About phone charger watts. Today, it seems like every new phone model offers fast charging.
However, you might have heard a few complaints that some phones claim to be fast charging but still take time to charge.
What most people don’t know is that there are a couple of factors that affect fast charging, with the most important being phone charger watts.
Read on to learn about charger wattage and why it matters in fast charging.
How Do Cell Phone Chargers Work?
To understand how cell phone chargers work, it’s important to discuss the various parts of the charger that enable it to function as a unit.
Power Plug
The power plug functions as the pathway for the energy source for your charger. It’s the part that’s connected to the electrical outlet.
Different types and sizes of plugs are about the different outlets in your country.
Also, the phone’s geographical market can determine the plug type.
Transformer
Transformers are very important because they dial down the voltage of the electric current from the electrical outlet.
Dialing down the voltage from your socket is important because it’s too high to charge your phone directly.
Depending on your charger, the transformer will adjust the voltage your phone can handle, normally around 5V to 12V.
Rectifier
The rectifier’s function in the phone charger is to convert the AC to the DC that most appliances and devices use.
Conversion occurs through diode-based rectifiers that allow current flow in a single direction.
Filters and Voltage Regulators
Once AC gets converted to DC, the rectifier passes it on through filters and a set of voltage regulators.
The circuit stabilizes current from the rectifier and levels out any variations and issues in the current flow that could damage your phone’s battery.
Charger Connector (USB Cable)
The final part is the charger connector, a cable you can detach from the charger or replace.
Today, many use USB cables as charger connectors to connect a charger and device.
Caption: USB cable
What Is Fast Charging?
Often people vaguely describe fast charging as a quicker charge rate compared to the standard phone charge rate.
However, no standard charge rate or charger can make your phone charge any faster. Fast charging depends on your phone and the charger.
Therefore, before assuming you can fast charge your phone with a fast charger, it’s important to determine its standard because some phones are incapable of fast charging.
Phone charger watts vs. fast charging
Charge output measurement is in voltage and amps.
Voltage is the strength of the electric current, while amperage is the amount of electricity flowing to the connected gadget from the battery.
To get the measure of total power (wattage), you multiply the amps by voltage.
For a device to charge faster, manufacturers either vary the voltage or boost the amperage to increase the amount of potential energy.
However, in most cases, to reduce charge time, the voltage varies rather than boosting the amperage.
A standard USB 3.0 port outputs 5V at 1A for smaller devices, while phones can comfortably handle 5V at 2.4A.
To enable fast charging, the voltage gets bumped from 5V to 9V or 12V, and the amperage to 3A or more.
Thanks to USB-C cables that support 100W and 20V, fast charging can now occur.
Does My Phone Come With a Fast Charger?
To determine if your phone has fast charging, you need to check the wattage of your charger and the maximum wattage your phone can handle.
To check your charger’s wattage, simply examine the charging for any printed information that could identify its wattage.
Sometimes, the wattage indicated might be in volts and amps.
Determining the maximum wattage your phone can handle can be a bit trickier.
You might have to search the web for your exact phone model and detailed specifications to get the necessary information.
If the phone’s max wattage and charger wattage are equal, then that’s the maximum wattage you can charge your phone.
However, if your charger’s wattage is lower, you can upgrade it to charge your phone quicker.
The Best Chargers for Fast Charging
There are several fast charging standards, and the right one for you depends on your phone type and charger.
Apple Fast Charging
All Apple products from iPhone 8 are capable of fast charging.
To get the most out of your charger, avoid using chargers from older versions that only provide 5 watts of power to charge your device.
Instead, get a charger from recent versions to help you utilize fast charging.
Apple’s fast charging claims your battery life will increase by 50% in 30 minutes. Also, Apple sells a 96W laptop charger.
Caption: Apple lightning cable
MediaTek Pump Express
Some MediaTek phones use the pump express standard with several variations depending on the phone.
The Pump Express 2.0 uses USB-C and micro USB ports that max charging at 15W using a variable voltage of 5V to 20V and a current of 3A or 4.5A, which can charge a depleted battery to 70% in under 30 minutes.
Pump Express 4 and 3 are similar, with both relying on current.
The main difference is that Pump Express 4 supports wireless charging at 5W.
With Pump Express 3 and 4, the charge gets cut in half compared to Pump Express 2.
