Charger UCH12 far away from charging fast

[mdrew]

Hi there, I just bought an UCH12 charger for my X Compact. It was supposed to deliver a 5.5-hour battery after only ten minutes of charging. In my case it charges about 1% a minute, so after ten minutes I get 10% which ist far behind my expectations. My phone was bought in Germany, build number is 34.1.A.3.22, Android 6.0.1. The cable I use is the UCB20 one that came with the boxed UCH20 charger. Enabling and disabling the battery care option didn't make a difference. What can I do to get full charging performance?

[Jimroy]

I also had the same issue with the UCH12W I bought for my XZ. Charging the same as you found instead of up to 40% faster.

It was no different to the standard  UCH20C travel charger the phone came with.

I even tried swapping the USB-C cable but no difference.

However it does rapid charge My Z4 and Z3 tablet compact tablets using the Micro USB cable. They're quickcharge 2.0 devices.

I've had to arrange a return of the charger with Sony Mobile eshop as they say it must be faulty. They're going to send a replacement. 

At £45 I'd expect better to be honest. This is the second Sony charger I've had to return in a year. The first was the original UCH20 travel charger when it first came out. it simply wouldn't charge anything at all. And I had to pay for recorded delivery back to the Czech Republic (half the cost of the thing) to get a refund.

At least it's free courier collection this time. But I called up a day after I got it this time. You have to act quick with Sony I find. They do you no favours. 

I'm hoping it is a faulty charger as reading that you are having problems with yours on the other of the currently two devices its compatible with may indicate that its a software or hardware problem on the phone instead. I certainly hope not.

[mdrew]

Same here, I also tried another cable with no luck. Before I got the UCH12 charger I had bought an AUKEY Quick Charge 3.0 (PA-T9-DE-S) - tried to keep it cheap. It charged around one percent per minute, so I returned it and then bought the UCH12. I just measured the charging current using the Ampere app in flight mode and it said 2020mA maximum at 4.116V. On the device it says maximum was 2700mA at 5V so for some reason it's not going up to maximum here. When turned completely off it doesn't seem to speed up.

It would be helpful if Sony stated under which circumstances quick charge is supposed to work - such as temperature, software versions, local markets etc.). Searching the net I haven't found anyone comfirming that quick charge works with the X Compact. Maybe it's still just too new to get these information and/or I'm too impatient to use promised features.

Jimroy, pelase let us know when your replacement charger got there and if it speeds things up a little. If not you can still use it for your tablets - still not a bargain then though 😉

[Jimroy]

Hi again.

Thanks for letting me know about your Aukey QuickCharge 3.0 charger experience. I was thinking of getting the dual port one, the PA-T16-B-UKA. I'm glad I didn't now as it would be surplus to requirements at present. But it's a quarter of the price of the single port Sony one we've been talking about here.

I however did purchase the QuickCharge 3.0 AUKEY PB-T12 5000mAh Portable Charger and have had a similar experience like you did. It charges my XZ at QuickCharge 2.0 speeds so it's better than nothing and future proof I suppose.

I got my replacement UCH12W charger today and it's just the same as before. !% per minute charge on my XZ. The same as the standard UCH20C charger the phone came with. 

I've double checked Qualcomm's webiste to make sure they've listed my phone and accessory as being authorised. You can download the latest list dated 8th November 2016 here:

https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/quick-charge-device-list

I found this disclaimer at the bottom of each page to be revealing;

"These devices contain the hardware necessary to achieve Quick Charge 3.0. It is at the device manufacturer’s discretion to fully enable this feature. A Quick Charge 3.0 certified power adapter is required. Different Quick Charge 3.0 implementations may result in different charging times."

So then, has Sony yet to enable this feature on our devices?  It does 'rapid charge' my Sony QuickCharge 2.0 devices. 

They are not being transparent about this at all.

It's time someone took them to hand and got them to explain exactly what the state of play is. Because as it stands they are ripping people off by selling an exortionately priced additional accessory for a feature on a device they advertise that does not appear to be anabled at all!

[mdrew]

Hi there,

the sentence "It is at the device manufacturer’s discretion to fully enable this feature." might be the reason for our trouble. The Xperia X Compact is not even listed there.

Last week I called the German Sony support. They suggested to try charging in safe mode and stated that 1% a minute was not that bad at all.

I asked if Sony had disabled some functionalities for certain local versions but they said they wouldn't do that. Asking about the charging standard (QC 2.0, 3.0, PumpExpress+ etc.) they didn't really seem to know. I think they had the same data sheet that can be found on their website which does not exactly specify the standard.

In the end they suggested to send the charger back to the dealer and ask for a replacement.

It's time for Sony to clarify whether Quick Charge 3.0 is not even implemented or whether this feature is disabled and if so when they are going to enable.

[Wladimir]

Yes, I also UCH12=UCH20. Sony did not answer us, she is always in such situations "throws" buyers...

[spyrusthegreat]

The White Paper indicates 'Quick Charge 2.0 & 3.0 support' on Connectivity section.

So, it should be a software issue i hope.

[Wladimir]

---

@spyrus wrote:

it should be a software issue i hope

---

I don't think, because it was already released 3 updates.

[mdrew]

I had a conversation with the German Xperia support via Facebook. They confirmed that the Xperia X Compact does support Quick Charge 3.0 even though it is not listed in Qualcomms quick charge device list (link mentioned above) and suggested to try another charger and if that doesn't help to send the phone in to their repair center in order to have it checked.

Today I tried another charger (Anker AK-A2013311) and another cable (Aukey CB-CD2) - no luck trying all possible charger/cable combinations including the UCH12 charger and the UCB20 cable. The Anker cable only seems to allow 2.4A charging current though (I'm getting 2.040A), so I guess I'll buy some other cables and see if that helps.

[spyrusthegreat]

The UCH12 does include a type-c to usb a cable?