Being able to quickly charge your phone or tablet can mean the difference between hours of care-free use or scrambling to find the nearest coffee shop for a power outlet. Fast charging is an increasingly popular feature that allows you to power up your device in just a fraction of the time it takes to do it the old-fashioned way. But not all products use the same type of fast charging—and not all chargers support the various standards. Here's what you need to know to make sure you're getting the fastest charge possible.
Understanding Fast Charging
The output of a charge is measured in amperage and voltage. Amperage (or current) is the amount of electricity flowing from the battery to the connected device, while voltage is the strength of the electric current. Multiplying volts by amps gives you wattage, the measure of total power.
To make a device charge faster, most manufacturers either boost the amperage or vary the voltage in order to increase the amount of potential energy. The majority of fast charging standards typically vary the voltage rather than boost the amperage.
Standard USB 3.0 ports output at a level of 5V/1A for smaller devices like wearables. Most phones and other devices are capable of handling 5V/2.4A. For fast charging, you're looking at something that bumps the voltage up 5V, 9V, 12V, and beyond, or increases amperage to 3A and above.
Keep in mind, your device will only take in as much power as its charging circuit is designed for. For fast charging to work, you need a phone or other device with a charging circuit capable of using one of the fast charging standards, and an adapter and cable enabled for that same standard.
Type of Fast Charging
Apple Fast Charging
Starting with the iPhone 8, all of Apple's phones support fast charging. Unless you own an iPhone 11 Pro or 11 Pro Max, however, you're probably using one of Apple's slow 5W adapters to charge your phone.
Apple uses USB Power Delivery for fast charging, and claims you’ll see a 50 percent increase in battery life in just 30 minutes. In order to get these speeds, however, you need to use at least an 18W adapter with a USB-C-to-Lightning cable. A more powerful adapter won’t harm your phone, but it’s unlikely to help. We reached out to Apple to determine the most powerful adapter its iPhone lineup will support, but a representative for the company said it doesn’t disclose maximum charging specifications.
MediaTek Pump Express
Certain MediaTek-powered phones use the company's Pump Express standard, which comes in different versions on different devices.
Pump Express 2.0+ is primarily for MediaTek’s low-end chipsets, and works with micro USB and USB-C charging ports. Charging maxes out at 15W by using 5V to 20V variable voltage in conjunction with 3A or 4.5A of current.
Pump Express 3.0 and Pump Express 4.0 are largely the same. Both rely on 5A of current and use USB Power Delivery 3.0. The difference is that Pump Express 4.0 also supports its own proprietary wireless charging technology, as well at Qi wireless charging at 5W.
MediaTek claims Pump Express 2.0+ should charge a depleted battery to 70 percent within 30 minutes, while Pump Express 3.0 and 4.0 should cut that time in half. While these are indeed fast estimates, we didn't quite see these results bear our when testing Pump Express 3.0. On average, we saw closer to a 55 percent charge over 15 minutes, which is still nothing to sneeze at.
Motorola Rapid Charging and TurboPower
Motorola uses two different proprietary fast charging standards, Rapid Charging and TurboPower. For the most part, the company's less expensive Moto E and and Moto G series phones use Rapid Charging, which offers 10W charging via micro USB or USB-C. It offers a slight boost over basic 5W charging, but don't expect to see super-fast charging times.
Motorola's midrange and flagship phones uses a different technology called TurboPower. To be honest, TurboPower is a little confusing, and you'll probably want to check the company's site to find the best charger for your phone, but basically there are 15W and 18W TurboPower standards. To simplify things a bit, all Motorola smartphones with TurboPower also support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
OnePlus Dash Charge and Warp Charge
Dash Charge and Warp Charge are licensed from Oppo, and work the same as Vooc, bumping up amperage to 5V/4A to achieve an output of 20W. On a phone like the OnePlus 5T, you can charge up to 60 percent in 30 minutes.
Newer models like the OnePlus 8 Pro support 30W wired and wireless charging thanks to Warp Charge. Wired charging is delivered via a 5V/6A adapter and proprietary USB-C cable. Delivering 30W wireless charging speeds is more of a challenge, as it would create an extraordinary amount of heat using the standard 5V/6A formula. Instead, OnePlus delivers 20V at just 1.5A, since voltage creates far less heat.
OnePlus also uses charge pumps in an innovative way to make charging safer and more efficient. If you really want to dig into the nuts and bolts of OnePlus' 30W wireless charging, check out Android Central’s explainer.
Oppo SuperVooc Flash Charge
Vooc is Oppo's proprietary fast charging standard. The company has long been a leader in fast charging technology, and it currently holds the record for fastest charging speed with its 65W adapter that can fully charge the Reno Ace in just 31 minutes. In addition, Oppo is the only major manufacturer to use gallium nitride (GaN) batteries in its phones for better performance and reliability.
