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Xiaomi 12 Pro offers blazing fast 120W charging with one useful twist

Nadeem Sarwar
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Fast charging is hands down one of the best smartphone innovations of the past few years, but it also comes with legitimate battery health concerns in tow. High temperature is one of the key culprits affecting a Lithium-ion battery’s lifespan, prompting smartphone makers to invest heavily in improving the thermals. But in an industry where numbers really matter, losing the competitive edge is not an option. Xiaomi has come up with a way to offer an impressive 120W fast charging on its latest flagship while also negating the battery health concerns simultaneously.

The Xiaomi 12 Pro debuts with a 120W fast charging trick in its arsenal. One of the most common grievances that smartphone users report when it comes to fast charging is things getting toasty, which is not good for the battery’s health. To circumvent the problem, the Xiaomi 12 Pro will adopt a dual-charging mode approach. First in line is a low-temperature charging mode that keeps the temperature below the 37-degree centigrade mark. Of course, it is going to reduce the raw charging throughput, but in doing so, it ensures that the battery is juiced up without any risks whatsoever.

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And in scenarios where users need to top up the battery in a rush, the 120W charger will do the job in about 15 minutes with the standard charging mode enabled. A key advantage here is that buyers don’t have to shuffle between a low-capacity adapter and the supplied 120W charger to juice up their Xiaomi 12 Pro at a different pace based on the situation. And by offering customers an option to alternate between the two modes, Xiaomi is giving them the opportunity to make the more responsible choice and strike the right balance between blazing-fast charging and the overall battery health based on their day-to-day requirements.

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Two chips, one cell, and a whole lotta power

Xiaomi surge P1 chip.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

However, it’s not all about the charging modes though, as Xiaomi has made some major changes in the hardware department as well. To start, the company has created a whole new chip called the Surge P1 to bring its 120W charging trick to life on the Xiaomi 12 Pro. Moreover, the phone also adopts the single-cell design for the battery, while most of the industry is currently hooked to the two-cell design. The Xiaomi 11T Pro also offered support for 120W fast charging, but its battery pack was divided into two 2,500mAh units.

The single-cell architecture has been made possible using the Surge P1 chip. Instead of relying on series-parallel circuits of at least five different charge pumps that end up heating the whole system, Xiaomi is using two Surge P1 chips that reduce heat output by about 30% while maintaining high electric power flow. Thanks to the Surge P1 chip — touted to be Xiaomi’s most effective charging chip to date — the Xiaomi 12 Pro offers 120W wired fast charging, 50W wireless fast charging, and a 10W reverse wireless charging facility for juicing up accessories such as earbuds.

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Nadeem Sarwar
Nadeem Sarwar
Contributor
Nadeem is a tech journalist who started reading about cool smartphone tech out of curiosity and soon started writing…
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