WHY DO MANY SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURERS ADVERTISE A FAST CHARGING WINDOW?

Tech DeskApril 28, 20221 Mins read1.2k

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Many smartphone manufacturers advertise fast charging as an attractive feature. But does fast charging mean charging at a constant high speed throughout the entire period until fully charged? If so, then does it affect the battery’s health? Well, fast charging actually works in phases to protect the battery. Read more to find out how it works.

Not all smartphones support fast charging, but the ones that do eases our hectic life to a great extent. Alongside having the smartphone, we also need a charger that can output the required wattage.

Apparently, fast charging doesn’t do harm to the phone’s battery. The device certainly has a capacity and the charger doesn’t overload its battery. Rather it just takes less time to fill it. So, we can even use a USB charger that can pump out more wattage than the device’s capacity since the whole will not be utilized.

Fast charging literally happens only during a certain and limited time period. Lithium-ion batteries charge in three phases. These are slow and trickle charging, a constant current phase where voltage increases over time, and a final constant voltage phase where the current is slowly reduced to prevent overcharging and damage to the battery cell.

However, fast charging generates more heat than slow standard charging. Excessive heat can degrade lithium-ion batteries. Thus fast charging may shorten the battery’s lifespan compared to using a standard charger. This might be a bit concerning. Also, a fast charger is expected to last shorter than a standard one.

This explains why in marketing materials, we see some smartphone manufacturers advertise how their fast charger takes a specific amount of time to charge the battery from zero to some capacity, for example, “charge to 70% in 30 minutes” or so.

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