6 Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

You might be thinking that the smartphones with quick charge have one thing in common: a small to medium-sized battery capacity. It may be true that the smaller capacity a battery has, the faster it will charge, but some manufacturers just wouldn’t take that analogy without a fight.

Every day we charge our phones without even wondering how it works, and not knowing that different chargers have different specifications. If you are a part of the 90% of people who have no idea how phone charging works, then you have come to the right place. I won’t give you the technical terms and the highfalutin, snazzy sounding words that drive away non-techies like the plague. So first off, welcome to Insider Monkey’s phone charging 101!

Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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To understand how the 6 fastest-charging smartphones were determined, you need to understand how phone charging works. As we all know, batteries provide the power for our phones to work. We charge this with electricity using our chargers. A charger’s capacity to charge phones is measured in watts. A watt is equal to the charger’s voltage (V) multiplied by its amperes (A). More watts means faster charging times. To increase the watts, you need to either increase the voltage, the amperes, or both. Check your chargers. If you see 5V and 0.5A, then you have a typical USB 2.0 charger. Its wattage is 5V x 0.5A = 2.5 watts. This means that a USB 2.0 charger charges phones at 2.5 watts. Some chargers had an utilized 5V/1A for an output of 5 watts. The advent of bigger batteries meant longer charging times, which also meant a bigger carbon footprint. You might also want to check the 6 most green phones for eco-friendly consumers for that captain planet fan living inside all of us.

With a growing need for more powerful chargers, one particular company literally saw more power equate to more money. In 2012, a new and more powerful charger was introduced by Qualcomm, called Quick Charge 1.0. Again, more watts means faster charging times. This charger operated at 5V/2A, charging phones at 10 watts, a 400% increase from the usual 2.5 watts. Later in 2013, the company introduced the Quick Charge 2.0, which made use of 9V/1.67A chargers, for an output of 15 watts. To put into perspective how fast the 2.0 is, charging a 3300 mAH battery for 30 minutes will give you 12% from a 5V/1A, 30% from the 1.0 and 60% from the 2.0! This is like giving your child transitioning from bicycle trainers to Ducatis in 2 days.

However, Chinese manufacturer Oppo has brought the charging game to a whole new level. Coming up with their own quick-charge technology, the VOOC Flash Charging, short for Voltage Open Loop Multi-Step Constant-Current Charging, their chargers utilize a 5V/4.5A system, providing their smartphones 22.5 watts of power! And this was only the first generation! Their second generation of chargers made use of 5V/5A, giving off 25 watts! I guess their phones have all the power (pun intended).

Another factor is how consistent these chargers are at giving out their advertised wattage. A 25-watt charger won’t matter if it only gave this amount of power for 5 minutes, which makes a 10-watt charger more effective in this case. Chargers have a programmed “down-time”, which means that whenever a phone reaches a certain percentage level, these chargers lay-off the power-giving, reducing wattage gradually, with some chargers giving off only 2 watts when their phones reach 90%.

To find out which are the fastest-charging smartphones, Insider Monkey scoured the web for unofficial test results of how fast our modern-day masters reach 100%. Because they are literally hundreds of smartphones out there, we determined the best-selling smartphones. However, not all best-selling smartphones were included in some tests. Three websites were of great help: GSM Arena, Android Authority, and Tom’s Guide. Smartphones were then ranked by how fast, in minutes, they reached 100%.

Basically, this is a race to 100%. This means that regardless of the battery capacity, whoever reaches 100% wins. Reaching 30%, 50% or 75% battery charge is a different story, and more so if battery capacity is taken into consideration. We may (or may not) release those results. Depends on our meeting. And the weather. And our moods.

Less talk, more results. We now present you with the smartphones with quick charge: fastest to recharge from 0 to 100!

