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Qualcomm Announces Quick Charge 4+ Standard That's 15 Percent Faster Than Quick Charge 4 (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the blink-of-an-eye dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Just a mere six months after announcing Quick Charge 4, which boosted charging times and safety considerably over its predecessors, Qualcomm is introducing the new Quick Charge 4+ standard. Unlike previous standards, which required a new chipset, 4+ is something device and accessory manufacturers can implement by adding three enhancements to Quick Charge 4-compliant devices: "Dual Charge," which is already an option in earlier version of Quick Charge, but is "now more powerful"; "Intelligent Thermal Balancing," which steers current through whichever of the dual charging pathways is coolest to keep temperatures down; "Advanced Safety Features" to monitor both the phone temperature and the connector temperature to protect against overheating and short-circuit damage. Qualcomm claims devices that implement this standard can get charging times up to 15 percent faster than Quick Charge 4, and will charge up to 30 percent more efficiently -- an especially nice perk if you're charging from a battery pack. Charging will also be up to 3 degrees Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler.

30 comments

  1. Who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I want more battery or more efficient software (The latter is just a dream) than it charging faster.

    1. Re: Who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's ideal for sure. But if you can fully charge your battery in 15 minutes while driving somewhere or getting a coffee that's still a nice feature.

    2. Re:Who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android does everything in fucking java, and you want efficient software? When "Hello World" is a 40MB application that takes more than 1 second to load and produce output, you know you're never, EVER going to get efficient software.

    3. Re:Who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose you've never heard of JNI then.

    4. Re:Who cares by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      What does Barbara Eden have to do with Android?

  2. obviously by fred6666 · · Score: 1

    I am waiting for quick charge 8++++

  3. Surprise! A new spec! by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    >Just a mere six months after announcing Quick Charge 4, ...

    This is SOP. Put features into specs late in the day to make it impossible for other vendors, who may have been working in a standards body for an industry wide solution, to have compatible silicon available in a timely fashion.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Surprise! A new spec! by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      This is SOP. Put features into specs late in the day to make it impossible for other vendors, who may have been working in a standards body for an industry wide solution, to have compatible silicon available in a timely fashion.

      Well, the competition is going for USB-PD (Power Delivery), which IS an industry standard of supplying up to 100W. It's used by laptops so far, and a few phones support it as well. So you could plug your laptop charger into your phone and have it charge at max rate.

      Even worse for Qualcomm, Google has announced that all devices must support USB-PD for fast charging - proprietary solutions would not be acceptable.

    2. Re:Surprise! A new spec! by sexconker · · Score: 1

      This is SOP. Put features into specs late in the day to make it impossible for other vendors, who may have been working in a standards body for an industry wide solution, to have compatible silicon available in a timely fashion.

      Well, the competition is going for USB-PD (Power Delivery), which IS an industry standard of supplying up to 100W. It's used by laptops so far, and a few phones support it as well. So you could plug your laptop charger into your phone and have it charge at max rate.

      Even worse for Qualcomm, Google has announced that all devices must support USB-PD for fast charging - proprietary solutions would not be acceptable.

      Google can announce anything they want. They only control their own devices. The USB-C and USB-PD situation is still a fucking mess of incompatible chargers, cables, and devices. Qualcomm's proprietary solution works well and is more commonplace than the proprietary solution from the USB forum. (Yes, USB is proprietary.)

  4. Planned obsolescence by oic0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Use this on your non removable battery phone and ruin it even quicker. Most people will buy a new phone when it goes rather than having it replaced. Qualcomm wins.

    1. Re:Planned obsolescence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How much it affects battery life depends heavily on the battery chemistry, battery construction and quality, the capabilities of the charge controller, and how well the smart phone maker integrated everything.

      If the phone makers do their job - That is they control battery quality and properly engineer/test their charge implantation.. They can significantly increase charge rates with a negligible decrease in battery life. It just means they'll be pushing the envelope more and there will be less tolerance for error in the final product.

      Quick charge is mostly about wrangling significant wattage through (for portable handheld devices) compact, inexpensive consumer gear. It's a scheme to detect faults and monitor charging in a case where a short or a component failing closed can quickly cause a fire due to the amounts of power involved.

      The batteries, if they are not shit and are charged correctly, can handle it. Modern Lipo Cells can take and dish out a lot of juice. The weak point is cheap/tiny circuitry where faults can land you in trouble. Quickcharge 4 (Which is just qualcomm branded USB PD) Can deliver almost 30 watts. That's a lot for a phone. Dumping 30 watts through a tiny surface mount part that fails closed means you can have a fire in seconds.

