Today Qualcomm Technologies introduced Qualcomm Quick Charge 4, our latest and greatest fast charging technology, which will be available with the next generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. What’s new with Quick Charge 4? It charges faster of course. But it’s not just faster, it’s designed to be more efficient and run cooler than prior generations. Compared to Quick Charge 3.0, Quick Charge 4 is up-to 20 percent faster, or 30 percent more efficient, while charging up to 5° C cooler.
But what does that mean for using your smartphone in the real world? To give you a better sense of this, we’ve adopted a new measurement that helps sum it up simply. We call it 5 for 5, as in 5 minutes of charging can get you 5 hours or more of battery life1. Think of all the times you only had five minutes to charge, but that didn’t give your phone enough juice to get to the next charge. Five extra hours of battery life can get you there and further. Have more time? Quick Charge 4 is engineered to charge a typical smartphone from zero to 50 percent in about 15 minutes or less.
Fast charging is consistently one of the most looked for features in a new smartphone. In fact, a study conducted this year by market research firm Sino-MRfound that fast charging influences 60 percent of users when buying their next smartphone. A similar global study by Qualcomm Technologies confirmed this number, and also found that over 25 percent of consumers think it takes too long to charge up today. Qualcomm Quick Charge is specifically engineered to solve this problem.
Quick Charge 4 features many advancements over prior generations—here are a few:
- 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.
Qualcomm Quick Charge is the #1 fast charging method based on the number of devices and accessories commercially available. Today there are over 100 mobile devices and 300 accessories that come with Quick Charge 2.0 and 3.0. This is based on an ecosystem of over 150 companies manufacturing phones, tablets, a wide variety of charging accessories, and more. In fact, there have been more than 600 million devices and accessories using Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 sold to date2.
For optimal Quick Charge 4 performance, we also introduced our newest PMICs: SMB1380 and SMB1381. With low impedance, up to 96% peak efficiency, and advanced fast charging features such as battery differential sensing, SMB1380 and SMB1381 are designed to support the fastest battery charging from any 5V USB Type-C or high-voltage power source while supporting ultra-thin mobile devices with a charging solution profile of less than 0.8mm. Cutting-edge protection features and real-time monitoring are made to help ensure comprehensive safety while supporting autonomous, advanced thermal management.
Quick Charge 4 is expected to be commercially available in the first half of 2017, and SMB1380/1 is expected to be available before the end of this year.
