- Kyle Chua
MWC 2022 Day One Roundup: Oppo's 150W Fast-Charging Solution, Snapdragon X70, Honor Magic 4
The first day of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022 at Barcelona, Spain is in the books and there are plenty of announcements to unpack.
We’re rounding up some of the ones that caught our eyes here.
Oppo’s New Charging Solutions
Oppo has been refining its fast-charging solution for quite a while now and MWC is where it usually first demonstrates its latest breakthroughs. This year is no exception, with the Chinese brand unveiling its 150W SuperVOOC flash charge at the event – almost double the power flow of the 80W solution on the recently launched Find X5 Pro. The new solution can reportedly fully charge a 4,500mAh dual-cell battery in 15 minutes and 50% in five minutes. What’s more, it’s been announced that it will be one of the features of the next OnePlus flagship phone, due out sometime in Q2 2022. Realme, a spinoff brand of Oppo, is also expected to debut the fast-charging solution with its soon-to-be-released GT Neo 3.
For those worried about eventual battery damage, Oppo notes that the new solution is supported by the brand’s own Battery Health Engine, which is touted to significantly prolong a battery’s lifespan. This proprietary battery health tech is said to allow batteries to last 1,600 cycles, equating to about four years of use with daily recharging. The brand further announced that Battery Health Engine will become a staple for its flagships in the future as well as those from OnePlus and likely Realme.
Seemingly one-upping itself, Oppo also announced a 240W SuperVOOC flash charge solution that can fully charge a 4,500mAh battery in just nine minutes. As to when we’ll see this on phones, however, remains to be seen. It’s likely not ready for mass implementation yet, but the brand claims that it’s safe and follows standards for battery thermal management.
ZTE Blade V40 Series
Meanwhile, telecommunications equipment manufacturer ZTE launched the Blade V40 series, consisting of the base V40, the V40 5G, V40 Vita and the V40 Pro. Among the four, the V40 5G has the best specs and is the only member of the series with support for the new mobile network standard. The Pro model, on the other hand, charges the fastest, supporting 65W fast charging, which can power the handset’s 5,100mAh battery by 50% in 15 minutes. The Vita model has the largest screen, measuring 6.75 inches. Last but not least is the vanilla model, an entry-level handset with a fairly sizable 6.67-inch screen and a triple rear camera configuration. The series is scheduled to hit markets in April, though details on price have yet to be announced.
Qualcomm's New Silicon
Qualcomm was also at the show to announce a new smartphone modem, the Snapdragon X70. This new radio chip can connect to every commercial band in the 5G spectrum, from 600MHz to 41GHz, eliminating compatibility annoyances when buying new smartphones. The chip also uses built-in artificial intelligence to optimise power efficiency by up to 60%. It has a peak speed of 10Gbps and a peak uplink speed of 3.5Gbps. The chipmaker hopes to start distributing the X70 to smartphone manufacturers later this year, meaning we likely won’t be able to get our hands on it until 2023.
Additionally, the company introduced the FastConnect 7800 platform, which it claims is the world's first connectivity solution to meet Wi-Fi 7 specifications. The solution can reportedly deliver speeds of up to 5.8Gbps and sub-2 millisecond latency thanks to High Band Simultaneous (HBS) Multi-Link technology that uses four streams from two separate radios to access high-spectrum bands. FastConnect 7800 also features Snapdragon Sound, promising lossless 16-bit CD-quality audio over Bluetooth. It supports Bluetooth 5.3 and LE audio, which should improve overall sound quality in devices that use these radio bands. Qualcomm further adds that even with these enhancements, the platform consumes up to 50% less power. FastConnect 7800 is said to be sampling now, with the platform targeting commercial availability in the second half of the year, though it likely won't be available in devices until 2023 at the earliest. Even then, if Wi-Fi 6 is any indication, Wi-Fi 7 won't become a mainstream standard for another year or two.
Lenovo Laptops and Tablets
Lenovo has more laptops in the pipeline. While the company isn’t physically present at MWC, it did launch a host of new laptops and tablets at the show, including new additions to its ThinkPad and IdeaPad lines. We won’t get to all the reveals here, but there are a couple we’d like to highlight.
One of which is the new ThinkPad X13s, a laptop that is supposedly capable of pushing battery life up to two days. And this is thanks to it being powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 mobile processor. The chipset also allows it to connect to sub-6Ghz 5G frequencies for faster connectivity. It also packs an Adreno GPU, up to 32GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 1TB of internal storage.
Another exciting addition to Lenovo’s laptop lineup is the new IdeaPad Gaming 3 series, which consists of four budget-friendly gaming laptops. Perhaps the biggest selling point here is the option to have a 16-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, previously seen on the pricier Legion 5 Pro. This gives gamers more vertical screen real estate to enhance their immersion while playing.
Lenovo also unveiled the IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook tablet, which features a larger screen and a faster processor than its predecessor. This year’s model features an 11-inch panel with a 2K resolution in a 5:3 aspect ratio – an upgrade from last year’s 10-inch panel. It also trades the MediaTek processor for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip, coupled with either 4GB or 8GB of RAM.
Honor Magic 4
Honor also launched its new flagship duo at MWC 2022, the Magic 4 and the Magic 4 Pro. Both handsets are powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chipset and come with 6.8-inch displays with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. However, arguably the most noteworthy feature in the series is exclusive to the Pro model – 100W wired and wireless charging. The former Huawei sub-brand claims that the Magic 4 Pro can wirelessly charge up to 50% in just 15 minutes. Wired is almost the same, with the 4,600mAh pack taking about 30 minutes to fully charge using a cable.
The first day of MWC 2022 has wrapped and with it came plenty of new announcements, ranging from new charging technologies and new devices.
Oppo debuted two of its latest breakthrough in fast-charging tech at the show: a 150W and a 240W solution.
Some of the new smartphones that were announced include ZTE's Blade V40 series and Honor's Magic 4 duo.