As the name implies, Quick Charge is supposed to speed up charging on devices based on Qualcomm chips. However, the technology is not really new, as it is already supported by a bunch of Snapdragon S4 chips, like the ones found in the Nexus 4, HTC One S, Nokia Lumia 920 and the US version of the Galaxy S3.

So why didn’t Qualcomm tell us about it last summer? We haven’t the slightest idea, but the point is that it’s there and it can reduce charging times from flat to full by up to 40 percent. So far the new tech only works on Qualcomm based devices, but the company is also working on a stand-alone circuit which could be used on other devices.

It all sounds very interesting, considering the increasing appetites of high-def phones and tablets, which can take hours to recharge. The only question is why didn’t they tell us about it before?