Fast charging technologies

Battery is often a major problem in smartphones. Many companies have sought to increase the battery capacity until we see smartphones with batteries exceeding 4,000 mAh and even reaching 10,000 in Chinese companies. Because increasing capacity means increasing the charging period, fast charging technologies have emerged. What are these technologies and where is Apple among them?

First, you must know some simple technical points. The article will not be purely scientific, as we will seek to simplify the concepts. But you must know the following:

• 1 The capacity of batteries is written in milliampere hours or mAh, taking into account that mAh = 1/1000. Meaning, if you write 3000 mAh, it means 3 amps (3A).
• 2 Traditional charging is 5 volts and the amperage output varies. The old chargers had a capacity of 700 mAh (0.7A), then it evolved and the standard charging became 1000 mAh or 1A.
• 3 Personal computers have an output current of 5 volts, and the amperage ranges from 0.5A in the past to 1A in the modern era.
• 4 The charger that comes with the iPhone is 1A, while the iPad 1-2-3-4 was 2.1A and now 2.4A in the iPad Air and newer.
• 5 In order to know the power of your charger, look at the writing on it and the Output box and you will find a number, let it be 5V/1.5A, which means charging 5 volts and 1.5 amps or 1500 mAh.

Oppo & OnePlus Amp Boost Technology

As we learned above that the battery capacity is in mAh, let us have a 4000 mAh battery. What happens if we connect it to a 1A charger, i.e. 1000 mAh?! We will need 4 hours to charge it. What if the charger became 2A, i.e. 2000 mAh?! Will we need 2 hours? If the charger is 4A, then theoretically it should charge in just 1 hour. This was the method and technology of increasing the amperage that a number of companies relied on, the most famous of which is Oppo in its VOOC technology, which makes their phones reach 75% in just 30 minutes. As well as OnePlus Dash Charge technology, which enables the Phone 3 to reach 63% in just 30 minutes.

Fast charging technologies

These techniques increase the amperage to approximately 4A. But of course, for clarity, the device itself must support high amperage. You cannot say, “I will charge my iPhone 6, for example, with a 4 amp charger and it will charge in an hour.” Apple has placed electrical restrictions to protect the device and it will charge in the same traditional time.

Voltage and amp technology “Qualcomm”

This is the most famous and widely used technology, specifically from Qualcomm. The name may be strange to some, but Qualcomm is one of the largest in the world in developing processors, as well as manufacturing communication chips, and almost all companies deal with it, including Apple (in the field of modems). Qualcomm offers its own technology called Quick Charge, which is now in its third generation and provides charging speeds from 0% to 80% in just 35 minutes. The second generation provided a charge of up to 60% in the same period.

This technology is considered the most famous in its generations, and you can find it in the Samsung S6-S7 and Note 4-5-7 phones. LG in the G3/G4/G5, Sony Z4-Z5-XZ, HTC 8-9-10, Xiaomi Mi4-5, and even Google supported it in the Nexus 6. This technology changes the voltage, not the amp. Traditional chargers, computers, Apple chargers, and even the previous Oppo and OnePlus chargers charge 5 volts and change amperes. But Qualcomm increases the voltage to 9 volts and 12 volts, and thus the voltage and amperage share together in charging the device.

There are other companies that rely on the same method, but they offer their own technology, not from Qualcomm. The most prominent of these companies is Huawei in the Mate 8, although its performance is much lower than Qualcomm’s technology.