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Help Using while on car charger

G

Girevik

Android Enthusiast
Lately I've been using my phone more and more as my GPS in my car. I notieced on a longer trip that even when I have my phone plugged into my car charger, the battery drains while using the GPS.

Is this normal? I'd think that it would charge, even if slowly, while plugged in while being used. Does my car charger stink, or is my battery bad? Or is this just the way it its?
 
It's a common issue with many large screen, modern phones. The problem is that most car chargers simply don't provide enough juice. My standard Nexus 4 wall charger is rated a 1.2W but I haven't been able to find a car charger rated at more than 1W (may have the unit wrong there :D) and most are rated somewhere under that.

So far, I've found that 1W has kept the phone going long enough that I haven't actually had the it die while on GPS .. yet.

The phone does actually gain battery if it's on charge but the screen is off, so I guess turning the screen off could be an option for eeking it out, though there are obvious dangers if you're on a highway and can't stop when you need to turn the screen back on :eek:
 
GPS usess lot of power so it will drain faster than it charges. For long rides, I tend to turn it off if I'm just going straight for a long time. I might use it to get out of the airport and into the highway but if it tells me to continue straight for 100 miles, I know I can turn it off for an hour or so with no risk if getting lost. At least turn off the screen until the voice tells you to do something.

And try to avoid making calls or streaming music while using gps. That will drain the battery even faster.

The car chargers aren't as powerful as wall ones do they don't charge as fast. Also, if the phone is mounted in the sun it may overheat. It stops charging if the battery gets too hot. You have to manage the battery carefully on road trips even if you are using a charger.
 
Another option would be to get one of those power converters that plug into the cars power outlet, and then use your wall charger.
 
Your charger isn't powerful enough. I went through a few until I found one that keeps up just fine with GPS and streaming music. I have about an hour drive and my battery increases around 10% or so while running as much stuff as I want with this charger:

Amazon.com: MICRO USB NEW LUXMO FAST 1000mA CAR CHARGER FOR CELL PHONE with DUAL TAIL-LIGHT LED: Cell Phones & Accessories

The price is right too. Although I will admit this thing seems made pretty cheap so I'm not sure how long it will last but as I said at this point is definitely can handle whatever my phone is doing.

I have 3 other chargers, a no-name which can't keep up at all (phone loses charge), a BlackBerry rated at 500mah (loses charge), and a Motorola rated at 950mah. The Motorola gain about 2% per hour while running whatever I want on the phone. My phone also gets much warmer while using the Motorola charger. I think Motorola is lying and it's not really 950mah. The Luxmo really impresses me I might buy a spare.
 
mydian said:
Your charger isn't powerful enough. I went through a few until I found one that keeps up just fine with GPS and streaming music. I have about an hour drive and my battery increases around 10% or so while running as much stuff as I want with this charger:

Amazon.com: MICRO USB NEW LUXMO FAST 1000mA CAR CHARGER FOR CELL PHONE with DUAL TAIL-LIGHT LED: Cell Phones & Accessories

The price is right too. Although I will admit this thing seems made pretty cheap so I'm not sure how long it will last but as I said at this point is definitely can handle whatever my phone is doing.

I have 3 other chargers, a no-name which can't keep up at all (phone loses charge), a BlackBerry rated at 500mah (loses charge), and a Motorola rated at 950mah. The Motorola gain about 2% per hour while running whatever I want on the phone. My phone also gets much warmer while using the Motorola charger. I think Motorola is lying and it's not really 950mah. The Luxmo really impresses me I might buy a spare.
Click to expand...

Ordered one of these and got a chance to try it out today. Works like a champ. Thanks!
 
I've been using an iBolt cradle/charger and it's worked very well. In fact, not only will it keep up with charging while using navigation, I'll also use the music player and it'll actually charger the phone in the process.
 
I bought one at best buy that is a 3 amp charger. I never have to charge for more than an hour to get back to 9X%.
 
For an alternative genuine HTC car charger I bought for my old Desire works well with S3. Build quality is good too, although its a bit more expensive had mine for 4yrs with no probs.
 
My phone discharges slowly with my car charger. I usually have Waze running and play music over BT from my phone whenever I drive.
 
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