From our previous blog on fast charging technology and how different brands have morphed this technology to provide unique charging experiences on their devices, we will be looking at a recent charging technology from OnePlus called Warp Charging.

What is Warp Charging?

A year ago, OnePlus released a limited edition of their OnePlus 6T devices in collaboration with McLaren. This device, called One Plus 6T McLaren Edition had many impressive features, however, the Warp Charge 30 technology has to be the highlight of the mobile device. Recently, OnePlus released the OnePlus 7 Pro which equally comes with the Warp Charging technology, gradually assigning it more popular in their devices.

The word “Warp” as a technological term denotes something of extremely high speed. As such, it is easy for us to understand that Warp Charging suggest a very high charging speed, faster than the previous Dash Charge of OnePlus devices.

How does Warp Charging Work?

According to OnePlus, with Warp Charging, your phone can charge up to 50% from 0% in 20 minutes, and to a full charge in less than an hour. While other charging technologies employ increased voltage to increase the power being supplied for charging, Warp Charging makes use of increased amperage. Rather than the heat being generated while charging traveling to the battery, most of the heat is dissipated in the adapter. Consequently, only a little heat arrives on the phone battery.

 Most smartphones have extremely reactive batteries, which is why phone manufacturers protect the charging circuitry of their devices. Although Lithium-ion batteries accept more power, over time, they tend to get hot easily and this can be quite harmful to the devices they power. The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition’s battery is assembled with 8-layer protection board for the effective cooling of the battery and upgraded components for improved battery protection structure

Similar to Dash Charge, the Warp Charge technology is based on OPPO’s Super Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging (Super VOOC) standard. At a regular voltage of 5V, Warp charge can attain 30W at 6A.

Warp Charge vs Dash Charge

The notable difference between the two systems of fast charging is the wattage increase present for Warp Charging. The Warp Charger Adapter comes as a 30W unit accompanied by a 5V/6A configuration at its peak but stepped down to a safer 5V/2A at 10W as the mobile device gets nearer to maximum charge. The Dash Charge, however, employs a 5V/4A configuration at 20W.

A test carried out by BGR to compare the speed of the Warp Charge against Dash Charge used drained OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. With both phones having a similar battery capacity of 3,700mAh and using the appropriate adapters and cables, both phones were switched off. The test recorded a significant difference in the charging speeds. The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition with its Warp Charge feature had a charging rate of 2.5 percent per minute for the first 20 minutes while the OnePlus 6T featuring the Dash Charge maintained a charging rate of 1.75 percent per minute for the same time. After the first 20 minutes of charging, the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition had a slower charging rate. However, at the full charge of the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition in 1 hour 3 minutes, the One Plus 6T was at 93%.

At the end of the test, the considerable difference between Warp Charge and Dash Charge is the initial boost the Warp Charge offers. You get a day’s battery life in lesser time than with the Dash Charge.

Warp Charge vs Quick Charge

Apart from Warp Charge having a faster-charging speed than Quick Charge, Quick Charge uses Qualcomm which uses higher voltages for charging batteries. While the Warp Charge supplies 5V of current at 6A to reach 30W, Quick Charge 3.0 peaks at 6.5v to achieve a 19.5W at 3A.

Warp Charge on Older OnePlus Phones

Currently, Warp Charge is available only on the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition and OnePlus 7 Pro. Other OnePlus phones are not compatible for Warp Charge due to the safeguards that need to be put in place to cater for the higher charging speed. 

Volta 2.0 Gives You Warp Charging!

However, using the Warp Charger 30 Power Adapter on other OnePlus phones will still charge the phone with Dash Charge speed. The regular OnePlus Fast Charge cable will still charge the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition and OnePlus 7 Pro at Warp Charge 30 speed. The combination of the Warp Charge 30 Power Adapter and the Volta 2.0 will also give you warp charge on any warp-charge enabled OnePlus device.

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