Qualcomm quickcharge

[desura]

1. Can you get the benefits of 3.0 charging with a 3.0 charger on a 2.0 device? It appears that 3.0 is smarter than 2.0, and that this intelligence lies in the charger design, while the phone only needs to have pipes big enough to accept that high current.

2. Will using this over the long run say 2 years result in lower battery life than otherwise?

 

[ChronoReverse]

1. No but the benefits of 3 have been tested to be small to none even in 2016 flagships so far.

2. It's pretty safe. Your device will slow down charging as it approaches full and part of the point of quick charge is moving some of the heat generation to the charger so that helps too.

 

[JeffMD]

#1 Quickcharge is an extension of normal charging. A quick charger will charge normal devices at .5 - 2 amps at 5 volts (devices and phones may call it something fancy like fastcharge, quickcharge, ect, it is simply normal 5 volt charging but it is able to draw more amperage if the charger offers it). When a Quickcharge circuit is detected, the circuit will request the voltage it be bumped up, all the way up to 9 volts. It will carefully adjust the amps and voltage as to ramp it down and shut off when the battery is full. It is impossible to do this on regular charging device.

#2 quickcharge doesn't reduce battery life, infact the batteries have been capable of it for a long time, but they required a much smarter charging circuit. One that can scale the power up and down based on current % charged and temperature, as quickcharging will heat up the battery more and you need something to scale down when things get too hot.