What is the difference between true fast charging and fake? What’s the mean of charging interface with different color?

About fast charging, many people are no longer unfamiliar with it. Whether it is a mobile phone, tablet, notebook or even Switch, almost all smart devices already support fast charging, and we have all experienced the convenience brought by fast charging.

But there are also many people who are confused when they bought. The interface colors are different on the chargers, and they don’t know what the green, purple, and orange mean respectively. In order to help you not to buy the wrong charger and spend less money, Ietcharger is here to share with you the popular science about the charger interface.

First of all, let’s help you clear the interface type of the charger.

USB-C

The full name of the USB-C interface is USB Type-C. This is the latest charging interface. Most of notebooks, tablets, mobile phones, earphones and other devices have adopted this new interface. Correspondingly, there are many chargers that use this interface.

The USB-C interface has a dedicated communication line, supports positive and negative plugging, supports transmission of the USB-PD protocol, and the maximum output power can reach 240W (48V / 5A). It is worth mentioning that in the PPS (Fast Charging Technical Specification) released by USB-IF, USB-PD 3.0 includes Qualcomm QC 4+/3.0, Huawei SCP/FCP, Samsung AFC, Apple 2.4A, PE3.0, etc. Multiple fast charging protocols, compatibility are stronger.

At present, Apple has set PD fast charging as the official fast charging standard, and Android has also included PD fast charging in the range of charging standards that Android phones must support. PD fast charging may become the mainstream charging standard for smart phones in the future. This also means that USB-C interface is more in line with the development trend of future charging.

USB-A

The full name of the USB-A interface is USB Type-A. I believe everyone is familiar with it. As the interface of the charger, USB-A belongs to the female interface. However, most of the USB-A ports do not support the USB-PD fast charge protocol currently, except for Xiaomi’s Magic Change A-port PD charger.

The most common is that the USB-A port charger, as the original charger of major mobile phone manufacturers, supports the private fast charging protocol defined by each one. However, with the development of charging technology today, the USB-A port charger is not limited to this, and it also supports compatibility with mainstream fast charging protocols on the market.

After talking about the interface type, let’s talk about what the mean of charging interface with different color.

Comparing with various chargers on the market, it can be found that the current charger interface has 9 colors such as white, black, blue, green, purple, orange, and yellow.

But whether it is a USB-C port or a USB-A port charger, the interface color is not a factor that affects the charging performance, there has not defined the interface color in this industry.

Mobile phone manufacturers use different charging technology solutions, and accessory manufacturers can also use different combinations of charging technologies. In order to differentiate their own products, manufacturers can choose a unique color to show the distinction.

ietcharger selected 5 popular PD fast chargers on the market for comparison. They all use the USB-C interface, support PD 20W fast charging and are backward compatible with PD 18W. However, their interface colors are not the same, they are black, white, and blue, among which the green link and the apple are the same as white.

The situation of the USB-A port charger is more complicated.

In the past, in order to distinguish between USB3.0 and USB2.0, the industry conventionally made the ports that support USB3.0 in blue, while 2.0 and 1.0 were in black or white. With the emergence of USB3.1, blue and green has become its representative interface color.

If you strictly distinguish the description of the interface colors, it is clear that green represents Qualcomm QC, and purple represents Huawei fast charge. Other colors of charging interfaces are not clearly defined.

Speaking of this, I remembered someone asked recently that the orange port is a real fast charge, and the purple port is a fake fast charge. Is it questioning that the charger with purple port from Huawei are all fake fast charging?

To be precise, fast charging has no distinction between true and false, also no difference between good and bad. Only have just differences in support agreements and in color matching preferences of brands.

With the enrichment of charging technology solutions and the diversification of brands, simply using a specific color to define the fast charging performance of the charger is obviously not in line with the current trend.

Take UGREEN’s 100W GaN four-port charger as an example. It is equipped with four fast charging ports. The colors of the three USB-C ports are all black, and the charging power is slightly different. Among them, the two ports C1 and C2 support a single-port 100W high-power output, and the C3 port supports 22.5W output. Obviously, it is not suitable to distinguish them by using black to represent USB2.0 in the early years.

Take a look at the USB-A port of this charger. The port color is purple and supports Huawei’s SCP 22.5W output. This is consistent with the accepted saying that “the purple port is Huawei’s fast charge”.

Observing its four pins carefully, it can be found that the two outer pins are thicker than the middle, aiming to increase current transmission. This is based on Huawei’s low-voltage and high-current solution design to achieve low-temperature fast charging.

When the four ports are working at the same time, each port still supports fast charging, and the power output of each port is allocated to 40W, 30W, 10.5W, 10.5W, which is relatively more reasonable and can ensure that each device enters a stable fast charging state .

As for the impact of fast charging on the battery, ietcharger would like to say that there is no harm if it is not charged.

Because the battery life is cycled, it is normally 500 times of charge and discharge. In other words, as long as your device has charging and discharging behavior, whether it is fast charging or common charging, the battery must be worn out, which is normal. In addition, be careful not to overcharge or over discharge. Don’t wait until it’s completely empty. Don’t always charge to 100% directly. It’s best not to play while charging. This is good for prolonging battery life.

For more charger questions, please continue to pay attention to IETCHARGER.