Oppo Find X5 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G: battle of the fast-charge phones
We've all been there – that moment you realise you forgot to charge your phone and you're about to leave home. But new, quick-charging phones have arrived to make this a thing of the past, claiming to fully charge in well under one hour without compromising on battery life.
Mobile phone manufacturers have often sacrificed battery life and quick charging times for power in their best, flagship phones. But Oppo's latest Find X5 range goes against the trend with super-fast charging capabilities. All Oppo Find X5 mobile phones come with chargers that Oppo claims will fully charge them in just 35 minutes.
But do you have to spend a fortune on a mobile phone for fast-charging? Xiaomi is firmly saying 'no' with its latest Note 11 Pro range. With 120W HyperCharge, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T Pro 5G claims to fully charge the phone in just 17 minutes. Read on to find out how close they got in our tests.
Looking for a great deal on a new phone? Check out our best mobile phones deals for our latest recommendations.
Oppo's new Find X5 range
Oppo’s new Find X5 mobile phone comes with some notable upgrades from 2021’s Find X3 series. The quick-charging caught our attention, and we sent them to the lab to see if they delivered.
Along with the standard Oppo Find X5, Oppo has released the Find X5 Pro with added bells and whistles, plus a more budget-friendly option in the Find X5 Lite. Find out what each model offers below.
Oppo Find X5 Lite (£419) – a versatile, mid-range snapper
The Oppo X5 Lite is the smallest and cheapest in the range. Its display is still a decent size at a 6.4-inches with 1,080 x 2,400 resolution. At its heart sits an upgraded eight core Mediatek Dimension 900 chipset, coupled with 8GB of Ram.
There's a 32Mp wide selfie camera and the rear cameras are made up of a 64Mp main camera along with a 8Mp wide lens and a 2Mp macro lens. The refined software features improve photos and videos like Portrait Mode’s 25 levels of adjustable aperture for professional-looking pictures in portrait mode, and AI Highlight Video to brighten dark scenes and keep good levels of detail. You can also record using both the rear and front cameras at the same time with Dual-View Video. These are exciting specifications for a mid-range handset.
It's fuelled by a 4,500mAh battery and comes with a fast 67W charger. Oppo promises this will charge the Find X5 Lite in just 35 minutes - and it did just this in our independent tests, which is some achievement.
To find out how long it lasted, and whether performance is up to scratch elsewhere, read our full Oppo Find X5 Lite review. Or, check out contract deals on the Oppo Find X5 Lite.
Oppo Find X5 (£749) – superior power and speed
The Oppo Find X5 has a number of improvements over the Oppo Find X5 Lite. This includes the premium eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Mobile Platform processor, a larger 6.6-inch OLED display with 1,080 x 2,400 resolution, and extra camera features. It also looks expensive with a sleek design with frosting matte glass.
Extra camera perks include Hasselblad Natural Colours to give your pictures the most natural-looking colours. The 4K Ultra Night Video records without overexposing the image, and Ultra Dark Video brightens videos even in extremely low light conditions.
Were Oppo's fast charging claims around it's 5,000 mAh battery vindicated in our lab? Not quite. It took only 40 minutes to charge to 100%, which is slightly longer than the 34 minutes it's touting. But that's not far off, and a lot quicker than the flagship models from industry-giants Apple and Samsung.
Can the Oppo Find X5 achieve excellence beyond quick-charging? The results are in so check out our Oppo Find X5 review and browse Oppo Find X5 contract deals.
Oppo Find X5 Pro (£1,049) – the ultimate VIP
The Oppo Find X5 Pro model will give you the most versatile pictures and videos in the range. The rear camera-set up consists of a 50MP wide lens, a 13MP telephoto lens and a 50MP ultrawide lens with a 2Mp depth camera too. But it does have the same 32Mp selfie camera as the other phones in the range. Software exclusive to the Pro includes a 5-axis OIS system for shot stability and a new 13-channel spectral sensor for more accurate colour spectrum detection.
It looks very similar to its predecessor: the Oppo Find X3 Pro with the same 6.7-inch display and 3,216 x 1,440 resolution, but the rear of the phone is now ceramic and covers the camera lenses' notch. It has a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset with 12GB of RAM, and a larger 5,000mAh battery with the improved 80W fast charger included in the box.
Oppo has delivered again on fast charging. Just like the Oppo Find X5 Lite, the Oppo Find X5 Pro takes just 35 minutes to fully charge with the provided 80W fast charger. A truly impressive result for a powerhouse phone.
Find out if this phone’s other features offer enough for the price tag in the full Which? Oppo Find X5 Pro review. And use our tool to find Oppo Find X5 Pro contract deals.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G (£289) – fast charging on a shoestring
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is a recent fast charging phone at the cheaper end of the market. It’s been released with a 5,000mAh battery and a supplied 67W fast charger, which took only 45 minutes to fully charge in our lab tests. This is close to Xiaomi's own claims and up there with the best we’ve tested.
Fast charging isn’t the only premium feature either – it boasts a large 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 2,400 x 1,080 resolution and high 120Hz refresh rate for seamless scrolling and browsing.
Unsurprisingly in a cheaper model, the main compromise in this phone is the lack of premium camera specifications. It has a suite of three rear cameras with a 108Mp main lens, 8Mp wide angle lens and a 2Mp macro lens. Videos are filmed in Full HD, which isn’t as good as the more expensive 4K or 8K video technology. But drawbacks like these might not be a big deal for most of us looking for a bargain buy.
See if it’s a Best Buy in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G review. There’s also a cheaper version of this phone that doesn’t have 5G. Read the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro review without 5G to find out more.
9 minute 'SuperVooc' and 17 minute 'Hypercharge' setting new standards
These brands aren't satisfied with their already very impressive charge times – Xiaomi's latest claims on its HyperCharge Technology takes things to the next level.
It also has a 120W charger that can charge a battery up to 5,000mAh in size, which is currently only compatible with Xiaomi’s latest flagship mobile phone: the Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G. This phone comes with the 120W charger already supplied, so you won't need to pay for it on top. But a wireless quick-charger isn't available yet.
Xiaomi claims it will fully charge its flagship phone in a wicked-quick 17 minutes – and it nearly did this in our lab tests, taking only 21 minutes. Xiaomi even assures us that the battery will keep up to 80% of its battery life capacity even after 800 charges. These sorts of benefits could be a game changer for mobile phones. Find out if this phone performed well in other areas in our full Xiaomi Mi 11T Pro 5G review.
Not to be outdone, the latest announcement from Oppo for fast-charging technology comes in the form of a 240W SuperVooc charger. Oppo says this can charge a phone in just nine minutes, but we don't know yet when this will arrive.
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