Qualcomm loves its charging standards, which have become just as much a selling point for its Snapdragon chipsets as the processor power. Now, just a mere six months after announcing Quick Charge 4, which boosted charging times and safety considerably over its predecessors, Qualcomm is introducing the new Quick Charge 4+ standard.

Unlike previous standards, which required a new chipset, 4+ is something device and accessory manufacturers can implement by adding three enhancements to Quick Charge 4-compliant devices:

• "Dual Charge," which is already an option in earlier version of Quick Charge, but is "now more powerful"
• "Intelligent Thermal Balancing," which steers current through whichever of the dual charging pathways is coolest to keep temperatures down
• "Advanced Safety Features" to monitor both the phone temperature and the connector temperature to protect against overheating and short-circuit damage

Qualcomm claims devices that implement this standard can get charging times up to 15 percent faster than Quick Charge 4, and will charge up to 30 percent more efficiently — an especially nice perk if you're charging from a battery pack. Charging will also be up to 3 degrees Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler.

Unfortunately, you most likely won't get these features with a software patch to existing devices, since these are mostly hardware enhancements. So far there's one device confirmed to include 4+: the just-announced Nubia Z17, a Snapdragon 835 phone with a 3200mAh battery.