Charge Your Phone Twice As Fast: Fast Charging Explanations
If you bought your phone last year, it may have included a quick charger of some kind or offered as an accessory. Here’s how they work to charge your phone twice as fast as a regular charger.
While they may seem like a gimmick, fast chargers are the real thing and not just an extra cost. The type of technology used varies by manufacturer, but Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 is one of the most common. Typically, fast chargers charge your battery in less time than the standard charger that probably comes with your phone. That being said, there are a few caveats, and before you throw the money into buying another charger, here’s what you need to know.
How regular phone chargers work
Before we explain how fast chargers work, let’s talk a little about how chargers work in general. When you plug your phone into a power outlet, a certain amount of power is transferred from the wall outlet through the charger to your phone. Your phone has a built-in regulator to prevent too much power from being pumped into your battery and toasting it. So right away, how fast your phone can charge is limited by what its internal regulators allow.
Of course, this only matters when the power flowing through the charger exceeds what the regulator inside your phone allows. But this is not always the case. As Extremetech notes , not all chargers are created equal. The charger box that came with your device is likely designed for the device you purchased, but if you’re charging via, say, USB, your device may charge more slowly if it doesn’t supply enough power. For example, a charger for an iPad from Apple (at least 2012) produces 2.1A at 5V. However, a regular USB 2.0 port will charge up to 0.5A. If your phone can handle more than 0.5A of current (which it probably can), then it will charge more slowly through the USB port than the charger that came with your device. Even without proprietary “fast chargers,” some chargers can charge your battery faster than others.
You can think of it as a bouncer at a bar. If the bar holds fifty people and the bouncer lets in one person every three minutes, the bar will be full in about two and a half hours. No matter how many people wait outside, the bouncer doesn’t let more than one person pass every three minutes, so it can never fill up faster than that. However, if less than fifty people come in two and a half hours, it will take longer to fill the bar. You can never decrease the minimum amount of time it takes to fill a strip, but you can increase it if the initial input is too short.
How fast chargers differ
While some manufacturers use different technologies for fast charging, one of the most popular is Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 . It is included in devices such as Note 4, Nexus 6, HTC One (M8) and Moto X (2014). Many newer devices include some form of fast charging, whether enabled or not.
When you use the Quick Charge 2.0 device, all you really do is open the door a little wider to let in more power. As we established earlier, the regulator inside your phone only lets through a certain amount of power at a time. Fast chargers allow you to use more chargers without damaging your battery. So, while the old device can only support a 5 Volt, 1 Amp charger, Quick Charge devices can use a 9 Volt, 2 A charger.
This means two things. First, you must have a device that supports fast charging in order to take advantage of the boost. If you plug the quick charger into an old device, the regulator will still prevent the battery from overloading. You won’t damage your device, but it won’t charge faster.
It also means that you might have to buy this dedicated charger that will come with your supported device. Chances are all chargers you have used are not compatible with Quick Charge, so a charger with a higher output power will help you. But keep in mind that this is essentially the same problem we discussed earlier with USB ports. The fact that you are not using the full capacity of your phone’s battery does not mean that your phone will not charge. It just takes a little longer. And that’s not bad.
Possible disadvantage of fast charging
So, we know how fast chargers work. But is it worth using them? From a security standpoint, you don’t need to worry about a phone explosion or anything else. However, there is something else you should be aware of.
Fast chargers can generate more heat. The more power you push through the device, the greater the load on the battery and the more heat it generates. Although Quick Charge devices are designed to be safe, they can still get very hot. For the past two days, I’ve been testing the Motorola Turbo Charger on a 2014 Moto X. Every time I used the turbo charger, it got significantly hotter than a regular charger. While not catastrophic, excessive heat is also not entirely beneficial to your phone’s long-term health . Again, none of them leave their phone on the charger overnight, so life is a kind of compromise anyway.
The effect fades off about halfway. Some manufacturers have the nasty habit of overestimating the effect of fast charging. While Qualcomm says its Quick Charge technology can charge a battery up to 60% in 30 minutes, it can take an hour or more to discharge the remaining 40%. The reason is again in the regulator. As soon as the battery starts charging, the regulator needs to find new cells to supply power and avoid overcharging the cells. Think of it like a hot air balloon. You can turn on the hose to almost full power at the beginning, but if you don’t slow down as it fills up, the balloon will burst.
There may be cheaper and better solutions for your needs. Despite the drawbacks, fast chargers are great for one all too common scenario: when your phone dies and you need to charge it quickly before you leave. However, there is another device that can help with this: external battery packs . Instead of being attached to the wall with one charger for an additional 15 minutes before you leave, you can take a battery with you that can charge your phone multiple times. While some are expensive, you can often get them for less money than a fast charger. For example, the Zendure Gridder currently costs $ 25 and Motorola’s Turbo Charger is $ 35. Your mileage may vary depending on your manufacturer and if you can get any deals, but at least it’s worth comparing both.
So, are fast chargers worth it?
That’s what all this technical jargon boils down to: Using fast chargers on supported devices is better than existing phone chargers. In fact, this is such an obvious step forward that they will likely become standard in a couple of years. Calling them fast chargers is a marketing gimmick, but what they do is not. If you have a supported phone and a suitable charger, you will be able to charge your phone faster than before.
However, in their current state, fast chargers have the potential to shorten long battery life if used too often. This is not a hindrance as most of us charge our phones in a way that will shorten battery life anyway , but this is something to keep in mind. If you have a regular charger and don’t often find 15% charge right before leaving home, you are probably fine.
Depending on how expensive a fast charger is for your device, you might be better off getting a battery or a regular car charger. Ultimately, it won’t matter much. Similar to the shift to HDTVs, fast chargers will soon become just “chargers”, and faster charging will be the new norm. And we will need to find something else to do a more thorough analysis.