Many of us would wonder about the word ‘fast charging’ after hearing it in various mobile ads. It says that just 10 to 15 minutes of charging can give you several hours of phone usage. Just read how the phones achieve this and what is the real meaning of fast charging.

What is Fast Charging?

In smartphones, the fast charging feature allows to charge the phone faster than usual for a certain point after which it charges at normal speed till it charges fully while it doesn’t decrease the phanoe’s battery life.

Most of the phones can continue fast charging from 50 to 75% of battery and then they use low power for remaining charge. In normal conditions, you can get 50% of charging in just 15-20 minutes after the phone remains operational for several hours.

At several occasions, we have only little time left for charging which makes this fast charging feature very important for everyone.

How Does it Work?

The circuitry connecting the phone’s battery is designed in a way that fast charges till the reach of a certain level by the phone.

Every manufacturer makes its own device for quick charging their phones but quick charging on many of these phones is also possible through other chargers also.

But it is recommended to use charger of phone’s own brand to fully utilize the fast charging ability of the phone because slight change in volts and amps can limited the fast charging capability of the phone.

Comparisons

Samsung

“Adaptive fast charging” is used by Samsung for its flagships. It is proved after testing that the Galaxy S6 can charge from 5% to 32% in just 15 minutes while 40 minutes of charging can fill it up to 76%. But the adaptive fast charging of Samsung is not used by the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge as they use Quick Charge 2.0 by Qualcomm.

Qualcomm                                          

Quick Charge technology is introduced by a popular SoC manufacturer Qualcomm while Quick Charge 3.0 is the current technology of the company. According to its webpage, you can refill your battery 4 times faster than normal by using a Quick Charge power adapter and any USB connector with a Snapdragon-powered device.

This charging technology can only be used by Snapdragon SoC of Qualcomm. On their website, the example of LG G5 is provided which will take only 35 minutes to charge 80% of battery which is quite similar to the performance of Samsung’s own “Adaptive fast charging”.

Oppo

Personal charging technology of “Super VOOC Flsh Charge” is an important reason for fame of Oppo. The company claims that you can charge your phone in 15 minutes from 0 to 100% by using this technology.

This year in Barcelona, they proved it with a demonstration at MWC booth. Though, a 2500 mAh battery is necessary for 15 minute full charging but even then it is a great achievement in fast charging technology.

According to a technology site, it is a combination of customized battery, cable, connector and adapter with a ‘low voltage pulse charge algorithm’. This super-fast charging requires the help of the whole setup.

Mediatek

Mediate is also approaching new as later this year, they will release the already announced Pump Express 3.0 fast charging with Helio P20 chipset phones.

According to their claims, you can charge your 70% battery in 20 minutes which is faster as compared to Samsung or Qualcomm but the compute situation is not there as they haven’t mentioned the battery capacity.

The Pump Express uses “Direct Charging” which supplies the current from charger to battery directly without involving circuitry through which it can control the problem of overheating.

Conclusion

Nowadays, fast charging is quite common which solves the issue of small usage time of smartphones. As compared to old phones, they have no comparison as they lasts for several days. But now you can at least charge your phone quickly which partially solves the problem.

But there is a concern that rapid charging can heat the phone which decreases battery life of the phone but the effect is minimal.