When we attended the LG G4 launch in Singapore at the end of last month, one of the questions asked frequently during the hands-on session afterwards was about fast charging, and more notably, why the G4 didn’t have it. The assembled press corps, myself included, were puzzled by this choice given that the G4 is powered by a Snapdragon 808 and is technically capable of Quick Charge 2.0. LG explained this away by the phone already having a large, 3,000 mAh battery and not really needing it. Pshaw.
Well, it seems that either LG have changed their mind, or something else has changed, because the humble G4 now appears on Qualcomm’s officially supported list of QC2.0 devices.
The technology, which promises to take a battery from 0% to 60% in just over half an hour, is in demand with modern smartphones because of their thirst for power, but LG has tackled this in a few ways — not only is Quick Charge now supported, which is great, but the G4 already features a removable (and replaceable) battery, as well as the option of Qi charging via a replacement back cover.
As to why Quick Charge has (until now) “not been a feature”? It’s anyone’s guess, but the likely answer is around certification; while the G4 has been launched in some markets, it hasn’t in others, and it’s quite possible the launch preceded certification from Qualcomm (which owns the technology) so LG couldn’t claim to have it on-board, and thus had it disabled in firmware. Now that it’s certified, we may see it out of the box in the Australian release in a month or so, or via a software update shortly thereafter.
Good one LG; we look forward to reviewing the G4 with this new feature soon!
