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

SuperVOOC was once one of the fastest charging options in the smartphone space, but playing around with the latest iteration in the new OPPO Find X8 Pro feels comparatively slow. The flagship takes 50 minutes to fill up from an 80W SuperVOOC charger (why is it USB-A, OPPO, why?), which feels positively sluggish compared to the roughly 27 minutes I clocked on last year’s OPPO Find X7 Ultra, the OnePlus 12, and even the slightly older Find X6 Pro. What gives?

Well, those previously super-fast times came with one notable compromise — higher temperatures. Last year’s Find X7 Ultra hit highs of 38.4°C while the slightly smaller X8 Pro hit just 35.7°C. That might not seem like a huge difference, but inching ever closer to (or beyond) 40°C is exponentially worse for long-term battery health. Staying in the mid-30s earns a solid thumbs up. The drawback for the Find X8 Pro is that it barely touches its peak potential charging power, spending just a minute at 70W before falling and sticking mostly well below 40W — a far more mainstream power level.

Incidentally, this change also makes the Find X8 Pro much cooler than the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL’s controversial 37W and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 45W charging, which clock in with temperature highs of 41.8°C and 39.2°C, respectively (though average temperatures are all quite similar). They also both take longer to charge at 77 and 62 minutes each, although key times to 50% and 75% battery capacities are within minutes of each other and the Find X8 Pro.

While the latest iteration of SuperVOOC might seem like a downgrade in some regards, it’s still faster to full and cooler than the mainstream Western brands, so OPPO still claims a win here. Paired with ColorOS 15’s other battery options that include Smart Charging beyond 80%, which works very similarly to Google’s Adaptive Charging, and an 80% charge limit toggle, it’s clear that long-term battery health is taking a front seat overcharging as quickly as possible — a genuinely consumer-friendly move.

Unfortunately, if you still long for blazing-fast charging regardless of temperature, OPPO doesn’t really have you covered, at least not in my testing. The Find X8 Pro offers a “Smart Rapid Charging” option, which it claims charges faster at the expense of higher temperatures, but this still doesn’t bring the phone back in line with previous versions (even though it claimed it saved me 11 minutes on a single charge). With this mode enabled, the Find X8 Pro hit full in a slightly faster 48 minutes, but the power profile is identical, so I’d chalk that difference up to a margin of error. Peak temperatures clocked in at a virtually unchanged 36.1°C, so I’m not exactly sure under what conditions this mode triggers a different behavior or if it’s even working as intended.

I tested using official SuperVOOC 80W and 100W plugs, and it’s pretty cool in the UK this time of year but I had no luck sustaining peak power for longer. Perhaps the default mode will throttle back on charge more aggressively in warmer conditions, but that would mean a roughly 50-minute charge time is as fast as this phone can go. More annoying is that the 5A cables that came with the Find X7 Ultra and X6 Pro limited the device to just 3A/25W despite working fine on other OPPO phones. Bizarre.

Despite the charge time downgrade and cable nonsense, I actually think OPPO’s SuperVOOC in the Find X8 Pro is the best version I’ve used. Charging to full in under 30 minutes is a nice luxury but hardly necessary outside of very rare occasions. Being able to hit 75% charge in under 35 minutes and full in around 50 is plenty quick enough, especially when paired with the phone’s rock-solid battery life. But more on that some other time.

While it’s possible OPPO is using a cheaper battery in this year’s model, which it doesn’t want to stress too hard, cooler temperatures ultimately ensure longer-term battery health and fewer costly hardware replacements. Plus, the X8 Pro remains cooler and faster than many other flagships on the market, particularly those from Apple, Google, and Samsung. I also managed to secure USB Power Delivery PPS at 25W on this handset, which won’t charge the phone all that quickly but enables decent fast-charge times with the wide range of third-party plugs and accessories out there.  Some sources suggest the phone can exceed 40W with USB PD, but I couldn’t do so despite using a 6A cable and charger with support for 5A over PD and PPS.

Overall, OPPO has done a pretty solid job here, but there are some cable niggles owing to its proprietary standard and the silly choice to marry itself to USB-A. I’d still prefer 60W+ USB PD, as found on phones like the ASUS ROG Phone 9, but a cooler approach to SuperVOOC is a fine move as well. However, fans of SuperVOOC fast charging will undoubtedly be disappointed by the much slower charge times. Maybe OPPO is saving its blazing-fast capabilities for China’s Find X8 Ultra.