Qualcomm brings cooler charging to the phone you already own

It’s been a while since Qualcomm launched an upgrade for Quick Charge, but ahead of the company’s annual Snapdragon refresh, it’s back with some big changes for its proprietary charging standard.

First, some context. Qualcomm launched Quick Charge 5 back in 2020, bundling in support for 100W+ charging and support for powering up a 4,500mAh battery from 0% to 50% in just five minutes. While you’re unlikely to find many devices supporting that level of speed in the US, phones from brands like Xiaomi have come pretty close to reaching Qualcomm’s max speed limits. Now, five years later, Quick Charge 5 is getting an upgrade focused not on improving those speeds necessarily, but on making everything a little bit cooler.

Quick Charge 5+ is designed to reduce the risk of overheating when your device is plugged in and powering up at maximum rates. Qualcomm says it’s designed to “intelligently” adapt to your circumstances, utilizing lower voltages at higher currents in order to “minimize heat generation” up to 20V at 7A. In practice, this should make a big difference to those who use their smartphone while it’s charging, especially during gaming or other high-performance moments. This also should help your battery’s longevity healthy, rather than applying constant stress to the cell as it recharges.

I don’t think anyone would say no to cooler, more efficient fast-charging, but it’s also not quite worth the hassle (and cost) of upgrading to a new smartphone. Thankfully, Quick Charge 5+ is backwards compatible with practically every iteration of Qualcomm’s standard, with only Quick Charge 1.0 devices left off the list. That includes devices and accessories, meaning practically everyone with It’ll also, unsurprisingly, work with whatever’s set to be unveiled at Snapdragon Summit in just a couple of weeks. Same speeds, cooler efficiency for all — what’s not to like?