difference between the two is the chipset: the 11T Pro has a Snapdragon 888, while the 11T uses the Dimensity 1200-Ultra. Both models have 8GB RAM and 128GB/256GB storage options, while the 11T Pro has 12GB/256GB options.

We have the 11T Pro on our desk for a full review in the near future. For now, however, it is safe to say that this 120W charging system shatters expectations for cell phone charging speeds.