Fastest charging phones (2016 edition)

7 years ago

Fastest charging phones (2016 edition)

While the phone is probably the single modern device that has undergone the most profound and significant change in the past 20 or so years, there is one component inside it that has not caught up with the fast progress in chip and camera designs. We're talking about the Lithium-Ion battery, of course, the trusty power source that keeps your device running.

Well... at least most people considered it trust-worthy until the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, which made us realize that even a technology as proven as the Lithium-Ion battery cell when pushed to its limits can malfunction in shocking ways.

And pushing the technology is what many did with one particular aspect of batteries: fast charging. Qualcomm, maker of the popular on Android Snapdragon chips, has introduced its fast Quick Charge 3.0 at the end of 2015, and many flagship phones this year support it. There are also others with their own, proprietary fast charging solutions. At the end of the day, though, it is clear that there are significant advantages coming with quick charging: you no longer need to put your phone for a full night charge. You can just give it a 30-minute recharge at lunch or in the evening, and get a significant battery re-fill.

With all this in mind, we looked at all the major flagships in 2016 to find the ones that are fastest to recharge and won't keep you waiting long. Take a look.

Battery recharge speed test results for 2016 mainstream phones
Charging time (minutes)
LOWER IS BETTER Apple iPhone 7 Plus 197
Apple iPhone 7 141
Apple iPhone SE 155
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge 99
Samsung Galaxy S7 88
Google Pixel XL 118
Google Pixel 119
LG V20 86
LG G5 76
Motorola Moto Z Force Droid Edition 110
Motorola Moto Z Droid Edition 72
OnePlus 3 74
HTC 10 100
Sony Xperia XZ 174
Huawei P9 146
Xiaomi Mi 5 139

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Right from the onset, it's clear that there are really three phones that are in a league of their own when it comes to fast charging: the Moto Z Droid Edition, the OnePlus 3, and the LG G5, each of them taking around or less than an hour and 15 minutes to get fully re-charged from 0 to 100%.

That's a remarkable score, especially when you consider that battery charging is not a linear process: you get a faster charge at first, while the last few percentage points are the slowest to fill up.

It's also worth pointing out that the world's best selling flagship phone, the iPhone 7, still does not support any form of fast charging and takes a painfully slow 2 hours and 20 minutes to recharge fully. The iPhone 7 Plus takes even longer: an excruciating three hours and 17 minutes for a full charge. This is definitely one key area where Apple's devices seem to lag behind Android phones significantly.

With all this in mind, we were also curious to see whether there is any improvement in phone charging speeds this year when compared against the previous one.

Battery recharge speed test test results for 2015 mainstream phones
Charging time (minutes)
LOWER IS BETTER Apple iPhone 6s Plus 165
Apple iPhone 6s 150
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 81
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 83
Samsung Galaxy S6 78
LG V10 65
LG G4 127
HTC One M9 106
HTC One A9 110
Google Nexus 6P 89
Google Nexus 5X 100
OnePlus 2 150
OnePlus X 121
Huawei P8 180
Sony Xperia Z5 156

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Interestingly, looking back at the most notable phones from last year, we see that the LG V10 stands tall and is actually one of the fastest phones we have to date: it was faster than all of 2016 devices, taking just an hour and 5 minutes to get its battery fully recharged.

Overall, we do see some differences, and it does seem that there are some slight improvements. Let's see whether those lagging sorely behind can catch up with modern fast-charging speeds in 2017.