Earlier this month Realme launched MagDart, its MagSafe-a-like ecosystem of magnetic wi-fi charging merchandise. The headline system is a 50W brick that Realme professes to be the quickest magnetic wi-fi charger on this planet — it’s supposed to have the ability to cost a 4,500mAh battery from 0 to one hundred pc in 54 minutes.

Naturally I used to be inquisitive about attempting this for myself. Realme despatched me a 50W MagDart charger, a 65W SuperDart wall charger to plug it into, and a Realme Flash “concept phone” with built-in MagDart compatibility. (The solely different Realme telephone to work with MagDart is the brand new GT flagship, and even that requires a specialised case.)

The Flash isn’t a industrial system, however it’s a really good telephone nonetheless. That’s principally as a result of it’s very clearly a repurposed OnePlus 9 Pro, made doable by the truth that the 2 corporations share possession and suppliers together with Oppo and Vivo. The digital camera configuration has been reshuffled just a little — for little purpose, for the reason that onboard software program doesn’t even embrace a digital camera app — however the {hardware} is in any other case similar. The Flash’s “About phone” display screen even nonetheless lists the system identify because the OnePlus 9 Pro.

The MagDart charger, in the meantime, is a chunky steel field with stable building and a shiny high panel that makes contact with the telephone. The magnetic drive is pretty sturdy; you may connect the Flash and maintain it going through the bottom, although it’ll fall in the event you shake it round just a little. Despite the charger’s cumbersome construct, it’ll nonetheless keep connected in the event you attempt to choose the telephone up, so you may’t actually use it as a stationary wi-fi charger with out securing it to a tough floor. There’s a cooling fan that varies in its noise output. At its loudest, I’d say it’s akin to an Intel-based MacBook Pro with a pair too many Chrome tabs open.

When it got here to testing the efficiency, I discovered that the charger wasn’t in a position to wake the telephone at 0 % energy. For that purpose, I used a USB-C cable to show the telephone on and get it to at least one %, then took my measurements from there. I didn’t use the telephone whereas charging apart from to wake the display screen to test the battery standing.

Basically, it seems that that is certainly a really quick wi-fi charger, although not fairly as quick as Realme claims. After quarter-hour the Flash was already at 35 %, and reached 60 % after half an hour. The 45-minute mark took it to 82 %, however by the promised 54 minutes it was solely at 95 %. The Flash hit the one hundred pc mark at a spherical 60 minutes. For comparability, an iPhone 12’s battery will solely be round half full after that lengthy.

So yeah, MagDart works. I’m not likely satisfied by the shape issue, although — if velocity was a precedence, plugging in a cable wouldn’t be a lot much less handy than this, if in any respect. You can’t virtually use the telephone with this charger connected, both. (I’ll observe right here that Realme has additionally developed a thinner 15W MagDart charger that appears much like Apple’s MagSafe charging puck).

Still, magnetic wi-fi charging is all about versatility, and the MagDart expertise appears to work properly for what it’s. For readers within the US particularly, it’ll be value keeping track of whether or not it reveals up in precise delivery OnePlus units any time quickly.