If you’re the proud owners of the HTC DROID DNA, the US Galaxy S III, LG’s new Nexus 4, or more than 70 other Qualcomm Snapdragon powered devices you might have noticed the smartphone charging faster than most. Today the folks from Qualcomm have detailed a neat feature called Quick Charge 1.0 that’s been integrated into many of their current and upcoming processors.

This rapid-charging technology allows us to charge our smartphones and tablets powered by a new Snapdragon processor more than 40% faster than the previous generation. All these Snapdragon S4 and S4 Pro powered devices all have the capability, as well as nearly 70 other devices released over the past 6-8 months. This isn’t anything new in terms of charging over USB, but it’s new in the way Qualcomm is delivering it.

We haven’t talked about this feature much, but neither has Qualcomm — or anyone else in the mobile space for that matter. Using existing technology behind the way USB and micro-USB works they’ve developed and integrated a smart power-management solution on their chip that is geared towards how our devices charge up and receive juice from the wall or car outlet. This way we all benefit, but don’t have to buy new cables. I think iPhone owners know plenty about buying new cables.

When previous generation devices took roughly 4 hours to fully charge, all the new devices using Qualcomm Snapdragon processors with Quick Charge 1.0 will be finished in under 3 hours. Giving you more time daily to use and enjoy that Android powered smartphone. We love the idea of not hanging next to a wall outlet at the airport, but would still love to see bigger battery options moving forward with smartphones. More details and the full device support list can be found from the official blog post linked below.

[via Qualcomm Blog]