Realme's 125W phone charging is so fast it's a little bit scary

Realme is one of the more interesting smartphones around, making some of the best Android phones – especially if you're on a tight budget. And one of the most interesting things about its 2022 phones is usually one of the dullest: its charging. That's because Realme's GT 2 Series will have a ridiculously fast 125W charger for 2022. That's nearly 10 times more power than my iPhone 13 gets from its MagSafe charger.

In our recent sit-down with the firm, charging was one of the big topics: as Realme president Madhav Sheth explained, "any innovation has to be useful". So rather than focus on gimmicky features that won't make a huge difference to your day, Realme is interested in things like faster charging so that a mid-day 10-minute charge delivers "complete peace of mind" that your phone won't run out of power.

Faster chargers and faster processors too

We've just reviewed the Realme 9 Pro and found it to be great value for money with a good display, a huge battery and an unusual and stylish design. But the forthcoming Realme GT 2 Pro, which is also coming to the UK and European market, will be a considerably more powerful device, and not just because of its extremely powerful charger. It's going to have the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor that we're seeing in high-end phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 along with a 120Hz display and an impressive camera array. 

I'm with Realme on the subject of charging: it might not be the most exciting feature but it's one that makes a big difference, and if you tend to hammer your phone's battery all day long the faster you can recharge the less battery anxiety you're going to have. As convenient as wireless charging can be, it's no substitute for sticking in a cable to juice up your phone as fast as possible – and with 125W on tap with these phones, that's going to be very fast indeed.

Now, I assume that Realme will have tested the feature to destruction, and that it's all perfectly safe… but faster charging means more heat generated. A lot more, and overheated batteries and connections in phones are bad news. So a bit like walking out onto glass balconies on tall buildings, while I don't doubt that it's perfectly safe, I'm still very nervous about the idea.

T3 will get to see it in action soon, though: the new Realme GT series will be revealed at MWC 2022 on 28 February. If it follows the company's tradition of delivering a lot of bang for not a lot of buck it could be one of the most interesting Android launches we'll see at MWC.