As we all know, the concept of "flagship phone" has long been further subdivided. Basically, at a price of about 3,000 yuan, you can already buy a "flagship phone" that uses the latest generation and the strongest performance SoC. However, in addition to the SoC, the performance of this type of model is usually relatively average in terms of workmanship, image, screen, etc., which is basically equivalent to "buy a chip and get a mobile phone".
The budget is a little higher, and you will reach the most diverse price range of the "flagship". In this price segment, you can buy "gaming flagships" that focus on performance, display, and heat dissipation, as well as "fashion flagships" that focus on partial images, workmanship, and selfies. Of course, the vast majority of "business flagships" with safety, large capacity and long battery life as the main characteristics will not exceed this price point.
Next, there is the "top flagship" category that brands generally attach the most importance to. These models usually have the best workmanship, the strongest image configuration, the largest storage capacity in their generation, and at the same time the most comprehensive features possible. And they often have some exclusive, first-class hardware and software features to show the manufacturer's technical strength as much as possible.
But I don't know if you have noticed that for these "top flagships", there is such a function that is often their common technical and experience shortcomings. In this regard, the most expensive models are often inferior to many flagship phones that sell cheaply, and sometimes even some non-flagship products.
This is ultra-high-power wired fast charging.
Looking at the entire mobile phone market, you will find that the peak power of wired fast charging of today's top flagships is basically concentrated in the range of 80 to 100 watts. In contrast, many of the "non-top flagships" and even "non-flagships" are equipped with 120 watts, 165 watts, 200 watts, or even higher power wired fast charging.
Why is this the reason why these fast charges with high nominal numbers are actually not that fast? Judging from the data published by various companies and the data we have measured, this is not the case. For example, those models with a peak charging power of more than 200 watts can generally be fully charged from 1% in about 10 minutes. In contrast, the current top flagships use their 80-watt and 90-watt fast charging solutions, which often take more than half an hour, sometimes even about 1 hour to fully charge the battery, and the experience is obviously much slower.
So, is it because the ultra-high-power fast charging is too hot, and the user experience is not "perfect"? At first glance, this seems to make sense. But on the one hand, when the charging speed of the mobile phone is fast enough (for example, it can be charged to half of the battery in 3 or 5 minutes), the temperature control of "charging and using" becomes less important. After all, no matter how avid a user is, it is not difficult to put down the phone for a few minutes. On the contrary, no matter how optimized the charging of lower power but for a long time is, it is impossible to achieve no heat at all when "charging and using", and the impact on the user experience is more obvious.
And judging from some of the data released by various manufacturers before, the situation of "ultra-high power fast charging battery" is probably already an old calendar.
Looking at those ultra-fast charging models with a peak power of more than 200 watts, without exception, they all use special long-life batteries. Even if it is a charge a day, it can ensure a cycle life of more than 1600 times, which translates to more than 4 years of use, even for the flagship, this cycle is long enough. Not to mention that the official replacement battery service of the mainstream manufacturers in the Android camp is generally not high, and I really care so much about the battery life problem, just spend a few dozen yuan to replace the new battery, which is equivalent to extending the service life for several years.
In this way, what is the reason that prevents the emergence of ultra-high-power wired fast charging in the top flagship? According to our observation of Sanyi life, there may be two possibilities.
First, it is difficult to balance the energy density of the battery with the peak fast charging power. To put it more bluntly, because the top flagship models tend to have more internal materials, and the heat dissipation, image, and speaker components take up a lot of space, so they often need to use ultra-thin batteries to meet the requirements of feel and styling. However, considering the target user usage scenarios of the top flagships, the capacity of these ultra-thin batteries cannot be too small.
As we all know, high-density batteries are often not compatible with particularly high-power fast charging, so this leads to many models pursuing "ultra-high-speed fast charging" either have a relatively small battery capacity or a particularly thick body. And for top-of-the-line flagships, it is clear that "small capacity" and "thick body" are intolerable shortcomings. In contrast, charging slower is not so big.
On the other hand, cost pressures can also be a factor that is hard to ignore. You must know that whether it is an ultra-high-power charger or a battery that supports high-power, the hardware cost is much higher than that of ordinary fast charging design. This is not a difference of tens of yuan, but it is likely that a whole system will produce a cost increase of hundreds of yuan.
The problem is that for those models with relatively low positioning, it may not be difficult to save the cost of these hundreds of yuan (so that the price does not increase in the end), but for the top flagship, the design and configuration of many details are "not saved". Therefore, if you increase the power of fast charging on this basis, the final result is likely to be a direct and significant increase in the price.
Moreover, the current market status quo is that there is indeed not even a "top flagship" equipped with a wired fast charging solution higher than 120 watts. Therefore, for any mobile phone manufacturer, even if they can technically make the top flagship compatible with 160W, 200W, or even higher power fast charging, from the perspective of the market, it seems that it is not so necessary to significantly increase the price to achieve this function that is not currently the "focus of the target user".
[The picture in this article comes from the Internet]