Updated in August 2021
6 years after writing this, adding update information to this article.
Which charging Technology has come a long way in the last few years. We now have quick charge 4.0, charges that can charge smartphone batteries in less than 1 hour.
It could have been less than 1 hour but, the batteries of the smartphone have also increased.
We have reached to a point where we literally have to carry just one charger for all our devices. Check out this article that lists a few chargers you can purchase that will charge everything.
Smartphones are becoming an important part of our lives, and they will continue to interrupt be more important. With us building more dependence on our phones, we simply cannot afford our smartphones to go off or die out of battery.
Thanks for the phones that provide bigger batteries, that can fill enough juice to power our devices for a longer period of time. But, these big batteries take forever to charge, okay, not forever, but they still take a lot of time.
Before we dig deeper into the topic, let’s point out some basic tips you should remember that can affect the time taken to charge your phone.
Some Basic Tips on Charging Your Phone Faster
Do not use your phone while it is charging, when you are using your phone while it is charging you are consuming more power and he slows down the charging process.
Your phone gets heated up a lot when you do some resource-intensive tasks while it is charging, and this affects badly on the life of the battery.
Phones, when turned off, charge faster. in case if you haven’t noticed, the phones charge faster when they are switched off because they do not consume any power at all. If you can’t do that, putting your phone on Airplane mode also helps a bit.
Always use the original USB cable, these cables carry charge from a charger to your phone, the quality ones have less leakage of the charge in the way. And a cheaper one can waste a lot of it, the longer the cable, the more leakage it has.
If you lose your original USB cable, do not buy those cheaper ones just because they look the same. For a price like $4-5, you can get the original ones so there is really no need of the cheaper ones here.
There is more to it, which we will talk about in little detail, each getting a sub-heading of their own.
Dependency on the Power Outlet
Now that we’ve talked about the basic stuff, like, not using the phone and always using the original USB cable. it doesn’t mean that an Original USB cable will give your phone the best charge possible.
For example, if you plug it into a USB port of your PC or Laptop, you are not going to get the optimal charge, because the USB port deliver less power than Wall chargers.
Even in USB, there are variations of the power supply, for example, USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 is capable of delivering up to 0.5A. The USB 3.0 gives just the double, up to 1A.
Wall chargers, on the other hand, offer far more power than the USB ports on Computers. There are fast chargers which can give a charge of as much as 2.4A.
Usually, the mobile phone manufacturers have set a limit as to how much of power the phone can take, this is actually meant to protect your phones from getting damaged from high power.
Thanks to the fast charging technologies like Quick Charge by Qualcomm, we can charge our smarthpones faster in a controlled manner.
Introduction to Quick Charge
Quick Charge is a technology created by Qualcomm for devices that are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Processors.
The technology lets a mobile phone’s battery fill more charge in less time when it’s empty, making it charge faster.
In laboratory tests using a 3300mAh battery1, a Quick Charge 2.0 enabled device went from 0% to 60% charge in 30 minutes, while a device without Quick Charge 2.0 using a conventional (5 volt, 1 amp) charger achieved just a 12% gain in the same 30 minutes. A device with Quick Charge 1.0 managed a 30% charge in that time period.
Qualcomm has introduced Quick Charge 3.0, which provides even more fast charging, it claims that Quick Charge 3.0 can charge a phone (with 3300mAh battery) from 0 to 80% in 35 Minutes.
Recommended Third-Party Chargers
Usually, you will get a fast charger with your phone if it supports fast charging, but there are many third-party chargers you can buy to get faster charging done or merely as a replacement for the original charger you get with your phone. You might be able to get more charge pushed to your phone.
UltraPro Link charger I bought delivers 2.4A of power which is far more than what most mobile phones can take. Which brings us to another point that the phone also has to support fast charging.
Qualcomm recommends few chargers that support Quick Charge and has been tested also. These are, Motorola Turbo Charger, Tronsmart Quick Charge 2.0
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Fast Charging Differs from Phone to Phone
As of now, there are only the Flagship phones from Mobile manufacturing companies support the ‘Quick Charge’. But more and more phones are getting this very important feature.
To charge your phone faster, you don’t necessarily need to have this Quick Charge feature (though it will be helpful). it all depends on the limit your phone manufacturer has set on the phone, and it may take more charge than the shipped charger supplies to it.
Your phone, without the ‘Quick Charge’ support, might be able to get more charge than its charger supplies to it. So, you might want to try out chargers that deliver 2A or more charges.
Potential Downsides of Fast Charging
While everyone would love to charge their phones faster, there are few things you should know that come as a side-effect of changing your phones faster, then make an educated decision whether you want fast charging or not.
One of the things is, it affects the battery, fast charging produces a lot of heat and heat is not good for the battery.
*Quick Charge, minimizes the chances of decreasing the lifespan of the battery.
Another thing is that most of us have this habit of putting our phones on charge at night time and find them fully charged by the morning. With fast charger charging your phones much faster, you will be keeping your phone on charge for long even after it is fully charged.
*Though the smartphones are smart enough to understand it has been charged fully and cut the power source to keep the battery from overcharging, but it still doesn’t feel right to leave your phone on charge.
In any case, when the batteries are given more charge they can handle, the batteries get swollen, or may even explode.
So, it is recommended to use only the chargers that have been tested, use original USB cables and see if your phone really supports fast charging.
You May Consider Keeping a Power Bank
There are other ways to keep your phones filled with juice they require to run your life.
Buy Power Banks, they are quite helpful when you are always on the move, you can charge your phone even when you don’t get a power outlet available.
Some Power banks are designed as phone cases, which makes it extremely convenient to carry and look nice as well.
If you are looking for more reasonable power bank, you can buy power banks from Xiaomi or OnePlus.
