Manufacturers including Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo are planning to unveil power chargers based on GaN (gallium nitride) technology this year, potentially offering support for fast charging up to 65W.
The news comes from a report in IT Home, so don’t take this as official confirmation just yet, but if it is true then we could be charging out gadgets at a substantially faster rate in the not-too-distant future.
GaN chargers are more efficient and smaller, and require less components than their silicon counterparts. It should also mean more versatile chargers that are able to power up a broader range of devices over USB-C.
As with most emerging tech, it’s been the high cost of manufacturing that has kept GaN chargers out of mainstream use up until this point. However, companies are now working out ways of getting these chargers into the hands of consumers at a reasonable price.
When a GaN comes together
Plenty of GaN devices were on show at CES 2020, a sure sign that the technology is ready to make a breakthrough over the next 12 months. You can already buy some third-party chargers based on GaN.
Xiaomi already has a GaN charger on the market in fact, which works with the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro phone to charge up its battery from zero to full in 45 minutes (you’ll still need a phone or laptop that supports the faster rate of course).
As for what companies like Apple and Samsung might be planning to do with the technology, that remains to be seen. The fastest charger Apple currently sells with its iPhones is the 18W one bundled with the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
The new report gives no indication of when we might expect these new GaN chargers to appear, but we don’t think we’ll be waiting too long, considering products with the technology built in are already on the market.
Via MacRumors
