Qualcomm Announces Quick Charge 4+ Standard That's 15 Percent Faster Than Quick Charge 4

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Just a mere six months after announcing Quick Charge 4, which boosted charging times and safety considerably over its predecessors, Qualcomm is introducing the new Quick Charge 4+ standard. Unlike previous standards, which required a new chipset, 4+ is something device and accessory manufacturers can implement by adding three enhancements to Quick Charge 4-compliant devices: "Dual Charge," which is already an option in earlier version of Quick Charge, but is "now more powerful"; "Intelligent Thermal Balancing," which steers current through whichever of the dual charging pathways is coolest to keep temperatures down; "Advanced Safety Features" to monitor both the phone temperature and the connector temperature to protect against overheating and short-circuit damage. Qualcomm claims devices that implement this standard can get charging times up to 15 percent faster than Quick Charge 4, and will charge up to 30 percent more efficiently -- an especially nice perk if you're charging from a battery pack. Charging will also be up to 3 degrees Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler.

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[arglebargle_xiv]

What does Barbara Eden have to do with Android?

obviously

[fred6666]

I am waiting for quick charge 8++++

Surprise! A new spec!

[TechyImmigrant]

>Just a mere six months after announcing Quick Charge 4, ...

This is SOP. Put features into specs late in the day to make it impossible for other vendors, who may have been working in a standards body for an industry wide solution, to have compatible silicon available in a timely fashion.

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[tlhIngan]

This is SOP. Put features into specs late in the day to make it impossible for other vendors, who may have been working in a standards body for an industry wide solution, to have compatible silicon available in a timely fashion.

Well, the competition is going for USB-PD (Power Delivery), which IS an industry standard of supplying up to 100W. It's used by laptops so far, and a few phones support it as well. So you could plug your laptop charger into your phone and have it charge at max rate.

Even worse for Qua

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[sexconker]

This is SOP. Put features into specs late in the day to make it impossible for other vendors, who may have been working in a standards body for an industry wide solution, to have compatible silicon available in a timely fashion.

Well, the competition is going for USB-PD (Power Delivery), which IS an industry standard of supplying up to 100W. It's used by laptops so far, and a few phones support it as well. So you could plug your laptop charger into your phone and have it charge at max rate.

Even worse for Qualcomm, Google has announced that all devices must support USB-PD for fast charging - proprietary solutions would not be acceptable.

Google can announce anything they want. They only control their own devices. The USB-C and USB-PD situation is still a fucking mess of incompatible chargers, cables, and devices. Qualcomm's proprietary solution works well and is more commonplace than the proprietary solution from the USB forum. (Yes, USB is proprietary.)

Planned obsolescence

[oic0]

Use this on your non removable battery phone and ruin it even quicker. Most people will buy a new phone when it goes rather than having it replaced. Qualcomm wins.

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[sexconker]

Gimme five bees for a quarter!

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[thegarbz]

The degradation of batteries during charging is due to a large localised increase in cell temperatures. According to the summary the boost is achieved through better thermal management so this won't ruin anything quicker than currently.

I was hoping for...

[dwillmore]

USB-PD compatability? Nope? Nevermind, then.

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[Game Genie]

USB-PD compatability? Nope? Nevermind, then.

I came hear to bash Qualcomm too, but amazingly enough they seem to have done something right for once according to TFA:

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.

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[evilbessie]

So if I'm reading that correctly they are deliberately selling products which don't charge using USB-PD but their own special thing and are selling magic chargers that deal with their own special thing and USB and this is supposed to be a Good Thing (TM)? OK then.

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[Game Genie]

I read that as stating that QC4 is a proper superset of USB-PD, and the chargers and devices would work w/ normal USB-PD chargers and devices, while adding some other silly features on when a QC4 charger and device are used together. But you're right that the wording is vague. If I'm mistaken then I take back my kudos.

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[dwillmore]

QC uses the data lines for power as well as the power lines. This is an unresolvable violation of USB-PD. I am curious how they justify their statements.

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[adolf]

Sortof, I suppose.

I interpret it to mean that QC4+ chargers must also support USB-PD.

I don't see anything suggesting, one way or the other, as to whether handsets and other devices that use QC4+ must not also include USB-PD.

For all we know, a device may support both. Or not. We don't know.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Quick Charge varies the voltage from 3-20V when charging while keeping the amperage the same. Dash charging varies the amperage while keeping the voltage the same at 5V.

There are some pros and cons to both approaches but at the end of the day, they're going to deliver similar amounts of power.

Watts = Volts * Amperes

I'm guessing that QC is probably more tolerant of thin crappy USB cables, which is probably the main upside with it.

Next up.

[fahrbot-bot]

Quick Charge 4++ - It will be like Quick Charge 4+, but object oriented.

Is phone circuitry the limiting factor?

[piojo]

How do these technologies work? I thought the charging speed of Li-ion Li-po batteries was limited by battery chemistry. Is the actual fact that in phones, the limiting factor has been circuitry/heat rather than the battery themselves?