Being able to quickly charge your phone or tablet can mean the difference between hours of care-free use or scrambling to find the nearest coffee shop for a power outlet. Fast charging is an increasingly popular feature that allows you to power up your device in just a fraction of the time it takes to do it the old-fashioned way. But not all products use the same type of fast charging—and not all chargers support the various standards. Here's what you need to know to make sure you're getting the fastest charge possible.
How Does Fast Charging Work?
The output of a charge is measured in amperage and voltage. Amperage (or current) is the amount of electricity flowing from the battery to the connected device, while voltage is the strength of the electric current. Multiplying volts by amps gives you wattage, the measure of total power.
To make a device charge faster, most manufacturers either boost the amperage or vary the voltage in order to increase the amount of potential energy. The majority of fast charging standards typically vary the voltage rather than boost the amperage.
Standard USB 3.0 ports output at a level of 5V/1A for smaller devices like wearables. Most phones and other devices are capable of handling 5V/2.4A. For fast charging, manufacturers bump the voltage up from 5V to 9V or 12V and beyond, or increase amperage to 3A and above. The introduction of USB-C helps accomplish this with support for up to 100W and 20V, which makes faster charging speeds possible.
Keep in mind, your device will only take in as much power as its charging circuit is designed to. For fast charging to work, you need a phone or other device with a charging circuit capable of using one of the fast charging standards, and an adapter and cable enabled for that same standard.
Which Charger Is Best for Fast Charging?
There are many different fast charging standards out there. The best one for your device depends on the type of phone you have, the standard it supports, and the charger you use. Read on to understand which type of standard and charger you need for your phone:
Apple Fast Charging
Starting with the iPhone 8, all of Apple's phones support fast charging. If you're using an older iPhone power adapter, which most iPhone owners tend to have sitting around, you're only getting 5W of power and not taking advantage of the newer device's full capability.
Apple uses USB Power Delivery for fast charging, and claims you’ll see a 50% increase in battery life in just 30 minutes. In order to get these speeds, however, you need to use at least an 18W adapter with a USB-C-to-Lightning cable. A more powerful adapter won’t harm your phone, but it’s unlikely to be any faster. We reached out to Apple to determine the most powerful adapter its iPhone lineup will support, but a representative for the company said it doesn’t disclose maximum charging specifications. However, the company does sell a 96W USB-C Power Adapter for its laptops, but most tests indicate that even with that charger iPhone 13 models charge at a maximum of 20W (though again, Apple hasn't confirmed that).
That said, you can't go wrong with any of the options in our story on the best fast iPhone chargers, which are linked below:
MediaTek Pump Express
Certain MediaTek-powered phones use the company's Pump Express standard, which comes in different versions on different devices.
Pump Express 2.0+ is primarily for MediaTek’s low-end chipsets, and works with micro USB and USB-C charging ports. Charging maxes out at 15W by using 5V to 20V variable voltage in conjunction with 3A or 4.5A of current.
Pump Express 3.0 and Pump Express 4.0 are similar. Both rely on 5A of current and use USB Power Delivery 3.0. The difference is that Pump Express 4.0 also supports its own proprietary wireless charging technology, as well as Qi wireless charging at 5W.
MediaTek claims Pump Express 2.0+ should charge a depleted battery to 70% within 30 minutes, while Pump Express 3.0 and 4.0 should cut that time in half. While these are indeed fast estimates, we didn't quite see these results bear our when testing Pump Express 3.0. On average, we saw closer to a 55% charge over 15 minutes, which is still nothing to sneeze at.
Motorola Rapid Charging and TurboPower
Motorola uses two different proprietary fast charging standards, Rapid Charging and TurboPower. For the most part, the company's older phones (2021 and older) use Rapid Charging, which offers 10W charging via micro USB or USB-C. It offers a slight boost over basic 5W charging, but don't expect to see super-fast charging times.
Motorola's midrange and flagship phones use a different technology called TurboPower. To be honest, TurboPower is a little confusing, and you'll probably want to check the company's website to find the best charger for your phone. Basically, there are several TurboPower standards all the way up to 68W. Most Motorola phones don't support that speed though. In fact, Motorola only recommends 68W charging for the Motorola Edge+. To simplify things a bit, all Motorola smartphones with TurboPower also support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
OnePlus Dash Charge and Warp Charge
OnePlus uses a technology called Warp Charge, which is licensed from and works the same as Oppo's Vooc. It bumps up the power output to as much as 65W in the OnePlus 10 Pro with Warp Charge. With that speed, you can get a full charge in just under 40 minutes. Wired charging is delivered via a 5V/6A adapter and proprietary USB-C cable. Delivering 30W wireless charging speeds is more of a challenge, as it would create an extraordinary amount of heat using the standard 5V/6A formula. Instead, OnePlus delivers 20V at just 1.5A, since voltage creates far less heat.
Older OnePlus phones use Dash Charge, which supported up to 20W charging. If you own a OnePlus 8 or newer, your device comes with Warp Charge and its vastly improved speeds.
