How to get fast charging on any Android smartphone or iPhone and what it takes to recharge the battery faster.

Processors, RAM, Screen, are always the first features advertised when you buy a phone, but in the end how long the battery lasts and how long does it charge?

While already in another article we have seen which are the smartphones with a more powerful battery that lasts longer, in this we speak instead of the quick charge, the Quick Charge, which is one of the most important functions of modern phones.

This applies to mobile phones with a battery that lasts longer, because it does not take too long to recharge them and, above all, it applies to those that last less, so that you can give fast refills even using a portable charger.

Not everyone knows that fast charging is a feature present in many mobile phones, even old 3 or 4 years, which is advertised under different names depending on the manufacturer; we can find names like Adaptive Fast Charging (Samsung), Quick Charge (Qualcomm), Dash Charge (OnePlus) just to mention the most important ones.

In explaining how fast charging works on Android smartphones and on iPhone, we also see how to get a quick charge on almost every device.

First of all, let’s see in an ultra-synthetic way how battery recharging works.

We know (as we can read on any scientific guide) that the smartphone battery delivers energy using chemical reactions and lithium ions.

In rechargeable batteries, the reactions are reversible, so when the battery is discharged, the chemical reaction produces electricity, whereas when the battery is recharged, the chemical reactions absorb energy.

The batteries of the smartphone are recharged when current passes, the more the voltage (measured in Volts) is high, the faster the recharging of the batteries, but up to a certain limit imposed by the charge controller or charge controller that protects the battery from peaks of current.

The controller chip regulates the general flow of electricity inside and outside the battery.

In general, lithium ion controllers define the current (measured in amperes) at which the battery charges, measuring current and battery voltage and adjusting the flowing current.

Some controllers use a converter to change the input voltage while the more elaborate integrated circuits regulate the resistance between the charger input and the battery terminal to increase or decrease the current flow.

What is important to know, is that the electric power (measured in Watt) of the chargers is different depending on the technology used (ie depending on the USB cable used) and that the amount of current absorbed by the charge controller is generally regulated by the software of the phone.

Take into account that the power in watts is obtained by multiplying Volt and Ampere.

A typical USB 1.0 plug and 2.0 can provide up to 5 V for 0.5 A = 2.5 W.

The USB 3.0 ports push instead of a 5V power to 0.9A = 4.5 W.

USB-C , the plug oval-shaped of some more expensive smartphones, it is often a USB 3.1 that, potentially, can provide a much higher voltage by taking advantage of USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) specifications.

The maximum power is 20V / 5A = 100W.

So, with the voltage measured in Volt, the Current in Ampere and the maximum Power in Watts, we can summarize that:

USB 1.0: 5V – 0.5A – 2.5W

USB 2.0: 5V – 0.5A – 2.5W

USB 3.0: 5V – 0.5 A / 0.9A – 4.5W

USB 3.1 (USB-C + USB-PD): 5V-20V – 0.5A / 0.9A / 1.5A / 3A / 5A – 100W

More complicated are the battery charging specifications, which refer specifically to the power taken from a USB port for charging.

The most recent specification, BC 1.1, defines three different power sources: Standard downstream port (SDP) , charging downstream port (CDP) and dedicated charging port (DCP) .

CDP, which is the specification of modern smartphones, laptops and other hardware devices, can supply up to 1.5 A.

More technical details (and more precise than I have summarized here) on how the USB charging works are in this technical article .

Let’s go now more to the point and find out what it takes to get the quick charge on every smartphone.

Fast charging on Apple iPhone

The iPhone’s fast charging is USB-PD 14.5V 2A with a maximum power of 29W

To take advantage of fast charging, however, you must first of all have an iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X and then a USB-PD charger that Apple does not put in the packaging of its phones and that it must be bought separately.

The standard charger offers 5 watts of power and is very slow (only the charging via USB port of the computer is slower).

You can then buy an Anker USB-C charger (better than the Apple charger) to get the Quick Charge 3.0 quick charge on the iPhone.

You should also use the Lightning cable from Apple or this from Anker.

Those who have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus can charge faster using the iPad charger that provides 12 watts of power.

Quick upload of Android smartphones

The new Android phones support fast charging technology that recharges the battery faster.

Most phones can charge up to 50-60% in less than half an hour, which is a great relief when you need to top up your phone halfway through the day.

However, every company has a different version of the quick charge technology, with some faster, others slower but also with lower heat generation.

One of the most important and most common fast charging standards is that of Qualcomm processor phones (like all the Snapdragon series).

The latest version of Quick Charge 4 can charge smartphones up to 50% in just 15 minutes.

Quick Charge 3.0 rises to 50 percent capacity in half an hour and just over an hour to reach 100 percent.

Quick Charge 2.0 is 60% faster than standard charging while Quick Charge 1.0 is 30% faster.

On many older smartphones with Qualcomm processor may be present, even if not specifically indicated, the Quick Charge version 1.0 or 2.0 that will not be as efficient as the latest versions, but they are still fast.

For example, I found out by writing this article that my old Nexus 5 supports Quick Charge 1.0 and recharges faster if I use the right charger.

Unlike the iPhone, if a quick charge is advertised for a smartphone, then the supplied charger should suffice.

You can, however, buy a suitable charger, making sure it is compatible with the used phone (otherwise the charging will be slow).

In addition, the cable you use to connect the charger and smartphone will also need to support fast charging.

Given the confusion that has created the various brands with fast chargers, not to be wrong, it should fit the charger Anker Quick Charge 3.0 which certainly works with mobile phones Samsung, Google, HTC or LG (not Huawei and Oneplus).

Also, the cable must be bought separately and you can take this of Anker Powerline cable at 7 Euro.

Anker chargers and cable can also work with phones that are not Quick Charge 3.0, even if you need to test or check the forums to confirm.

On Android, you can measure the charging power of the charger with the Ampere app or with AccuBattery .

With all this, whatever the device and the charger used, the suggestions to increase the charging speed of the mobile phone smartphone or iPhone are still worth