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Fast charging can be a difficult topic to wrap your head around: there are a bunch of competing standards, all with different cables and power adapters. Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4 and 4+ allow charging at up to 100W, though few devices reach that. Both versions also allow you to use USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) chargers to reach speeds of up to 27W, so your phone or tablet will work with just about any fast charger.
There are a ton of phones that use Qualcomm's Quick Charge standard, including all recent Galaxy S and Note devices, most Xiaomi/Redmi phones, the Zenfone 6, all of LG's recent flagships, and many more. If you have a compatible phone, and you're looking for a fast charger for your car, one model from Unitek is extremely cheap right now.
You've probably seen wall outlets with built-in USB ports, but this outlet from TopGreener is pretty special. Not only does it have a USB Type-A connector, but the connector supports Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0, and there's an additional Type-C port. The wall outlet is now $33.99 on Amazon, a $6 reduction from the original price.
There are quite a few quick charging standards in the wild, from USB-PD to Motorola TurboPower. Qualcomm's Quick Charge remains a popular option, used in devices like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6. While there aren't any devices on the market supporting QC 4, Qualcomm has announced QC 4+ with a few additional features over the already-new standard.
The march of chipset progress goes on: Qualcomm announced this morning that its new Snapdragon 835 chipset is on the way, utilizing Samsung's new 10 nanometer fabrication process, as well as the latest generation of its Quick Charge technology. Qualcomm did not share many details about its newest flagship processor, only claiming unspecified increases in speed, efficiency, and a reduction of physical space used by the chip (all at least partly a result of the switch from 14nm to 10nm). Qualcomm says Snapdragon 835 devices will be arriving on the market in the first half of 2017. Number of cores and other improvements were not disclosed - this appears to be a strictly preliminary announcement. The most we got was this, some figures expressing the theoretical advantages of the new 10nm process.
I reviewed Aukey's lineup of chargers a couple months ago and overall, I liked them. They are solid, affordable, and work well. My only qualm with them was that they were not capable of rapid charging my Nexus 6P. Well, Aukey has some new chargers out now that solve that issue. They sent me three to check out and I'm happy to report that they work great with QC devices and the new crop of Nexus phones alike.All three chargers sport one USB Type-C port that is compatible with Nexus phones and QC 3.0 devices, the other ports are 2.4A adaptive ports that will work just fine to juice up your other gear. It would be nice if the other USB ports had QC support as well, but hey, one is better than none! To celebrate the arrival of their new products, Aukey sent me some coupon codes to share with you, our readers, so here you go guys – enjoy!
Almost everybody knows by now what is good by having a device that supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 standard. It will charge...quickly. The negative is that if you have amassed a stockpile of USB chargers over the years, none of your old ones can give you the speedy refuel. With Aukey's QC 2.0-compatible charger going for just $7.99, or half off of the full $15.99, after a coupon code on Amazon, you can grab one without feeling its toll on your wallet.That's even cheaper than the deal we posted just days ago for $10 each, which was quite popular itself.
There are few places more suited to using Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 capability (also known as Adaptive Fast Charging on Samsung devices) than in the car. You might have a 20 minute commute to work and in that span of time, you can get your phone halfway charged or better with the new charging specification, compared to the meager 10-20% you might get with a conventional 2.1A output. With today's deal on this Tronsmart car charger with both QC 2.0 and a conventional 2.4A port, you can get that in your vehicle for just $10.
If you've got a phone that supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge, then you may be doing yourself a great disservice by using a "standard" wall charger. Quick Charge is the only way to go on phones that support the feature, and for a limited time you can grab Motorola's Turbo Charger for just $9.99 plus shipping from Groupon.
Last week, Qualcomm showed off Quick Charge 1.0, a technology that makes your phone charge more quickly, and that you may already have. Today, they've announced Quick Charge 2.0, and surprise of surprises, it charges your phone faster than Quick Charge 1.0!
Smartphones that charge slowly suck. And in a world where battery capacities are getting larger by the month, long charge times could become a legitimate gripe. But Qualcomm has apparently been on the case for quite a while now, quietly implementing a technology it calls Quick Charge 1.0 into some of its Snapdragon chipsets.