In recent years, smartphones manufacturers have done well to improve processor performance and camera quality of their smartphones. But one issue remains outstanding: battery life. The manufacturers have had it tough coming up with battery capacity that can match people’s heavy usage habits. So they did the next best thing: reduce the time it takes to charge your phone.
The way the technology works is that the power management chip in the phone sends signals to the charging adapter about the state of the battery. The rate at which electricity enters the phone through the charger is optimized based on state of the battery. So the emptier the battery, the more electricity (power) flows in (when the battery is empty, it can absorb more current than when it’s almost full).
It’s like when you’re hungry and you finally get food. The rate you devour it in the initial few minutes is not the same when you’re almost full. That’s the way fast charging tech works.
For a phone to charge, it needs the right amount of current supported by the charging adapter. So to increase the charging speed, the battery will require more power which is a result of additional current at a set battery voltage. But this requires sturdier charging components, as Rob Triggs of Android Authority explains. So it’s not the same hardware for normal charging that works for fast charging.
A number of new smartphones have embraced fast-charging technology. Phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6, ASUS Zenfone, LG G4, Google Nexus 6 and Droid Turbo all pack this technology.
Just this Monday, Huawei announced the development of “two types of quick charging lithium-ion batteries: one battery with a 600 mAh capacity that can be charged to 68% capacity in two minutes; and another with a 3000 mAh capacity and an energy density above 620 Wh/L, which can be charged to 48% capacity in five minutes to allow ten hours of phone call on Huawei mobile phones.”
Huawei stated that this technology is a product of heteroatoms bonded “to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds.” The heteroatoms, they added, “increase the charging speed of batteries without decreasing energy density or battery life.”
Videos were also released to demonstrate the new technology. One for the two minutes quick charging demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUIR_E8qm8w
And another for the five minutes quick charging demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BTtXGqAnrw
Here’s a video to further explain how the tech works:
Photo Credit: Robert_Ball via Compfight cc
