What to look for, to get a fast Android charger?

Forums › Android › What to look for, to get a fast Android charger?

danepak

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#201727 31-Aug-2016 23:59

I've bought a few Android chargers on Ebay in the past for my Galaxy S5.
Some of them have been great (fast charging) and some of them poor (slow charging).
How do I spot a fast charger? Is it the charger itself or the cable? I've tried with a USB 3.0 cable and didn't really make a difference to a poor wall charger that I'd bought.
Also, same issue with car chargers (which I plug into the cigarette lighter socket. Some has been great, but I've got one at the moment, which shows that it's charging, but it doesn't really.
I know I can get a fast charger for well under $10.
Is it the voltage or the ampere that I have to look for?

thecatsgoolies

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#1620504 1-Sep-2016 01:20

Use the genuine Samsung fast charger

sbiddle

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#1620578 1-Sep-2016 08:04

danepak:
I know I can get a fast charger for well under $10.
Is it the voltage or the ampere that I have to look for?

Your problem is right there. You're buying cheap low quality chargers and expecting good performance. That simply doesn't happen.

You're looking for neither voltage or amperage. You need to look for a high quality product.

There are many, many threads of here discussing chargers and why many are so poor. Long gone are the days of a charger simply outputting a fixed voltage. QC2.0 and QC3.0 charge at much higher than 5V and will adaptively change the charging rate as needed. Even non QC devices or Apple products will charge at very different rates depending on the type of charger you use. Plug most into a cheap USB charger with no smarts and you'll find they charge at a maximum of 400-500mA, much lower than the 1000mA - 1500mA you'll see on a quality charger. Chargers need to have smarts in them, and the cheap ones don't. Most USB wall chargers are the same - they're all junk.

Both myself and many others on here are great fans of Anker products. IMHO they make the best chargers on the planet, so if you want something that works forget about penny pinching and buy something decent.

danepak

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#1620610 1-Sep-2016 08:18

OK, thanks.

While I lived in Australia, I used to buy both the wall and car chargers from K-Mart.

They were EXCELLENT (and cheap).

$8 for the wall charger (which I still have) and $5 for the car charger.

(Come to think of it...I should probably check out K-Mart here and see if they're available).

The reason why I'm after cheap chargers is to have one at work, a couple at home (living room and bedroom) etc. etc.

danepak

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#1620883 1-Sep-2016 14:25

Popped down to K-Mart at St Lukes.

Bought a car charger for $8.

Went for a 10 min drive and during that time, the battery went up by 10%.

I'm happy with that.

timmmay

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#1620888 1-Sep-2016 14:35

Cables can make a big difference - bad cable 400mah, good cable 1800mah, with the same charger.

NzBeagle

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#1620907 1-Sep-2016 15:05

I have a couple of Aukey fast chargers and they work great with my Note 5 probably similar or slightly better performing than the Kmart option. They were > $10 but they work well. QC 2.0 and 3.0 on the later one, they work great for keeping things charged even from short charges.

A charger would surely only be as good as it's cable?