2025 might bring the first Android phone with an 8,000mAh battery

What you need to know

• Realme's next flagship could pack an extra-large battery ranging from 7,000mAh to 8,000mAh.
• The current Realme GT 7 Pro features a 6,500mAh battery that's already much larger than most flagships, but Realme is shooting for an even bigger one next year.
• According to leaker Digital Chat Station, there are three potential battery configurations being tested for Realme's next phone.

Realme might not be a household name in the US, but the brand is known for making Android smartphones with high-capacity batteries inside. The latest Realme GT 7 Pro packs a 6,500mAh battery inside, and even the sub-$400 Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G includes a respectable 5,000mAh capacity. The phones charge fast, too, at 120W and 67W, respectively. As it turns out, Realme may be looking to improve on its own incredible high-capacity, fast-charging tech with its next flagship.

The company is reportedly testing three new variations of batteries, all with a larger capacity than the GT 7 Pro, according to leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo (via Android Authority). Per the tip, these are the characteristics of the three batteries being tested for Realme's upcoming flagship phone:

• A 7,000mAh battery supporting 120W fast charging that can be charged to full in 42 minutes
• A 7,500mAh battery supporting 100W fast charging that can be charged to full in 55 minutes
• An 8,000mAh battery supporting 80W fast charging that can be charged to full in 70 minutes

Realme has a few decisions to make for the battery that will power an upcoming flagship, which Digital Chat Station didn't name specifically. It could be the Realme GT 8 Pro, and the phone could debut in 2025. However, as the leaked configurations show, the company will almost certainly be choosing between capacity and charge speed.

Evidently, the 8,000mAh battery rumored to be in consideration for a to-be-released Realme flagship has slow charging, relatively speaking. It can only charge at 80W speeds, resulting in a 70-minute charge time from 0% to 100%. That might not be such a bad thing, though. There could be less of a need to charge to full with a phone sporting an 8,000mAh capacity, with an overnight charge doing the trick for a day-plus of use.

When you compare the worst charging speeds of Realme's purported battery options (80W, 70 min), they stack up quite nicely to the leading iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones, which still have atrocious charging speeds. It's clear that Realme would be padding its own lead in battery and charging tech if it released a smartphone with either 7,000mAh, 7,500 mAh, or 8,000mAh battery capacities.