Oppo’s SuperVooc comes in several different flavors. The fastest is SuperVooc 2.0, which uses 10V and 6.5A to charge its phones at 65W. SuperVooc comes in at an impressive 50W maximum charge by combining 10V of electrical force and 5A of power. Vooc is the slowest of the bunch, with a maximum charging speed of 25W at 5V/5A.
Qualcomm Quick Charge
The most common fast charging standard is Qualcomm's Quick Charge because of the widespread nature of the company's chipsets. That said, many of the phones that support newer Quick Charge standards aren't sold in the US.
Quick Charge 3.0 is one of the most common fast charging protocols used in midra, and Quick Charge 3+ brings similar speeds to midrange phones with some Qualcomm Snapdragon 700-series chipsets. Quick Charge 4+ is the the current global gold standard for flagships that don’t use proprietary fast charging technologies. Each standard is backward compatible with the previous one, so older cables and adapters will still work.
Quick Charge 3.0 dynamically boosts voltage from 3.2V to 20V, though peak power for both standards is 18W. That means, theoretically, phones with a 3,500mAh to 4,500mAh capacity can gain about 80 percent charge in just 35 minutes when the battery is depleted. Quick Charge 3+ brings similar charging speeds to less-expensive chipsets.
Quick Charge 4+ narrows the voltage range while pumping up the amperage. It offers 5V at between 4.7A to 5.6A, or 9V at 3A. Quick Charge 4+ devices use USB-C ports and are compliant with USB Power Delivery. They also have a second power management chip, allowing up to 28W of power without overheating. The LG V60 ThinQ 5G is one of a handful of US phones that support Quick Charge 4+, and in testing, we were able to get a 50 percent charge on a depleted battery in about 18 minutes.
Qualcomm recently announced Quick Charge 5. The new standard supports fast charging at 100W and can completely recharge a 4,500mAh battery in just 15 minutes. It will initially be supported on Snapdragon 865 chipsets and upcoming premium Qualcomm processors. A representative for the company told PCMag it expects to add the standard to Snapdragon 600 and 700 series chipsets at some point in the future.
Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging
Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charging works in a similar manner to Qualcomm's Quick Charge by bumping up voltage and/or amperage. Samsung doesn’t release all the specifications for its Adaptive Fast Charging protocol, nor does it make any claims about charging times, but it provided us with some speed and support information in the charts below.
With Samsung’s optional 10V/4.5W adapter, the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the Note 10+ can theoretically charge at 45W. Most of Samsung's current-generation flagships support Adaptive Fast Charging up to 25W with the adapter in the box. It’s important to note that while some Samsung phones support older versions of Qualcomm Quick Charge, you’ll see much faster speeds using the adapter that comes with the phone or a Samsung-certified adapter.
What Is Wireless Fast Charging?
Wireless charging is convenient, but it can be slow. Most wireless chargers that lack fans or cooling systems are limited to charging speeds of just 5V/1A. But various companies now offer fast wireless charging pads that come with built-in fans to dissipate heat, allowing you to charge at speeds nearly on par with a cable.
Voltage and amperage depend on the charging pad in question. Once again, you'll want to make sure that your phone and your wireless charging pad support the same fast charging standard. Also keep in mind you'll need a wall adapter plugged into the pad that supports fast charging as well.
There are lots of variables to think about when buying a wireless charger, so we’ve done the homework for you by creating a list of the best wireless charging pads based on your phone and budget.
Fast Charging Beyond Your Phone
For laptops, the fast charging situation is a bit different. USB Power Delivery (PD) isn't so much fast charging as it is a standard that determines if an adapter or portable power bank is capable of charging a laptop or other high-powered device. With USB-C input/output ports now pretty much standard, it's possible for adapters and power banks to charge devices that require an output of 18W or more. The Power Delivery spec allows a device to be charged at a maximum current of 5A or 100W.
Power Delivery 3.0 is quickly becoming the standard for power banks and adapters. It supports outputs at 7.5W, 15W, 27W, and 45W, each with its own voltage and amperage configurations. This means PD adapters with multiple USB-C ports can intelligently dole out power to multiple devices, so a 45W adapter may supply 18W to charge your phone, 5W to a wearable, and the remaining 22W to a tablet.
What You Need for Fast Charging
Depending on the device you have, the fast charging standard you're able to use will vary. Check what your phone supports, then look at your wall adapter to see if it supports the same standard (they're usually labeled). Then make sure your cable is compatible (you're best off using one the one that come with your phone or adapter). If you need to buy a new wall adapter, cable, or wireless charging pad, take note of what standard it supports.
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