Stage 1 – Constant Current: Voltage increases towards its peak, while current stays constant at a high level.Take a look at the “Figure 1: Charge stages of lithium-ion” chart in this article by Battery University for more technical details. The charging process can be divided into three parts. If you’ve ever monitored the way that a battery is filled up, you’ll notice that the speed of charging gets progressively slower over time. This is because of the way that the rechargeable lithium-ion battery inside phones receives power. One thing you’ll notice is that many manufacturers tout their ability to do a quick partial charge, such as being able to charge 50-80% of the battery within half an hour. Therefore, 3A/5V charging will deliver 15W of power. Current is the amount of electric current being transported, while voltage is the force that drives this current forward.
Wattage, or power, is computed as a result of current (A, or amperes) multiplied by voltage (V, or volts). RELATED: Don't Worry About Your Smartphone's Battery, Just Use It The Fast Charging Processīefore we go further, you should take note of a simple formula. However, for manufacturers, it’s not as straightforward as using a higher-watt power brick. Some manufacturers have 50W, 80W, and 100W chargers available.įor the end user, it’s as simple as using a compatible fast-charger for their phone. Current-generation devices typically have 15W power bricks right out of the box. A basic USB port sends 2.5W to the connected device, and faster chargers raise this amount. Without fast charging, we’d have to wait hours for our phones to top up.Īt the most basic level, fast charging is simply increasing the number of watts (W) that are delivered to a phone’s battery. As phone sizes are getting bigger each year, they need bigger batteries to keep up with the added power consumption. The widespread adoption of fast charging is a response to increasing phone usage, with many people having to recharge their phones more than once per day.
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Manufacturers often throw out numbers like “80% in 30 minutes” or “a full charge in under an hour” in the marketing of their latest devices. Nearly every recent flagship phone on the market offers some type of fast charging.