What you need to know
- A report suggests that several companies including Apple plan to release GaN power adapters this year.
- Gallium Nitride technology can provide fast charging solutions through a USB-C interface, supporting fast-charge up to 65W.
- Xiaomi recently released a new charger based on the technology.
A report claims that several large companies including Apple plan to release chargers based on new Gallium Nitride technology this year.
According to IT House (translated):
According to Caifa News, in addition to Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, and Apple all have deep accumulation in GaN technology. Xiaomi, a supplier of Xiaomi GaN solutions, said that following Xiaomi, "this year, several manufacturers of the same size as Xiaomi will release GaN power adapters."
As GizChina notes, Xiaomi recently released a new GaN charger that uses Gallium Nitride technology. GaN chargers require fewer components compared to normal silicon chargers and can conduct much higher voltages over time. The technology can deliver fast-charge up to 65W in a considerably smaller form factor and is powerful enough to fully-charge a Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro in 45 minutes. The report continues:
At the same time, it supports Xiaomi's fast flash charging, PD 3.0 and other fast charging protocols. Also, you can use it to charge the iPhone. The company said that using the 65W charger to charge iPhone 11, the charging speed is higher than the original 5W charger by about 50%.Thanks to the new semiconductor material GaN (gallium nitride), the size of this charger is about 48% smaller than that of the Xiaomi notebook's standard adapter. In addition, Xiaomi's GaN charger Type-C 65W's USB-C interface supports intelligent adjustment of output current in multiple gears. It can charge up to 65W for high-power devices such as the new MacBook Pro and Xiaomi notebooks.
The validity of this report isn't certain, and there isn't a clear indication of how Apple might plan to utilize this technology, the report mentions charging for both the iPhone and Mac. However, as the report notes one of the benefits of GaN chargers is their versatility, given their ability to adjust output, so one charger could be used with multiple devices. If Xiaomi is correct in asserting that Apple is indeed heavily invested in GaN technology, it might not be too long before we see these chargers available from Apple.
