Qualcomm's New Quick Charger Takes Phones to 50% in 5 Min

If 30 minutes for a 50% charge seems crazy fast, Qualcomm is getting ready to blow your mind.

The company announced its new Quick Charge 5 technology, which supposedly leverages 100 w to fill a 4,500mAh battery to 50% in five minutes and 0-100% in 15 minutes. Phones utilizing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 and 865 Plus processors will get the new treatment (at first), so at least for now, it won’t be universal.

And for that, Apple must be praising the god of batteries, because low energy capacity is one of the most common iPhone complaints, and even the iPhone 11 Pro’s quick charging takes 30 minutes to reach 55% and an hour and 42 for a full charge.

Qualcomm claims its Quick Charge 5 runs "up to 70% more efficient" than QC 4 and 10°C cooler than the standard, and it “incorporates 12 separate voltage, current and temperature protections, including USB-input overvoltage protection at 25V and external power controls beyond 30V,” but the really interesting part is that a version of the new tech apparently works wirelessly (with the expected drop in efficiency).

You can read more about this development on Qualcomm’s site.