Waiting too long for the battery powering your phone to charge? Qualcomm introduced Quick Charge 5. The technology will allow users to charge the batteries that power their phones from 0% to 50% in only five minutes. So let’s imagine that you need your phone for work. But you spent all night on Peacock streaming Law and Order episodes and now your battery is as alive as the clientele inside the nursing home down the street. In just five minutes you can have your battery at 50% which should keep you up and running while discussing a new contract with your biggest client. Wait an extra ten minutes (for a total of 15 minutes) and your handset will be fully charged. Quick Charge 5 supports charging at 100W and faster.
Qualcomm says that its new fast-charging system “delivers unprecedented mobile phone charging speed and efficiency improvements compared to previous versions while enabling new battery technology, accessories, and safety features. The world’s first commercially viable fast charging platform to support more than 100W charging power in a smartphone, Quick Charge 5 is engineered to allow users to charge devices from 0 to 50 percent battery power in just five minutes – representing the fastest mobile phone charging capabilities available.” You might recall that last year Xiaomi introduced its 100W “Mi Charge Turbo” that will fully charge a 4000mAh battery in 17 minutes. Xiaomi’s quick charging technology is compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge as are systems offered by Motorola (TurboPower), Samsung (Adaptive Fast Charging), ASUS (BoostMaster) and Vivo (Dual-Engine Fast Charging).
Quick Charge 5 will also feature Qualcomm Battery Saver and the new Qualcomm Smart Identification of Adapter Capabilities technology. Both will increase the life cycle of a battery and make it more efficient. Qualcomm has come a long way since Quick Charge 1. Early in 2013, we pointed out that the technology was improving charging speeds by up to 40% on phones like the Droid DNA, the Lumia 920, and the Nexus 4. These phones would normally have taken over four hours to fully charge and Quick Charge 1 reduced that to under three hours. The new version of Quick Charge charges up to four times faster than the previous generation of the technology.
Of course, charging times have been greatly reduced since then and Quick Charge 5 carries 10 times the power delivery carried in Quick Charge 1. It also is 70% more efficient than Quick Charge 4. Helping to drive the latest iteration of Quick Charge are the latest and next-generation management power management integrated circuits (PMIC), the Qualcomm SMB1396 and the Qualcomm SMB1398. Quick Charge, says Qualcomm, is available on more than 1,200 mobile devices, accessories, and controllers.
Right now, Quick Charge 5 is being tested by Qualcomm customers and should start to appear on devices running the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 865+ Mobile Platforms during the current quarter which runs through September. It also will work on future premium and high-end Snapdragon chipsets. Ev Roach, VP Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. states,”Quick Charge 5, our fastest and most versatile charging solution, will enable consumers to enjoy their devices for longer periods of time, without worrying about the time required to recharge. We are proud to expand our technology portfolio and make accessible 100W+ charging a commercial reality. We work closely with manufacturers to create industry-leading devices that meet consumers’ demand for more immersive and accessible mobile experiences.”
Battery life is improving as smartphone batteries get larger and larger. But that is only half of the story. Large capacity batteries are great and certain phones can go as long as three days on a single charge. But without a fast-charging system, they can take a long time to replenish the power inside the component. And that is where Qualcomm’s Quick Charge comes in, helping to improve a phone user’s overall experience.
