When Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon 845 platform a few days ago, we learned that the system-on-a-chip that will power the next generation of Android and Windows 10 devices will come with faster battery charging speeds than its predecessor.
At the time, we wondered whether the Galaxy S9 will get that particular feature, considering that Samsung equips its flagship devices with the latest Qualcomm and Samsung chips, meaning they can’t share the same battery charging technology. A report now says the Galaxy S9 will not support Quick Charge 4.0+ support. Not even the Snapdragon 845-powered model.
The news comes from Weibo, where long-time leaker Ice Universe said that he found out the Galaxy S9 phones will not have Quick Charge 4.0+ support.
Apparently, that’s because Samsung doesn’t want to pay the license fee for this particular piece of Qualcomm technology. That’s not entirely surprising considering that Samsung supports Apple against Qualcomm’s high royalty pricing schemes for cellular modem technology.
Of course, none of this is confirmed at this point. But we’ll soon see exactly what kind of battery charging tech the Galaxy S9 packs. But we’ll note that there’s no official quarrel between Samsung and Qualcomm other than Samsung’s endorsement of Apple’s claim against the chipmaker. In fact, it’s Samsung that’s going to mass-produce the Snapdragon 845 chip for Qualcomm.
That said, Samsung does have its own fast charging technology for Samsung batteries, and we can only hope it evolved to match Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4.0+. Otherwise, Samsung’s best 2018 phones may charge slower than all the Android flagships launching next year with Snapdragon 845 chips inside.
