Qualcomm is not a firm that likes to rest on its oars. And that’s a lifesaving trait in the tech world where competitors are many and the business environment is seldom worth grinning about. Now, in news sure to be of great interest to just about everyone with a mobile device, Qualcomm has announced the Quick Charge 5, which happens to be its latest and potentially life-changing fast-charging standard. It promises a lot, with its 100W charging speed potentially making it possible for a smartphone battery to be charged from empty to 50% full in 5 minutes, with a full charge happening in 15 minutes.
The Quick Charge 5 when judged by its touted capabilities is light years ahead of the current Quick Charge 4 and Quick Charge 4+, the latter of which is more than capable, but not as widely adopted as it should have been. According to Qualcomm, its latest charging standard has around 70% more efficiency when compared to the Quick Charge 4, and charges up to 4 times faster. Even better, it runs 10 degrees Celsius cooler while doing its charging magic, which is a rather impressive achievement. These results were apparently compiled by testing a smartphone with a 4500mAh battery.
Apart from light-fast charging, Quick Charge 5 uses a slew of safety features. This includes a dozen different current, voltage, and temperature protections, plus a novel tool known as the Qualcomm Smart Identification of Adapter Capabilities whose purpose will be to “maximize power transfer efficiency, increase safety and help extend the battery life cycle.” Quick Charge 5 supports both the ubiquitous Type-C and USB Power Delivery. This means the new charging standard could soon be put to use speedily charging up compatible laptops.
Ev Roach, Qualcomm’s VP of product management had this to say: “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.”
iPhone Not Supported
A big change made possible by Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 5 relates to support for 2S battery systems. These are a couple of batteries cells wired together in series, with this setup enabling the doubling of the voltage at which the device is charged. This of course enhances charging speeds.
Quick Charge 5 is expected to be compatible with almost 300 smartphones. Apple phones will however not be supported, which is not much of a loss because Apple’s fast charging tech can currently fill up 50% of an iPhone battery in around half-hour. Backward compatibility is supported on Qualcomm’s new charging standard. That means your old Quick Charge devices should have no problems using the new charging system, which is something of a relief.
According to Qualcomm, phones with Quick Charge 5 will be out before the year rolls to a close, which is very welcome news. As we wait for the arrival of these phones, it might be appropriate to pour a drink and toast to what might well be a brave new world!