240W fast charging will charge this smartphone fully in under 10 minutes

In practical terms, we’re really reaching the point of diminishing returns with such high fast-charging power on smartphones. Realme advertises that the GT Neo 5’s 4,600mAh battery can be charged to 100% in nine and a half minutes thanks to its 240W charging. That’s super fast, but it’s also basically the same as what Redmi was claiming 210W charging on the Note 12 Discovery Edition could achieve last year (although admittedly it has a slightly smaller 4,300mAh battery). If you’re looking for a partial charge, Realme’s new phone can hit 20% in 80 seconds and 50% in four minutes.

Here’s an on-stage demo of the RealMe GT Neo 5 fast charging in action:

Realme is owned by BBK Electronics, the same company that owns Oppo and OnePlus. Oppo actually showed off a 240W fast charging solution at Mobile World Congress 2022, which this new Realme phone is presumably using. 240W fast charging has yet to appear in a released Oppo or OnePlus phone.

The Realme GT Neo 5 has only been announced for the Chinese market at the moment, where it will actually be sold in a few different charging configurations. The 240W version is, as you’d expect, the more expensive of the two. Pricing starts at 3,199 yuan (about $472) for 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s also a version with ‘slower’ 150W charging, although it’s worth noting that it has a slightly larger 5,000mAh battery. The 150W model starts at 2,599 yuan (about $383) with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Beyond its fast charging, the GT Neo 5 also stands out with interesting RGB lighting on the back. It does not cover the entire back like the Nothing Phone 1but the small square to the right of its cameras serves a similar purpose as a notification light and can also turn red to let you know when the phone’s battery is low.

Otherwise, the GT Neo 5 is a fairly standard Android device. It has a 6.74-inch 1240p 144Hz OLED display and runs Qualcomm’s flagship processor from last year, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. There are three rear cameras, but while the main sensor is 50 megapixels, the ultrawide only has 8 megapixels in resolution, and the macro sensor is limited to just 2 megapixels. It is available in white, black or purple.

There’s no word yet on international availability and pricing, but with Mobile World Congress due to take place in Barcelona in a few weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more then. However, based on previous releases from Realme, I don’t expect the phone to get an official release in North America.