    2. Re:Planned obsolescence by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Gimme five bees for a quarter!

    3. Re:Planned obsolescence by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The degradation of batteries during charging is due to a large localised increase in cell temperatures. According to the summary the boost is achieved through better thermal management so this won't ruin anything quicker than currently.

  5. I was hoping for... by dwillmore · · Score: 2

    USB-PD compatability? Nope? Nevermind, then.

    1. Re:I was hoping for... by Game+Genie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      USB-PD compatability? Nope? Nevermind, then.

      I came hear to bash Qualcomm too, but amazingly enough they seem to have done something right for once according to TFA:

      USB Type-C and USB Power Delivery (USB PD) compliant. By incorporating these technologies, Qualcomm Technologies standardizes the capabilities of Quick Charge 4 adapters, to help ensure that a single accessory supports multiple charging implementations and mobile devices, and that there is consistent performance when faced with the myriad of available charging solutions.

    2. Re:I was hoping for... by evilbessie · · Score: 1

      So if I'm reading that correctly they are deliberately selling products which don't charge using USB-PD but their own special thing and are selling magic chargers that deal with their own special thing and USB and this is supposed to be a Good Thing (TM)? OK then.

    3. Re:I was hoping for... by Game+Genie · · Score: 1

      I read that as stating that QC4 is a proper superset of USB-PD, and the chargers and devices would work w/ normal USB-PD chargers and devices, while adding some other silly features on when a QC4 charger and device are used together. But you're right that the wording is vague. If I'm mistaken then I take back my kudos.

    4. Re:I was hoping for... by dwillmore · · Score: 1

      QC uses the data lines for power as well as the power lines. This is an unresolvable violation of USB-PD. I am curious how they justify their statements.

    5. Re:I was hoping for... by adolf · · Score: 1

      Sortof, I suppose.

      I interpret it to mean that QC4+ chargers must also support USB-PD.

      I don't see anything suggesting, one way or the other, as to whether handsets and other devices that use QC4+ must not also include USB-PD.

      For all we know, a device may support both. Or not. We don't know.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    6. Re:I was hoping for... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      QuickCharge 4.0 specifically mentions compatibility with USB-PD. Just google "usb-pd quickcharge 4" and all articles say the same thing, here's one quote:

      The new QuickCharge 4.0 (QC4) technology allows for up to 20% faster charging speed and 30% higher efficiency, and - best of all - it is now compatible with the soon-to-be-ubiquitous USB Type-C and USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) specifications.

      I don't know the technical details, I do know that they specifically designed QC 4.0 to be compatible with USB-PD.

  6. How is it compared to Dash charging? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder how this compares to the Dash charging in the Oneplus phones that beat the Quick Charge technology by offloading the heat to the charger rather than the phone.

    1. Re:How is it compared to Dash charging? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Quick Charge varies the voltage from 3-20V when charging while keeping the amperage the same. Dash charging varies the amperage while keeping the voltage the same at 5V.

      There are some pros and cons to both approaches but at the end of the day, they're going to deliver similar amounts of power.

      Watts = Volts * Amperes

      I'm guessing that QC is probably more tolerant of thin crappy USB cables, which is probably the main upside with it.

  7. Next up. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

    Quick Charge 4++ - It will be like Quick Charge 4+, but object oriented.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Next up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I found the source code:

      Phone.Battery.Temperature++;
      Phone.Battery.Lifespan--;
      while (!Phone.Battery.IsRemovable)
        Customer.Buy(new Phone); // leak on purpose; it's our business model!

  8. Planning ahead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The next phones will only get half a day of charge on a good day.

    I should not have to worry about needing to charge my phone RIGHT THIS SECOND. Phones won't even make til night time anymore?

  9. Is phone circuitry the limiting factor? by piojo · · Score: 1

    How do these technologies work? I thought the charging speed of Li-ion Li-po batteries was limited by battery chemistry. Is the actual fact that in phones, the limiting factor has been circuitry/heat rather than the battery themselves?

    --
    A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
    1. Re:Is phone circuitry the limiting factor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Two different sets of limits here. The charging speed of Li batteries are limited by chemistry, in particular the amount of heat generated by the battery during charging. Typically though the limiter on the charge rate in mobile devices limited supply current over USB.