There has been quite a bit of drama with the LG G4 (read our LG G4 review) alleged lack of Quick Charge recently, and we have discussed this on Ubergizmo as well. I remembered not seeing the feature in the specs, but since it has been a standard feature with a lot of phones using Qualcomm’s chips (Quick Charge, or QC, is actually a Qualcomm trademark), I thought that maybe QC was there, but not being actively promoted.
Fast forward one week, and word that the LG G4 does not support Quick Charge is going around the web.
The thing is: the LG G4 does support Quick Charge, but it doesn’t charge as fast as other Quick Charge phones. Also, the included charger is a 1.8 Amps, which is a little less powerful than a 2.1 Amps that other phones may ship with, but even with a 2.1A charger, it still doesn’t charge as fast.
I can only speculate as of “why” LG would not include a Quick Charge charger to start with, but I am guessing that it has something to do with making the bill of material (BOM) lower. A few dollars saved here and there over tens of millions of devices can add up pretty quickly.
The first hint that the LG G4 supports Quick Charge is that it is listed by Qualcomm as being a Quick Charge compatible device. Both companies have also gone on record to confirm that the G4 does come with Quick Charge.
According to Qualcomm’s definition of Quick Charge, such a device should be able to go “from 0% to 60% battery in about 30mn”, which is great, but the percentage really depends on the total battery capacity of course.
Talking about speed charge in terms of percentage is easy to grasp, but not very accurate, because a small battery fills up much faster than a bigger one. We’ll use mAh/minute to make the comparison even across all sizes since we just need to know how much power is being stored for every minute of charging.
We tested the following phones with a Quick-Charge 2.1A charger, and here are the results we got:
This updated chart shows how important it is to have the proper charger (not easy, I know), because the LG G4 charged 23% faster with a Qualcomm Quick-Charge certified charger (look for the logo).
The LG G4 officially supports Quick Charge (if you have a compatible charger), but as you can see, all Quick Charge phones don’t actually charge at the same rate. It’s not clear why the G3 would charger faster than the G4. But there are a number of variables that can affect the outcome, including the components used in the battery and charging system, and some software that regulates the charging process.
