It is not always that the actual spec is better than the rumor, but that is the case here: the OnePlus 9 Pro supports 50W wireless charging – slightly faster than the 45W rumor we reported earlier this year. We were able to test this feature before the phone’s official debut on March 23 and we can confirm: the 9 Pro offers very, very fast wireless charging.
OnePlus claims that the phone will charge wirelessly (with the new Warp Charge 50 charger) from 1 to 100 percent in 43 minutes, and our own tests confirmed this by the minute. This is a big boost over the OnePlus 8 Pro’s 30 W wireless charging, which provided 50 percent charge in 30 minutes. The improvements are not limited to wireless charging, or the 9 Pro for that matter; the 9 and 9 Pro have a 65 W wired charge that takes the battery from empty to full in 29 minutes. Although the base model OnePlus 9 does not achieve these fast wireless speeds, it can be used with the new charger up to 15W. In addition, the 9 and 9 Pro support standard 15W Qi wireless charging.
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Fast charging has definitely been OnePlus’ “thing” for a while and, according to Kinder Liu, COO and head of R&D, it has been a hit with customers. “Since the launch of our first fast charging technology with OnePlus 3, we’ve heard a lot of positive feedback, with many OnePlus users saying that it fundamentally changed the way they charge their devices. They can simply recharge for a day’s charge while preparing in the morning instead of charging overnight.
The OnePlus 9-series uses a dual-cell battery design introduced for the first time in the 8T, which is part of the 9 Pro’s formula to achieve such fast wireless charging speeds: each cell is charged at 25W simultaneously. The OnePlus uses higher voltage energy, which produces less heat than using higher amps and avoids frying the phone by channeling the energy through a proprietary charge pump.
The 9 Pro’s dual-cell battery design also helps to mitigate the heat produced by wireless charging, along with some other design tweaks to aid in heat dissipation, such as thicker copper foil and a larger heat sink. There is also an important feature in the charger itself that we were grateful for in our tests: a fan. The added fan noise is not ideal if the charger is on the nightstand, but for the Pro 9 owner who wants to maintain their night charging routine, quieter charging is supported during sleep mode.
The new charger also includes two charging coils, making it possible to charge the phone in horizontal or vertical orientation. This is useful if you want to multitask your loading time and watch a video as well, which OnePlus says shouldn’t affect the loading speed. We were unable to confirm this in our initial test, but it is something we will follow up on. As for the cost of the charger, we don’t have prices yet, but last year’s Warp Charge 30 chargers didn’t come cheap – the cushion version was launched for $ 69.95 and the supported version for $ 79.95.