The first phone with Qualcomm's QuickCharge 4+ is here

Qualcomm announced QuickCharge 4 last year when they gave details about the new Snapdragon 835. However, QuickCharge 4 wasn't made available until this year when devices with the Snapdragon 835 came out. At that time Qualcomm promised 5 minutes of charging could deliver 5 hours of battery life (based on a 2750 mAh battery).

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They also introduced USB Type-C and USB PD compliance, Battery Saver, INOV and Dual Charge capabilities, and they talked about going from zero to 50% in only 15 minutes, which is quite an improvement from previous experiences.

With QuickCharge 4+ Qualcomm is upping the ante further by reducing temperatures by 3C and charging an additional 15% faster while also being 30% more efficient. That means that if a device or accessory maker builds a QuickCharge 4+ device, it will very likely deliver a superior charging user experience.

By doing so, Qualcomm makes QuickCharge 4+ even more attractive to users and manufacturers and something to seek out when customers look to buy new devices or accessories. It does this by improving Dual Charge by adding Intelligent Thermal Balancing to make charging more efficient and cool as well as Advanced Safety Features to prevent overheating and damage to connectors.

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QuickCharge 4+ is still backward compatible with all of the previous QuickCharge technologies, but will not have the benefits of QuickCharge 4+ unless both devices are QuickCharge 4+.

Read also: ZTE Nubia Z17 announced: Snapdragon 835 and 8GB of RAM

In fact, the first QuickCharge 4+ device is the newly announced ZTE Nubia Z17 with Snapdragon 835 inside and a 3,200 mAh battery. More details about that device can be found in our previous coverage here. Needless to say, that device should recharge extremely quickly and should take a lot of effort to deplete, to begin with.