Published on July 30th, 2018 | by Guest

Comparing Fast Charging Standards [Infographic]

Charing smartphones has always been a slow and long task. Plug in the charger, turn on the switch and then the long wait begins. It feels fast till 70-80% then the charging slows down and you get really restless. Once the charging is finally completed you realize you’ve been there for more than three hours waiting for your phone to charge fully. To make sure your smartphones spend less time charging and more time being productive, fast charging was developed.

Fast Charging started appearing on phones in 2013 with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 1.0 standard which provided up to 10 watts of power at a time when most phones took in only 5W. But over the years Qualcomm has tremendously improved speeds and has been one of the most well-spread standards across the world. Their latest Quick Charge 4+ standard supports up to 27W. Qualcomm Quick Charge standards are also tweaked and used by manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola.

But for quite some time now OnePlus’ Dash Charging has been well regarded not just for its charging speed, but also how it charges your phone without heating it. Compared to how most fast charging standards boost the voltage to improve charging speed, OnePlus increases the amperes which speeds up charging without increasing heat. Apart from that OnePlus has also shifted the entire charging mechanism (the circuitry that converts the 5V from the mains to the battery friendly 3.7V) to the charger from the smartphone. This makes OnePlus phones not just cool while charging but also allows you to use them during charging without a drop in charging speed. But is the fastest as many people believe? Not really, if Hometop’s fast charging comparison infographic is to be believed Dash Charging is trumped by Huawei’s Super Charge. Huawei’s own fast charging standard that’s designed in the same way as Dash Charging but works with Qualcomm Quick Charge as well. Super Charge can charge at a mind-boggling rate of 46.57mAh/ minute compared to the OnePlus’ 41.25mAh/minute which means you can have a 3400mAh battery fully charged in 73 minutes flat. That is quite an achievement. But if you know the smartphone industry, manufacturers are always trying to best each other and OnePlus will definitely retaliate and if rumors are to be believed OPPO (whose VOOC charging is underlines Dash Charging) is going to soon launch a phone that can fully charge in under 35 minutes. While that phone comes do check out the infographic which compares standards from different manufacturers like Apple, Samsung and even the more open USB-PD standard.