Yesterday Qualcomm announced its newest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 835, to be built on the 10nm scale and expected to launch in the first half of 2017. But the new chip also comes along with Quick Charge 4.0, Qualcomm’s fast charging technology. The new version promises “five minutes of charging for five hours of battery life”.
Until we finally get that battery revolution we’ve all been waiting for, fast charging technologies in our smartphones and devices are the next best thing. By utilizing Quick Charge, Dash charging or other proprietary systems, device manufacturers let us considerably cut down on charging times and make our handsets and laptops much more convenient to use.
That’s why the introduction of a new generation of Quick Charge technology from Qualcomm, version 4.0, is quite a big deal. The new tech is even faster than previous versions, but speed isn’t everything. According to the company, Quick Charge 4.0 is also 30% more efficient at charging our phones, while also keeping the device’s temperature up to five degrees cooler during the charging process. This maximizes a battery’s overall life and its safety.
Quick Charge 4.0 comes with a number of new features and here are Qualcomm’s highlights:
- 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.
- Battery Saver adds advanced features designed to extend battery cycle life and provide comprehensive safety. Protection is implemented at multiple levels and throughout the entire charging process to help measure voltage, current, and temperature accurately while protecting the battery, system, cables, and connectors.
- INOV (Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage) version 3 is an algorithm engineered so your portable devices can determine what power level to request at any point in time, which allows for optimum power transfer while maximizing efficiency. New to Quick Charge 4: a compatible device can request to within 20mV or lower the specific power needed to charge while also running advanced thermal algorithms for case, battery, chip, and connector.
- Dual Charge is supported by including a second power management IC in the device (e.g., a smartphone). Charging a device via Dual Charge divide the charge current, allowing for more efficient thermal dissipation and reducing charge time. Our third generation Dual Charge technology incorporates intelligent thermal balancing engineered for optimized power delivery.
Quick Charge 4.0 is expected to become available during the first half of 2017, alongside Qualcomm’s new generation of processors.