Qualcomm has announced that it will soon roll out the Quick Charge 4.0 platform to smartphone consumers later this year. The Quick Charge 4.0 platform, the latest fast charging service from Qualcomm, was set to be rolled out either with, or around, the launch of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC. The SD 835, as it is known, is already here, having hitched a ride on the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S8. The SoC had promised Quick Charge 4.0 onboard. Now, it is nowhere to be found.
Quick Charge 4.0 is being seen as the final frontier in the hardware frontier, with the physical battery being seen as the ultimate hardware poser. While there has not been any official word on which devices will receive the first Quick Charge 4.0 updates, Qualcomm has listed a number of devices which will receive the Quick Charge 4.0 update.
The Galaxy S8 and the S8+ were one of the first devices which received the SD 835 update. It is estimated that these 835 Soc-powered devices will be the first ones to receive the Quick Charge 4.0 updates as well. However, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus launched without Quick Charge 4.0 support. In fact, they don’t even support Quick Charge 3.0, like their predecessors. This is likely due to the fact that Exynos versions of these smartphones use Adaptive Fast Charge, which is on pace with Quick Charge 2.0, so they wanted the experience to be the same across the board (this is not confirmed, just speculation). But there are a couple of other devices with the Snapdragon 835, like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and the Xiaomi Mi 6. Neither of which support the latest version of Quick Charge, but do support Quick Charge 4.0.
These top-end devices don’t even support Quick Charge 3.0, unlike their predecessors. This is due to the fact that the Galaxy S8 range arrived in both variants of SD 835 and Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 soC. The Exynos powered devices use the Adaptive Fast Charge, pretty similar to the Quick Charge 2.0. This is why the 3.0 version did not launch, to keep a level playing field. Besides, other high-end smartphones like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and the Xiaomi Mi 6 too support the Snapdragon 835 SoC. Neither supports the latest version of Quick Charge, but both devices will support Quick Charge 4.0.