Chipmaker Qualcomm has unveiled its latest fast charging standard, Quick Charge 3+. Designed for ‘affordable’ devices, Quick Charge 3+ improves upon Quick Charge 3.0 by borrowing tech from newer variants, while keeping costs low enough for mid-range handsets and allowing for more affordable accessories. 

What does this mean for smartphone buyers?

While Qualcomm hasn’t released too many details about this latest standard, here’s what we know so far: 

Quick Charge 3+ will make its appearance first on the Snapdragon 765 and 765G SoCs, with the Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite Zoom becoming the first device to support the new standard (it will also support Quick Charge 4+). With the Snapdragon 765 and 765G (gaming variant) picking up in popularity, the new Quick Charge 3+ standard should witness quick adoption. Other upcoming Qualcomm SoCs should also offer this new standard, although there’s no confirmation on where else we’ll get to see Quick Charge 3+.

Quick Charge 3+ will also be backwards-compatible with Qualcomm’s older standards, and this will support standard USB Type A-to-Type C cables. Qualcomm has also added the scalable voltage feature introduced in Quick Charge 4.0, which lets devices lower / raise the voltage in 20mV steps to meet thermal and other charging requirements.

There’s also cable identification built-in, as well as other safety features, although not too many details are available at the moment. Qualcomm’s added support for both wired and wireless charging, which should hopefully entice the smartphone industry to add wireless charging to mid-range devices.

And finally, here’s what Qualcomm says about the real-world benefits to the smartphone user: 0-50% charging in 15 minutes (dependent on battery design), up to 35% faster charging, and 9 degrees Celsius cooler performance compared to older standards.