With so many battery hungry apps running on smartphones, all we need is a quick charge to revive our exhausted phones. Although many phone manufacturers are offering long battery lives, there is always a higher price tag along. The increased phone size and weight is another outcome of large batteries in the phones of today’s genre. QUALCOMM or OPPO (OnePlus) are working on providing quick charge technologies that can charge your device at a higher pace. With such technologies, you can own lightweight and sleeker phones that charge as quickly as you need. Let us first understand what quick charging means and how is it different from dash charge technology. This is an essential thing to know before you compare different brands of phones to select the one with the speediest charging.
Quick Charge
Quick charge technology was introduced by QUALCOMM when it introduced its SoC (System-on-chip) and named it snapdragon. This chip consists of an intricate circuitry that includes, GPS, modem, CPU, GPU, camera and much more. The quick charge technology in this chip is capable to manage the power transferred over USB cables. In 2013, Qualcomm tested and launched quick charge 1.0 in snapdragon 600 processor series and used the maximum wattage (power) of 10W by using 5V Voltage and 2A current.
Subsequently, Qualcomm released newer and better updates on quick charge technology. It launched Quick charge 2.0 in 2015 with max. power of 18 Watts (Voltage=5V-12V, Current=2A). In 2016, Quick Charge 3.0 was launched charging with maximum power of 18 watts (Voltage= 3.6-20V, Current= 2.5A/4.6A).
This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
With the launch of snapdragon 835 processor, Quick charge 4.0 was also introduced in 2016 with a power of 28 Watts. It also promised 50% charging in fifteen minutes, enhanced battery cycle life and better safety than its predecessors.
And recently in June 2017, Qualcomm launched Quick charge 4+ with a lot many other features that were missing in the earlier versions.
New features of Quick Charge 4+
- The advanced safety feature allows the safety protocol to monitor the individual temperatures of the case and charging connector. It prevents the device from short-circuiting.
- The power is supplied to the device by following the coolest path in the circuitry to avoid any thermal imbalance.
- The charging time is further reduced by 15% compared to quick charge 4.0 by using dual charge technology which divides the charging current for enhanced heat dissipation.
Dash Charge
Just as Qualcomm pioneered the quick charge technology for fast charging, One Plus offers fast charging named Dash Charge for faster charging. Since the power is measured in voltage and current (Power=Voltage x Current), Quick charge uses high voltage to increase the charging power. Opposite to this dash charge used high current ratings to increase the charging power.
The other difference between both these charging technologies is the location of charge-management circuitry. The charging circuitry is located on the snapdragon chip that is located on the device itself. On the other hand, charging is managed by a circuitry present on the wall charger. This difference also makes Dash charge safer and cooler as far as any damage resulting from overcharging or overheating is concerned.
The major difference between these two technologies is that with Dash Charge you need a proprietary dash cable and charger to quickly charge your mobile device. Whereas you can use any quick charge certified cable or charger to charge snapdragon based smartphone.
Dash Charge was introduced in OnePlus3 smartphones and it takes merely 30 minutes to fully charge onePlus5 T which used 11 V voltage and 5 amperes current thus producing a charging power of 55 Wattage.
Finally…
So the final verdict is that with the launch of Quick Charge 4Plus, there is not much difference in charging time between Quick Charge and Dash Charge. But as far as safety is concerned, although Qualcomm introduced many thermal safety features in 4+, Dash Charging is still safer among these two fast charging technologies. To enjoy Quick Charge or Dash Charge functionality, your device should have the hardware capability before using Quick Charge certified cable or wall charger.
Share Your Views: