If you’re new to the concept of quick charging, the result is in the name: your smartphone charges up faster than it would without Quick Charge technology.

Qualcomm boasts a fourfold increase in charging times over conventional chargers with Quick Charge 3.0, up from the 40 percent speed increase offered by its first-generation technology. However, one of the interesting things to note is that Qualcomm isn’t touting massive increases in charging times over version 2.0, instead, the company is focusing on improved efficiency this time around.

Voltage
• 3.6 V to 22 V, dynamic with 200 mV increments
Max current
• 2.6 A or 4.6 A
Max power
• 36 W (12 V x 3 A)

The major new feature with 3.0 is INOV (Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage), which allows for a fined tuned power output and a more optimized charging cycle. Firstly, different batteries require different charging voltages. Version 2.0 supported four modes at varying power levels, 5 volts/2amps, 9V/2A, 12V/1.67A, and a 20 volt option. Quick Charge 3.0’s INOV communicates with the device to request any voltage between 3.2V and 20V at 200mV increments, allowing for a wider selection of voltages.

Importantly, Qualcomm has retained backward compatibility with its 2.0 and 1.0 standards. As the power draw is handled on the smartphone side, you will safely receive the maximum amount of power for your device using any of the certified chargers. However, you won’t achieve full charging speeds if you try charging newer phones with older lower power chargers.

Although Qualcomm supports Quick Charge in all of its new SoCs, it is still up to smartphone and tablet manufacturers to implement the specific circuitry required to make full use of the fastest charging speeds available.