In the Xiaomi Mi A2 and the Poco F1 from its sub-brand, Xiaomi has two excellent mid-range smartphones that turn heads anywhere.
The Mi A2 is the Chinese brand’s second device running an almost stock build of Android under the Android One programme while the Pocophone F1 has won praise and admiration across the board for packing features reserved for top-of-the-range smartphones like the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 while keeping a sub-Kshs 40,000 price tag.
While the two devices vary feature-wise with one sticking closer to Google’s vision of Android while the other goes all out with Xiaomi’s own custom software, MIUI, they have some things in common.
Like other devices from Xiaomi, the two both pack chipsets from Qualcomm. In the case of the Poco F1, that is the aforementioned high-end Snapdragon 845 while in the Mi A2, it’s the mid-range Snapdragon 660 which Qualcomm describes as its “most powerful 600-tier platform to date”.
Among the many features that the two chipsets pack is accelerated charging which they bring with them to the devices they power. Sure there are proprietary fast-charging solutions like Oppo’s VOOC (which OnePlus had previously rebranded and used to call Dash Charge), but Qualcomm’s technology is one of the most widely used owing to the American company’s status as the biggest source of mobile SoCs in the Android market.
Now, the latest Xiaomi smartphones in the Kenyan market, the Mi A2 and the Poco F1 (which should’ve gone on sale yesterday – but hasn’t), have been officially confirmed (by Qualcomm, no less) to have the necessary hardware to enable Quick Charge 4+, the name Qualcomm has given the latest iteration of its accelerated charging technology.
While it’s almost a given that a device running a Snapdragon processor worth its name should have Quick Charge, the confirmation from both Qualcomm and the device maker is usually necessary. The former’s confirmation is more important because it signifies compliance with the set standards hence amounting to a certification – it is a certification.
In the case of the Mi A2, this is important because its predecessor, the Mi A1, had support for Quick Charge even though Xiaomi neither bothered to scream about it from the rooftop and even note the same on the Mi A1’s packaging and supporting documentation nor did it ship the device with a compatible power adaptor. The same is the case this year with the Mi A2 but at least we’ve heard from the horse’s mouth.
In order for users of either device to take advantage of the fast-charging capabilities of their respective chipsets, compatible adaptors are needed, as Qualcomm notes in the document [PDF] detailing the same.
The document makes no mention of the Mi A2’s inferior sibling, the Mi A2 Lite, but since it packs the Snapdragon 625 that powered last year’s Xiaomi Android One smartphone, users can take their chances as it’s PROBABLY a case of someone avoiding the fees that come with the certification process.