6. Motorola Moto X Style

Capacity: 3000 mAH
Charging time (0-100%): 82 minutes

Its manual promises a charge of 34% at 15 minutes. And you might be thinking “well, it’s just a promotional trick for buyers to purchase this phone”. Surprise, Surprise! The long-time cellular phone maker has met expectations with its fast-charge technology. In an unofficial test by Android Authority, the Moto x Style had a 32% battery charge during the first 15 minutes of charging time. It may be off by a couple of points, but as long as it’s fully charged at 82 minutes, no one’s complaining.

Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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5. Samsung Galaxy S6

Capacity: 2550 mAH
Charging time (0-100%): 80.5 minutes

Samsung is one of the biggest competitors of Apple for the global smartphone market. And one of the most heavily-advertised phones this Korean company has is the Samsung Galaxy series. The Galaxy series has a lot of models, and these range from S1 to S7 edge, to the newly-introduced J models. One of these phones, the Galaxy S6, has been very popular with all age groups with its sleek design and user-friendly interface. In the tests done, 60% is achieved by the 31st minute at a consistent 12 watts. This also coincides with a decline in power, gradually to 4 watts at 90%.

Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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4. Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge

Capacity: 2600 mAH
Charging time (0-100%): 79 minutes

Another heavyweight in the smartphone market, the Galaxy S6 Edge was released in March 2015 and features a curved edge screen. This makes it possible for a 71% screen-to-body ratio. Battery capacity is almost the same as its parent, the Galaxy S6, and it also has almost the same amount of charging time. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree at all.

Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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3. Oppo R7

Capacity: 2320 mAH
Charging time (0-100%): 77 minutes

Remember when we talked about the VOOC charger during the introduction: that is the reason why Oppo is one of the smartphones with quick charge (fastest to recharge from 0 to 100). Barely more than a decade old, the Chinese electronics giant Oppo was founded in 2004 and has only been producing phones for 8 years, starting in 2008. The Oppo R7 was released in May 2015 and features a battery with 2320 mAH capacity. Yes, its capacity is a lot smaller compared to the S6 or Asus Zenfones, but the Chinese manufacturer has also been using the VOOC charging system, which delivers 25 watts of power instead of the usual 20 watts on the new-generation quick chargers.

Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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2. Oppo R5

Capacity: 2000 mAH
Charging time (0-100%): 75 minutes

The Oppo R5 comes in at number 2 on our list. What’s the difference from the previous entry, you ask? For one, the R5 is an older version of the R7, released in December of 2014. One difference between the two phones, and one of the reasons the R5 is 2nd on our list is the battery capacity of 2000 mAH for the R5. Coupled with the powerful VOOC chargers, it naturally has a faster charging time than its younger brother.

Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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1. Motorola X Force

Capacity: 3760 mAH
Charging time (0-100%): 69 minutes

If phones had muscles, then the X Force would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. The fastest-charging smartphone we have tested is the Motorola Moto X Force. Possibly named because of the force of power it uses to charge, it has a 3760 mAH battery, which is a lot if you look at our previous entries. This high capacity puts it in the elite territory in terms of battery capacity. What’s even more impressive is that it is the fastest-charging of all the phones tested, besting even smaller-capacity phones at 3000 mAH like the Asus Zenfone and the LG G3 and G4. The reason for this is charging starts off at 20 watts, and at 60% gradually lowers to 5 watts on reaching 90%. And it just stays at 5 watts until 100%. Other chargers just relax a bit, like employees waiting for their last 10 minutes of office time. This phone proves that smaller-capacity batteries do not necessarily mean faster charging times. To appreciate the X Force’s fast charge time, we can compare this to the iPhone 6, which, at 1810, has the smallest battery capacity out of all phones tested, yet it charges like a snail on steroids at 138.5 minutes on average. More than double the iPhone. Which deserves a double Wow. Which makes the X Force the fastest-charging smartphone.

We hope that you have enjoyed our list of 6 smartphones with quick charge: fastest to recharge from 0 to 100, and that you have found it useful!

6 Smartphones with Quick Charge: Fastest to Recharge from 0 to 100

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