Here’s what bypass charging means and how it works | Ask Us Anything #48

Welcome back to another episode of Ask Us Anything, where we gather your questions from the internet and answer them.

In today’s episode, we find out what is bypass charging that’s found in some smartphones, do Volkswagen cars in Malaysia come with AEB and apps that help with learning the Malay language?

What is bypass charging?

Bypass charging means you can run the phone on AC power instead of the phone’s battery. When bypass charging is turned on, as the name suggests, the current from the power adapter will not charge the battery and the battery will be disconnected from the smartphone. Instead, the phone will be directly powered by the incoming electricity.

This allows you to use your smartphone for long periods without worrying about over-charging the battery or constantly needing to recharge the battery. Moreover, it removes stress on the battery from being frequently charged when using your smartphone for those extended periods by stopping the battery from heating up and slowing down battery degradation.

Every smartphone implements bypass charging differently. On an Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro and Black Shark 5, there are some similarities and differences. The bypass charging option on both phones is in their respective gaming menus and not under the phone settings. The option only becomes available when the phone is plugged into a power adapter.

When enabled, you will still see the charging symbol on the battery icon switches to a plug symbol next to the battery icon. On both these phones, bypass charging is linked to an app, therefore, returning to the home screen or the app going to sleep once the screen turns off will disable the bypass charging feature until the app becomes active again. If you disconnect the power while bypass charging is turned on, the phone will immediately switch back to the battery.

One difference that I noticed between these two phones is that the ROG Phone 6 allows you to add more apps under the gaming menu like Google Chrome. Meanwhile, the app selection on the Black Shark 5 is more limited, not allowing to add Google Chrome. However, Black Shark can easily fix this by issuing a software update, should it choose to do so.

Also, at least on these two phones, the battery is not charging when bypass charging is turned on. Therefore, it’s best to charge your phone first before turning on bypass charging.

If you noticed, the phones I used as examples are gaming phones and that’s because bypass charging is typically found in this class of phones. If you think about it, the target audience for gaming phones would typically use them for intense gaming sessions and will benefit from the bypass charging feature.

Why do Malaysian VW cars have no active safety systems?

At the moment, Volkswagen Passenger Car Malaysia or VPCM does not offer any advanced driver assistance features on their vehicle line-up here in Malaysia. Even on the most expensive model, the Arteon R-Line 4MOTION, you only get blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, electronic stability control, and an automatic post-collision brake system.

Autonomous emergency braking or AEB works by applying the brakes when it detects that you’re about to crash into the car in front of you.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s automatic post-collision brake system will apply the brakes of your vehicle after someone crashes into you from the back, stopping your car from rolling forwards, potentially hitting another vehicle, or going off the road.

In an interview with Paultan.org, Erik Winter, the managing director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia, said that they are waiting for their active safety systems to be approved by the relevant regulators. Well, this was back in April of 2022 and we have yet to receive an update.

Apps that help with learning the Malay language

Well, here are two learning services I found that could help you with learning Malay.

The first is a mobile app called Simply Learn Malay. There are multiple categories like beginners, traveller basics, and ex-pat. You can test yourself in the quiz section. Now despite being called Simply Learn Malay, there are a total of 50 languages available to learn from. The beginner and traveller basics are available for free while traveller advanced and ex-pat require you to upgrade to a pro version.

The second is simply called Ling and is offered as a web-based service or an app making it more versatile. You will find different categories to choose from here as well like basic sentences, numbers and counting, eating out and clothing to name a few. Compared to Simply Learn Malay, the categories offered by Ling is more comprehensive. But just like that app, you will need to pay to upgrade your account to unlock the more advanced stages.

Both apps require you to create an account to track and save your progress.