You can roughly expect it to charge to 55% in 15 minutes.
Motorola Rapid Charging and Turbo Power
Motorola uses rapid charging and turbo power fast charging standards.
Rapid charging offers 10W, which is an upgrade from the standard 5W.
With turbocharging, you can use up to 68W of power.
OnePlus Warp Charge and Dash Charge
OnePlus uses Warp charge technology that increases power output by up to 65W.
With that kind of power, you can expect a full charge in under 40 minutes.
Delivering30W of power via wireless charging bis difficult ecause of the immense heat generation.
Therefore, with OnePlus wireless charging, you get 20V at 1.5A.
Older versions (below version 8) use dash charging that delivers only 20W.
Caption: Wireless charger
Oppo SuperVooc Flash Charge
Oppo uses the SuperVooc fast charging standard that comes in various versions.
The fastest version uses 10V and 6A to charge a device at 65W.
SuperVooc 2.0 is a little slower but still uses 10V and 6A to charge at a maximum of 65W.
The slowest version is the SuperVooc 4.0, which uses 5V and 6A to charge at 30W.
With Oppo phones, you need a special USB-C cable and adapter to fully utilize their fast charging technology.
Qualcomm Quick Charge
Qualcomm quick charge is the most common fast charging standard.
With quick charge 3.0, power gets bumped from 3.2V to 20V, charging your phone at 18W.
Quick Charge 3.0 can charge a phone to 80% in just 35 minutes.
Quick Charge 4+ offers 5V at 4.7A to 5.6A or 9V at 3A. This allows it to provide 28W of power to charge your phone.
Also, there’s quick charge 5 that supports fast charging at 100W. With 100W of power, it can charge a battery to 100% in 15 minutes.
Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging
Usually, the older versions (Galaxy S20) of Samsung phones use the Adaptive Fast Charging standard.
The newer models use Super Fast Charging. The Galaxy S22 Ultra supports fast charging at 45W.
However, the Galaxy S22+ supports fast charging at 25W.
How to Fix a Phone That Takes Long to Charge
There are several reasons your phone takes too long to charge. Thankfully, most of the reasons are easy to solve.
1. Charge Using a Charging Cable, Not Wireless Charger
Although wireless chargers offer convenience, they’re much slower than physical charging cables.
That’s because the capping in wireless chargers is at a lower power level than normal chargers.
Therefore, charging your phone with a wireless charger could take twice as long.
On the other hand, USB cables get capped at a higher power level and therefore charge a phone quicker.
2. Faulty Charging Cable
The part of your charger most prone to damage is the charging cable you plug into your phone.
Although it might not be outright damaged, kinked, or frayed, the damage could be internal, affecting the amount of current your cable can carry.
If your phone takes longer than normal to charge, the simple solution is to replace the USB cable.
3. Plug Your Phone Directly into a Wall Outlet, Not a Computer
It’s best to plug your phone into a direct power source and not a computer to charge your phone as quickly as possible.
That’s because your computer gives out about 2.5 watts of power, while with modern adapters, you will get no less than 12 watts.
4. Your Power Adapter is Weak
Today, manufacturers make phones with the ability to accommodate very powerful adapters.
Some adapters can provide up to 24 watts of power compared to the standard 12.
Therefore, upgrading your adapter could significantly reduce your charge time.
However, simply using the manufacturer-provided charger can help your phone charge quicker.
Using an adapter from an older phone model could take your phone longer to charge because the adapter provides less power.
5. Your Phone is Working Too Hard to Charge
Completely turning off your phone could help it charge faster.
If the phone is on, then part of the power from the charge gets used to run your phone and any ongoing background activities.
Also, simply leaving the screen could help your phone charge faster.
The bottom line is that you should avoid disturbing your phone while charging and give it enough time to charge fully.
6. Faulty Charging Port
Although this is uncommon, it could still be why your phone takes too much time to charge.
The culprit could be a damaged port, or there’s some debris inside, causing some complications.
To fix this, inspect the charging port for debris and use a toothpick or can of air to suck it out.
If this does not work, consider having a professional take a look.
Conclusion
There you have it; all you need to know about fast charging and how to get the most out of your phone charger.
Remember, fast charging depends on your phone and charger.
So get a charger that can max out the wattage your phone can support. For all your fast charger cable needs, feel free to visit Cloom Tech.