Qualcomm’s most recent iteration of its fast-charging platform, Quick Charge 5+, represents a move away from raw wattage and toward intelligence and consistency. Rather than obsessing over headline-grabbing 0–100% times, 5+ is all about offering better thermal performance, more stable power delivery, and broader compatibility (even as it maintains the unrelenting speed of Quick Charge 5).
What Quick Charge 5+ Brings to the Table
The headline numbers remain competitive—Qualcomm still says it wants a 0–50% refill in about five minutes in ideal conditions—but the real change will be how power gets there. Quick Charge 5+ dials the voltage and current up and down over the charge cycle to use more adaptive, lower voltage, and higher current phases and more advanced voltage tracking to minimize conversion losses and heat. Qualcomm claims support for up to 20V at 7A, which should yield triple digits’ worth of charging wattage if the battery design and thermal solution permit.
What is as important is that Quick Charge 5+ maintains a high degree of backward compatibility. The system is still compatible with previous generations of Quick Charge (all the way back to Quick Charge 2.0), Qualcomm says, and plays well with other fast-charge ecosystems. That means a 5+ charger should still safely, responsively fast-fill devices that prefer USB Power Delivery (USB PD) or whatever a vendor wants to call its proprietary variation, just not always at top fastest charging speed possible.
The Competition: USB PD Rules in the West
Quick Charge may speak to over a billion accessories and devices worldwide, but in North America the gravitational force of USB PD is tough to resist. The USB Implementers Forum has been slowly nudging PD along, leading to PD 3.1’s Extended Power Range, offering up to 240W for laptops and bigger devices. Also, PD with PPS has become a default specification for today’s smart phones which can control voltage with fine steps that help thermal control and battery life of smart phone.
Consider what’s happening with US flagships: Samsung makes sure the Galaxy phones are tuned right around PD PPS (up to 45W on select models), Google’s Pixel line is built around PD 20–30W range, and Apple primarily uses PD for fast charging iPhones. That isn’t just a technical choice — it’s a regulatory and ecosystem choice. PD allows support for more chargers, easier certification, and less support overhead.
Why You Don’t See Quick Charge on US Phones
Two big reasons: branding and liability. US carriers and retailers like one universal language—the USB PD one—since it cuts down on the amount of returns and confusion about which brick does what speed as some do in the UK and Europe. From an engineering standpoint, PD PPS already provides the granular control, range of settings that OEM’s can adjust for their batteries, AI-based charging algorithms and thermal envelopes. It doesn’t really help to add another front-and-center charging logo, especially when many phones are powered by chipsets from different manufacturers.
There’s also a proprietary-factor barrier. Other companies like OnePlus and Oppo will push their individual systems (SuperVOOC, e.g.,) for peak speeds, with PD fallback when you’re not using the in-box adapter. Motorola used to rely heavily on Quick Charge (TurboPower started out as a QC-based solution), but now it can put PD on more devices in the U.S. without adding more chargers and cables to its product lineup.
Will It Be Used in Any US Models?
Expect selective—often silent—support. Unlocked gaming phones from brands such as Asus have typically adopted Qualcomm’s proprietary fast charge modes along with PD, and that’s the most probable way for Quick Charge 5+ to make its way to American-market phones. These devices are created for those power users who care about sustained performance and thermal stability during marathon gaming while charging, which is why 5+’s “cooler, steadier” tagline is appealing.
Apple, Samsung, and Google aren’t likely to follow the mainstream. They already get that with PD PPS and have little reason to add yet another primary badge. If the Quick Charge 5+ does emerge, it might as a backwards compatible mode rather than a flagship feature. The situation may be different for some international models from companies like Xiaomi, Nubia or gaming-focused sub-brands, though the availability of official US releases is still quite limited.
Accessories Could Show the Way
Chargers, power banks and car adapters will likely to be the most obvious places to see Quick Charge 5+ in the US. Accessory manufacturers love multistandard bricks: In theory, a single GaN adapter that can accommodate PD 3.1 EPR, PPS and Quick Charge 5+ could be fast-charging your conference-worth of phones, tablets and lightweight laptops, and do a better job dealing with the heat, too. And look for familiar US brands to slap 5+ on packaging next to PD badges, steering consumers toward a safer bet that a single charger will fill every single port in the bag.
Interoperability is the pitch here. Now, with Quick Charge 5+’s built-in compatibility logic playing nice with older QC generations and PD devices, you’re less likely to find yourself at the wrong end of that universal trickle-charge situation with the wrong adapter—it’s an everyday annoyance for travelers and people with mixed-household ecosystems.
What It Means for Consumers
If you’re in the US, you also shouldn’t expect your next major phone launch to bother with Quick Charge 5+ branding. Do look for enhanced experiences in chargers and power banks that simply tack it on alongside PD. The real-world win is a sustained speed without turning your device into a hand-warmer, and hopefully fewer surprises when you plug into a random outlet.
For US fans of unlocked Android phones — particularly in the gaming phone market — scan the spec sheets. If your device has Quick Charge 5 or 5+ compatibility in its specs, it could potentially pair well with a GaN-based multistandard adapter for faster, more consistent fills. For everyone else, fear not: PD is still the lingua franca, and Quick Charge 5+ looks to be a nice team player rather than the new boss in town.