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Help Confusion about phone chargers.

M

MELISSA DAVIDSON

Lurker
I have seen quite a bit of conflicting information on the internet about charging your phone. Some will say the VOLTAGE is the most important thing and others will say its the AMPS.

The charger that came with my phone is a 5V@1.o amp charger. Another charger I have says its 5V at 0.7 amps.

In general.... can you charge your phone faster using a different charger with a higher output?

Are there in fact chargers on the market that will work better than others by decreasing charging time without damaging your phone?

What do I look for in this regard?

Thank You

Melissa :)
 
Your phone determines the maximum charge current it will receive so you wanna find a charger that will at least provide that current to get optimum charge.
Most chargers are 5v so it's the current you want to look for.
Your phone wont charge at a higher current than its kernel is set up to take
 
Here's how it works -

The charger pushes voltage (V) - the phone draws (pulls) current (A).

The voltage is constant - anything outside and above a very small range at the rated 5 volts (on a normal phone), as can be found on very cheesy chargers, can be damaging.

The phone will draw as much current as the charger can supply, up to its rated maximum, and no more.

If your phone is designed to charge at a maximum of 1 A, then it'll be happy with 0.5 or 0.7 A, it'll just take longer to charge.

If you use a 2 A charger, the phone in my example will still only draw 1 A, its designed maximum, and no harm will come to it. It'll basically charge the same as if it were on a 1 A charger.

The charging wire conducts electricity but also resists it.

We have an equation for the whole enchilada but the bottom line is that long, thin cables have more resistance, so it's going to take longer to charge with a lousy cable - because less current will be delivered.

Lately, some phones have come out with a feature called fast charging - instead of 5 V, the charger will produce several voltages as needed.

But the phone has to be designed for that and the charger has to be rated for it. Not many are yet.

A trustworthy online vendor for cables and chargers is monoprice.com.
 
Plus of you're the rooting type, you can flash certain kernel firmware that can be set to accept a higher current
 
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