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Any harm in using phone charger to charge N7?

C

candroid11

Well-Known Member
Since the charger is way too small I am wondering if using my Nexus S charger would be safe. It plugs in fine but I don't want to risk it without asking first.
 
As long as the charger puts out more than 1.5A (Should be written on the body) you will be fine. The stock N7 charger outputs at 2A so anything less will be slower, and may not keep up with the power demands if the tablet is being used. Otherwise, there is no harm.
 
Generally most phone chargers are fine but it will charge slower as a result of the electricity provided being lower.
 
I tried using a phone charger with 500mA (About half the stock chargers for most phones). It charged for several hours and only went up a few percent. You are best using the stock charger when possible or find another character that outputs 2A. If not you might be waiting a while. Also to note that using your computer to charge your device instead of the wall charger is generally only 500 mAs so that will take a long while as well.
 
Slightly off topic, but I like this charger from Monoprice. Can put out 2 amps to the N7 on any port, and there is a special 2A port that is iPad friendly as well. Can plug in phones too, although total current won't go over 2.1A. Plug prongs fold up in the back for travel.
 
I've been using my GNex charger since I've been away from home lately and needed to travel with the smallest/lightest stuff I can. So far, it seems to work just fine. I wish Asus would have made the N7 charger like the original TF charger with folding prongs.
 
425707a1-d6ca-8468.jpg


Using the car charger my dad got with his droid
 
dtemp said:
Can put out 2 amps to the N7 on any port, and there is a special 2A port that is iPad friendly as well. Can plug in phones too, although total current won't go over 2.1A. Plug prongs fold up in the back for travel.
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That charger works for you? I bought two and neither works with my Nexus 7 on any port.
 
Charging slower may also be better for the battery and make it last longer cyclewise. You could possibly overheat a lower powered charger by the demand of the nexus 7 charging at full output power of the lower powered charger for longer because of the slow charge rate.
 
Something I noticed was that the USB cable is important too, not just the actual charger plug unit.

The day I got mine I hooked up the N7
 
The output from the charger should be printed on the side. All USB chargers are 5v, but the charging speed will depend on whether or not the charger (and/or cable) can supply the full 2 amps.

I tried charging mine with my nook color (1.9 amp) charger and a generic cable. It took about 14 hours to reach full charge. Using the supplied charger and cable it only took a couple hours from dead empty. Next time I fully drain it I'm going to try the Asus charger with a generic cable and see what happens.
 
HotRoderX said:
I am not going to pretend to fully understand it but something I learned with my Kindle Fire not all USB cords are equal. What I ended up finding out is that some USB cables have a extra connector or wire something that allows them to pull more current then others.

When you connect them up to a compatible device it registers this extra connections and allows the cable to pull more power.

I am not sure if its just a "Lawyer protection" or if the cables are more hardy. Comparing my Kindle charger to any of my standard USB chargers they all look the same.
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Actually I have only use my kindle fire charger to charge my N7 so far, and it seems to be working fine. And as mentioned above the length of the cable can affect the charge rate since when you draw more than a couple of amps there would be a voltage drop on a long usb cable if the wire isn't extra heavy to handle it.
 
JanComputerman said:
Actually I have only use my kindle fire charger to charge my N7 so far, and it seems to be working fine. And as mentioned above the length of the cable can affect the charge rate since when you draw more than a couple of amps there would be a voltage drop on a long usb cable if the wire isn't extra heavy to handle it.
Click to expand...

The Kindle Fire charger seems to have that little extra connector. In fact its how I even learned about it. I lost my Kindle Fire Charger and needed a replacement. I didn't wanna shell out 20bucks for the crappy Chinese Generic Amazon sells. I ended up doing it anyway to be on the safe side.

I also use my Amazon charger to charge my cell phone its 10x's faster then using a normal charger.
 
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