When searching for a new charging brick and cable for your phone, tablet, or other devices, you’ll be bombarded by tons of options with different specifications among them. So how do you choose the best charger for your device? This guide will break it down to help you find what you’re looking for.
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As it often happens with new technologies — especially the ones that aim to replace fundamental, widely used parts of our digital devices — the early implementations are often challenged by a series of missteps and various other problems.
The latest concrete example of this is the promising-yet-troubled USB-C, which led to a few controversies as of late. However, it seems, with its latest G5 flagship, LG may be one of the few manufacturers that got it right (via gtrusted)…
Oppo marketing isn’t shy about promoting the company’s proprietary fast-charging technology. With the multiple versions of Qualcomm’s Quick-Charge and USB Type-C already giving us all a headache, do we really another proprietary option? As it turns out… we might.
Battery life is undoubtedly one of the major pain points most consumers have with their smartphones. Because of technological limitations, OEMs often have to find workarounds for squeezing out as much screen on (and off) time as possible, often working on software optimizations or simply trying to fit a larger unit inside the body of the device – at times making it removable.
Another way of circumventing such limitation took form in the way of making batteries recharge much faster, thanks to technologies such as Qualcomm‘s ‘Quick Charge’, which has now arrived at its v3.0. Expected to hit the majority of 2016 flagships, – like the LG G5, which does indeed support it – the latest iteration didn’t however make it to the Samsung Galaxy S7 (and S7 edge), which stuck with last year’s 2.0…
The race to allow us to rapidly charge our smartphones got a big boost last year when Qualcomm announced that the Quick Charge 3.0 tech in its Snapdragon 820 chip would allow a typical smartphone to be charged to 80% capacity in 30 minutes. Oppo is now claiming that you’ll be able to recharge some of its devices in just 15 minutes, reports Engadget.
Oppo says that’s about how much time it’ll take to charge a dead 2,500mAh battery to 100%, and that the technology will work over traditional MicroUSB and USB Type-C cables …
Smartphones are in a golden age of fast charging with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology being adopted by various manufacturers (and with the latest Nexus phones having fast charging via USB Type-C). Now, Chinese OEM Huawei (which has been gaining speed recently with the Huawei Watch and the Nexus 6P) has announced new quick charging lithium-ion batteries of their own at a conference in Japan.
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As usual, iFixit has cracked into the latest Nexus device, Google’s Nexus 5X manufactured by LG, to give us our first look at the insides of the device and some insight into just how repairable it will be for owners.
Google’s Android team already filled us in on why it left out Qi Charging on the new Nexus devices (the reversible USB Type-C included is simply more efficient, it said), but we didn’t get an answer on why it didn’t take advantage of Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology. It turns out the device actually includes a chip that supports the feature, the Qualcomm SMB1358, Quick Charge 2.0 IC, as confirmed in the teardown earlier today. And Qualcomm supports the Nexus 5X’s new USB-Type C connector, so it’s still a possibility the feature could be enabled for the device in the future.
But apart from getting a look inside of the device for the first time, the teardown doesn’t reveal many details we didn’t already know. It does, however, show that Nexus 5X is easily repairable compared to much of its competition with a score of 7 out of 10 meaning most components of the device will be easy to swap in and out or fix. The one downside iFixit noticed included a fused display assembly, which it noted means the “glass and LCD will need to be replaced together if one or the other breaks.”
The positives include the fact that several components “are modular and can be replaced independently,” according to iFixit, and that a standard Phillips screw driver, and not proprietary tools and parts like other devices, is all that’s necessary to open the device.
You can check out iFixit’s full tear down here.
With the holiday season looming, retailers and manufacturers are clamoring to sell as many products as they can. That means two things: There are new products on the market, and the older ones are being heavily discounted. Whether you’re looking to snag a great former-flagship for less than retail price, or pick an entry level phone as cheaply as possible, you’re not short of options. Our roundup of today’s best deals includes a twelve dollar smartphone and the LG G Flex 2 among others…
Today in a Reddit AMA (“ask me anything”) held by four employees of OnePlus, the Chinese smartphone upstart fielded questions on everything from when VoLTE (voice-over-LTE) will be enabled in the OnePlus 2 to what exactly happened in its fallout with Android-focused blog Android Police. But the most interesting questions the four employees answered were in regards to why the new phone doesn’t include hardware features standard in other recently launched smartphones like NFC for touch-based payments or wireless charging.
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OnePlus gets a lot of hype for just about anything they announce (including limited-availability toys for April Fools day). Part of that is because of their genius marketing (I can’t count the number of people who used “#hype” and “#NeverSettle” in their Google+ posts, ironically or not, when mentioning the OnePlus 2 over the last few months), and the other part is that they actually make really good stuff. The OnePlus One is a stellar phone. In my opinion — and many agree with me — it was probably one of the best of 2014.
The OnePlus 2 also looks like it’s going to be a stellar phone, and we’re looking forward to reviewing it in very full soon. It offers a lot of great features, it comes in a physical build that’s marketable as something — much like Apple’s hardware — extremely sexy, and it packs some specifications that contend with top-of-the-line flagships. All of this, and it comes at a price — if you’re buying in the United States, at least — that makes it seem ridiculous to ever buy a Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6 Plus off contract.
But the #NeverSettle company, which did a pretty good job at bringing a phone with hardly any compromises last year, seems to have introduced something that requires its buyers to make some compromises. From the outside, at least, there are two that stick out to me. First, the OnePlus 2 completely forgoes any NFC hardware. Yes, the recently-made-official Android Pay is going to be completely useless on a OnePlus 2. Secondly, the phone — in exchange for USB Type-C support — ditches any kind of Quick Charge feature…
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For years, technology lovers who lived in a Sci-Fi world have longed for a way to charge devices in seconds. Last year, Qualcomm hoped to be the one to bring that dream to reality with the release of “Quick Charge 1.0”. It certainly helped ease the pain of long wait times for a phone battery to fully charge, but it wasn’t the “Insta-Charge” solution everyone wanted. Today, the same company hopes to bring us one step closer with the announcement of “Quick Charge 2.0”. Qualcomm promised up to 75 percent faster charge times compared to 1.0, with up to a 60W power output in a single ‘Quick Charge’ outlet-plug. The new charging tech is planned to be released sometime in 2014, along with the special outlet-plugs needed to make the tech work to its full potential.
Qualcomm also announced today something completely new: “Snapdragon Voice Activation”. It’s a hands-free way to wake your phone up without the need to press any buttons or have an active Internet connection. Along with Quick Charge 2.0, Snapdragon Voice Activation is expected to launch sometime in 2014.
Source: Android Central
