Qualcomm Quick Charge 4: 5 minutes of charging for 5 hours of battery life, Delivers up to 20% Faster Charging

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New Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 Delivers up to 20% Faster Charging, Improved Efficiency. Qualcomm Quick Charge 4: Five minutes of charging for five hours of battery life.

Five Minutes of Quick Charge 4 now Delivers Five or More Hours of Smartphone Usage with new Fourth Generation Technology. 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.

Quick Charge 4 will be available with the next generation Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 835 processor. Snapdragon 835 is expected to ship in commercial devices in the first half of 2017.

Building upon Qualcomm Technologies’ existing leadership in fast charging implementations, Quick Charge 4 is designed to provide a superior charging solution by delivering faster charge times and higher efficiency than prior generations. For typical premium phone users, Quick Charge 4 is engineered to extend smartphone use by five or more hours with only five minutes of charging. Using Dual Charge, Qualcomm Technologies’ parallel charging technology, users can enjoy up to 20 percent faster charging and up to 30 percent higher efficiency compared with Quick Charge 3.0. Quick Charge 4 also integrates USB Type-C and USB-PD support, making the industry’s most popular battery charging solution available on the widest variety of cables and adapters.

“As mobile devices become more capable and feature rich, people tend to use them more. That’s why consumer demand and awareness for fast-charging solutions is now at an all-time high,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Quick Charge 4 addresses that need by providing up to 50 percent battery charge in roughly 15 minutes or less, so you don’t have to spend all day chained to your charging cable.”

Quick Charge 4 features the third release of INOV (Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage), a unique power-management algorithm designed by Qualcomm Technologies. INOV now includes real-time thermal management, a technology industry first, which is designed to advance charging optimization by automatically determining and selecting the optimal power transfer level for a given thermal condition.

In addition to providing the most consistent in-box and out-of-box charging experience, Quick Charge 4 comes with advanced safety features for both the adapter and mobile device. Protection is implemented at multiple levels and throughout the entire charging process to more accurately measure voltage, current, and temperature while protecting the battery, system, cables and connectors. An additional layer of protection is also being added to help prevent battery over-charging and regulate current throughout every charge cycle.

For optimal Quick Charge 4 performance, Qualcomm Technologies is introducing the newest power management ICs (PMIC), SMB1380 and SMB1381. With low impedance, up to 95% peak efficiency, and advanced fast charging features, such as battery differential sensing, SMB1380 and SMB1381 are engineered to provide 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. SMB1380/1 is expected to be available before the end of 2016.

Quick Charge’s rapidly growing ecosystem consists of more than 100 Quick Charge compatible mobile devices and more than 300 unique accessory products such as wall and car adapters, battery packs and docking stations. In total, over 600 million mobile devices and accessories support Quick Charge technology. This robust ecosystem allows customers to have more variety and availability as well as better prices than other fast-charging solutions that can’t offer a comparable solution.

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-MR found 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.

1. Quick Charge is designed to allow devices to support 5 hours of battery life with 5 minutes of charging. Actual results may vary depending on device design.

2. Qualcomm Technologies Research based on review of available Quick Charge devices and accessories against other fast charging techniques.