Oppo SuperVooc Flash Charge
Vooc is Oppo's proprietary fast charging standard. The company has long been a leader in fast charging technology, and it currently holds the record for the fastest charging speed with 240W SuperVooc technology that can fully charge a 4,500mAh battery in just nine minutes. In addition, Oppo is the first major manufacturer to use gallium nitride (GaN) batteries in its phones for better performance and reliability.
Oppo’s widely available SuperVooc comes in several different flavors (the 240W charger isn't on sale yet). The fastest is SuperVooc Flash Charge, which uses 10V and 6.5A to charge its phones at 65W. SuperVooc 2.0 features an impressive 65W maximum charge by combining 10V of electrical force and 5A of power as well, but its charging times are a bit slower. Vooc 4.0, which was introduced in 2020, is the slowest of the bunch, with a maximum charging speed of 30W at 5V/6A.
In order to achieve such high speeds, Oppo phones require both a special USB-C cable and adapter.
Qualcomm Quick Charge
The most common fast charging standard is Qualcomm's Quick Charge thanks to the widespread nature of the company's chipsets within devices such as phones. That said, many of the phones that support newer Quick Charge standards aren't sold in the US.
Quick Charge 3.0 is one of the most common fast charging protocols used in midrange devices, and Quick Charge 3+ brings similar speeds to midrange phones with some Qualcomm Snapdragon 700-series chipsets. Quick Charge 4+ is the current global gold standard for flagships that don’t use proprietary fast charging technologies. Each standard is backward compatible with the previous one, so older cables and adapters will still work.
Quick Charge 3.0 dynamically boosts voltage from 3.2V to 20V, though peak power for both standards is 18W. That means, theoretically, phones with a 3,500mAh to 4,500mAh battery can gain about 80% charge in just 35 minutes when the battery is depleted. Quick Charge 3+ brings similar charging speeds to less-expensive chipsets.
Quick Charge 4+ narrows the voltage range while pumping up the amperage. It offers 5V at between 4.7A to 5.6A, or 9V at 3A. Quick Charge 4+ devices use USB-C ports and are compliant with USB Power Delivery. They also have a second power management chip, allowing up to 28W of power without overheating.
Qualcomm also has Quick Charge 5. It supports rapid charging at 100W and can completely recharge a 4,500mAh battery in just 15 minutes. It was initially supported on Snapdragon 865 chipsets and several newer premium Qualcomm processors.
Click here for a complete list of Qualcomm Quick Charge-compatible devices.
Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging
Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charging is the standard used by older devices like the Galaxy S20. The new version is called Super Fast Charging. Both work in a similar manner to Qualcomm's Quick Charge by bumping up voltage and/or amperage. The Galaxy S22 Ultra supports Super Fast Charging with up to 45W. The same is true for the S22+, but the smaller and more affordable S22 supports Fast Charging at a slower 25W.
Samsung doesn't provide much in the way of details for its chargers outside of the wattage, but in our review of the Galaxy S22 Ultra we found that the phone went from dead to full in 75 minutes.
What Is Wireless Fast Charging?
Wireless charging is convenient, but it is often slower than wired. Older wireless chargers that lack fans or cooling systems are limited to charging speeds of just 5V/1A. Various companies, though, now offer fast wireless charging pads that come with built-in fans to dissipate heat, allowing you to charge at speeds nearly on par with a cable.
Voltage and amperage depend on the charging pad in question. Once again, you'll want to make sure that your phone and your wireless charging pad support the same fast charging standard. Also, keep in mind you'll need a wall adapter plugged into the pad that supports fast charging as well.
There are lots of variables to think about when buying a wireless charger, so we’ve done the homework for you by creating a list of the best wireless charging pads based on your phone and budget.
Fast Charging Beyond Your Phone
For laptops, the fast charging situation is a bit different. USB Power Delivery (PD) isn't so much fast charging as it is a standard that determines if an adapter or portable power bank is capable of charging a laptop or other high-powered device. With USB-C input/output ports now pretty much standard, it's possible for adapters and power banks to charge devices that require an output of 18W or more. The Power Delivery spec allows a device to be charged at a maximum current of 5A or 100W.
Power Delivery 3.0 has quickly become the standard for power banks and adapters. It supports outputs at 7.5W, 15W, 27W, and 45W, each with its own voltage and amperage configurations. This means PD adapters with multiple USB-C ports can intelligently dole out power to multiple devices, so a 45W adapter may supply 18W to charge your phone, 5W to a wearable, and the remaining 22W to a tablet. With Power Delivery 3.1, up to 240W of power is supported.
What You Need for Fast Charging
Depending on the device you have, the fast charging standard you're able to use will vary. Check what your phone supports, then look at your wall adapter to see if it supports the same standard (they're usually labeled). Then make sure your cable is compatible (you're best off using the one that comes with your phone or adapter). If you need to buy a new wall adapter, cable, or wireless charging pad, take note of what standard it supports.
And for more charging advice, head over to our story on Charging Your Phone Overnight: Battery Myths Debunked.
(Ajay Kumar and Steven Winkelman contributed to this story.)