Tech Giant Launches Insanely Fast Smartphone Car Charger

With Android phones and iPhones landing in everybody's pocket, it was obviously just a matter of time until these mobile devices started playing a more important role in our lives.

Smartphones have quickly replaced the dashboard screen and GPS navigators, as the upgrades they received since 2015 turned them into all-in-one devices able to easily double as driving companions.

Living proof is none other than the adoption of Google Maps. As the world's number one mobile navigation app, Google Maps is now running in most cars out there, helping drivers go from where they are to where they want to be easier, faster, and more conveniently.

The rapid adoption of smartphones in cars also helped the mobile accessory market. Products like phone holders and chargers turned into must-have accessories for drivers, as using a mobile device behind the wheel is otherwise a major pain in the neck.

Running navigation in a car without a proper charger wouldn't be possible, especially because the likes of Google Maps and Waze are typically major battery hogs. They keep the screen on all the time and also connect to GPS, therefore relying on two resources eating up a lot of power.

While a typical smartphone charger doesn’t cost more than a few bucks, companies out there have tried to improve this product category by focusing specifically on design, convenience, and charging speeds.

Enter Huawei.

The troubled Chinese tech giant is one of the companies whose mobile accessories have always sported top-notch quality. Sure enough, its legal problems more or less limited its audience, as Huawei had to focus almost entirely on its domestic market with certain products.

Huawei has now come up with another phone car charger, and this time, the main selling point is the insane charging speed.

The new Huawei 88W Car Charger, also known as model P0015 (the company is also selling other phone chargers for cars, so the model number will help you distinguish them), has a pretty self-explanatory name. It perfectly highlights what it's all about, as the device can charge your phone with a speed of up to 88W.

Obviously, your phone must support such charging speeds in the first place.

The charger connects to the typical lighter socket, so there is nothing new here.

I'm not necessarily impressed with its design, as the product looks like a typical phone charger. However, it's pretty clear Huawei wasn’t specifically interested in the looks but rather in the charging speeds, and this is probably the reason it picked such a straightforward name in the first place.

The device packs two charging ports, and as any tech-savvy reader can anticipate, one of them is USB-C. As such, you can use it with new-generation devices shipping with USB-C cables in the box, including the iPhone (as long as you have a USB-C to Lightning cable). As a side note, iPhone will also switch to USB-C later this year, so the required cable will be a USB-C to USB-C cord.

However, Huawei has also fitted its charger with a standard USB-A port to connect most devices that support USB.

Needless to say, it can work with the majority of products on the market, including tablets and dashcams. As long as your device has a USB cable that can plug into the charger, it works just fine – for instance, you can also charge your Apple Watch, as the smartwatch's cable has USB-C at the other end of the cable.

The charger supports voltages between 12V to 24V, so it can be used in all cars on the road. Additionally, it packs a dedicated control chip whose role is to monitor the charging power and prevent overheating. This means the charging power can be limited when it detects high temperatures, essentially reducing the risk of incidents like fire.

One of the best things about this charger is that it's fairly affordable. Huawei is known as a company that offers good quality for the money, so its products aren’t necessarily as expensive as the ones sold by the competition, despite offering similar capabilities.

Currently available in China but projected to launch in international markets later this year, the 88W charger can be yours for just about $29. Once it goes on sale in Europe, it's expected to carry a price tag of 29 Euros.

It is worth knowing that the charger also ships with a USB-C to USB-C cable to charge your smartphone. Of course, given it supports high charging speeds, you can very well stick with it for your phone, as this is a very convenient way to squeeze every little drop of performance from this charger.

So far, Huawei has remained tight-lipped on its plans to launch the charger in international markets, so it's too early to tell precisely when it will happen.