MediaTek’s Pump Express 3.0 charges your phone from dead to 70% in just 20 minutes

With offerings ranging from Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 to the Oppo Vooc, the smartphone market is not desperate for quick-charging solutions. Regardless, MediaTek announced the next iteration of its own quick-charging technology, the Pump Express 3.0, that promises to deliver on the promise of “flash charging.”

Though it may bring your local gas station to mind, the Pump Express 3.0 comes promises to charge devices from 0 to 70 percent in just 20 minutes, a ludicrously fast charging time that is a boon for people needing a quick top-up before heading out. However, keep in mind that MediaTek did not say what its test setup looks like or the battery capacity of the test device.

Furthermore, according to MediaTek, the Pump Express 3.0 is the first charging solution to utilize USB Type-C’s Power Delivery standard, which allows for direct charging. In other words, power dissipation from charging is greatly diminished, thanks to the Pump Express 3.0 delivering a direct charge to the battery, rather than passing first through the charging circuitry inside the phone. Direct charging also prevents the device from overheating while charging, with the standard also helping to reduce power dissipation by 50 percent when compared to the Pump Express 2.0.

For those worried that such fast charging could blow up your phone battery, MediaTek assures us that the Pump Express 3.0 utilizes 20 safety mechanisms, as well as a continuous conversation between the charger and device, in order to avoid disaster. Safety mechanisms include everything from temperature monitoring to adjusting the voltage in order to provide optimal charging times.

According to MediaTek, devices powered by the company’s Helio P20 chipset, expected to land sometime in the second half of 2016, will be the first devices to support the Pump Express 3.0. Other chipsets are also expected to support MediaTek’s newest charging standard, though we should expect devices powered by those chipsets to land later rather than sooner.