OPPO tones down SuperVOOC fast charging (and is better for it)

SuperVOOC was once one of the fastest charging options in the smartphone world, but now it’s trying out its latest iteration OPPO Find X8 Pro It feels slower. The flagship takes 50 minutes to fully charge using an 80W SuperVOOC charger (why USB-A, OPPO, why?), which feels markedly better than the roughly 27 minutes I measured on last year’s OPPO Find X7 Ultra slow. one plus 12and even the slightly older Find X6 Pro. What to give?

Well, previous eras of ultra-fast speeds came with one significant compromise – higher temperatures. Last year’s Find X7 Ultra hit a high of 38.4°C, while the slightly smaller X8 Pro only hit 35.7°C. This may not seem like a huge difference, but gradually approaching (or exceeding) 40°C can be exponentially worse for the long-term health of your battery. Staying in your 30s will win people over. The downside of the Find X8 Pro is that it barely reaches its peak charging potential, spending just a minute at 70W before dropping to well below 40W (which is a more mainstream power level).

By the way, this change also makes Find X8 Pro better than Google Pixel 9 Pro XL controversial 37W and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 45W charging, which have maximum temperatures of 41.8°C and 39.2°C respectively (although the average temperatures are very similar). They also take longer to charge, at 77 minutes and 62 minutes respectively, although the critical times for reaching 50% and 75% battery capacity are within a few minutes of each other and the Find X8 Pro.

While the latest version of SuperVOOC may look like a downgrade in some respects, it still fills up faster and is cooler than mainstream Western brands, so OPPO still wins on that front. Pairs with ColorOS 15’s other battery options, including over 80% Smart Charging, which works much like Google’s Adaptive Charging, and 80% charging limit Switching over, it’s clear that long-term battery health is replacing overcharging sooner – a truly consumer-friendly move.

Unfortunately, if you still crave fast charging regardless of temperature, the OPPO doesn’t quite meet your needs, at least in my testing. The Find X8 Pro offers a “Smart Fast Charging” option, which is said to allow for faster charging at the expense of higher temperatures, but this still doesn’t bring the phone back to the level of previous versions (although it claims it does I saved 11 minutes) on a single charge). With this mode enabled, the Find X8 Pro fully charged in a slightly faster 48 minutes, but the battery profile was the same, so I chalked up the difference to the margin of error. The peak temperature barely changed at 36.1°C, so I’m not sure under what conditions this mode triggers different behavior, or if it works as expected.

I tested using the official SuperVOOC 80W and 100W plugs, which are pretty cool in the UK at this time of year, but I wasn’t able to sustain peak power for very long. Perhaps the preset mode limits charging more aggressively in warmer conditions, but that means a charge time of around 50 minutes is already the fastest on this phone. More annoyingly, the 5A cable included with the Find X7 Ultra and X6 Pro limits the device to only 3A/25W, despite working fine on other OPPO phones. Weird.

Despite the drop in charge times and cable crap, I actually think the OPPO SuperVOOC in the Find X8 Pro is the best version I’ve ever used. A full charge in 30 minutes is a luxury, but rarely necessary except in rare circumstances. Able to charge to 75% in 35 minutes and fully charged in about 50 minutes, it’s fast enough, especially when paired with the phone’s rock-solid battery life. But more on that another time.

While OPPO may use cheaper batteries in this year’s models (which OPPO doesn’t want to stress too much about), lower temperatures ultimately ensure long-term battery health and reduce expensive hardware replacements. Plus, the X8 Pro is still cooler and faster than many other flagships on the market, especially those from Apple, Google, and Samsung. I also managed to ensure USB powered PPS The phone’s charging power is 25W, so it won’t charge that fast, but it can achieve decent fast charging times through a variety of third-party plugs and accessories. Some sources indicate that via USB PD the phone can draw more than 40W, but I was unable to do this despite using a 6A cable and a charger that supports 5A PD and PPS.

Overall, OPPO has done a pretty good job here, but there are some cable issues due to its proprietary standard and the silly choice of tying itself to USB-A. I still prefer the 60W+ USB PD like the one found on the phone ASUS ROG Phone 9but taking the cooler SuperVOOC approach is also a good move. However, fans of SuperVOOC fast charging will undoubtedly be disappointed by the much slower charging times. Maybe OPPO is reserving its ultra-fast performance for the Find X8 Ultra in China.