Right now, fast charging for Android phones is kind of a mess, with a handful of confusingly similar standards each championed by a portion of smartphone and accessory makers. The introduction of USB-C could have made things simpler, but instead it’s just added to the confusion. Now, Google are trying to set things straight with new rules for Android.
Qualcomm announced the Quick Charge 3.0 standard last year, billing it as ‘next-generation fast charging technology’. The new standard is 38% more efficient than Quick Charge 2.0, and offers support for a more granular range of voltages from 3.6V all the way to 20V.
The only problem is that the new standard isn’t being added to new flagships — out of the ‘big three’ flagship phones announced in 2016, only one has Quick Charge 3.0 support, the LG G5. The other two — the Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge and Sony Xperia X Performance — don’t support the standard, despite coming with Qualcomm chipsets that are compatible with Quick Charge 3.0.
Over the past few years, smartphones have gotten better in some very obvious ways – bigger screens, faster processors, more RAM – but behind the scenes, we’ve also seen considerable innovation. Quick charging is one area; by providing higher voltage supplies, some smartphones can now be refilled in a matter of minutes. Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 is the most widely supported standard for this, and can take you from 0 to 60% in just 30 minutes. Today, we’re unveiling two new chargers that support Quick Charge 2.0 from Aukey.