Develop Bugs

[Q] Where can I get a 1A car charger in Canada?

I bought this kit from e-bay and just got it in today, so have been trying it out on my drive from home <-> work.
The problem is, the car charger they supplied doesn't seem to be sufficient to charge the phone or at least keep its battery at a constant state when I'm using it as a GPS + Streaming music. On my drive home, I started at about 50% battery life. An hour or so later, I was down to about 35ish with it plugged in nearly the entire time. So clearly it's not pumping enough juice to the device
I was thinking of buying one of these from monoprice but I wanted to make sure it really would give me enough power. Obviously the power isn't that big of an issue, but I don't want to wait for it to ship only to find out that it doesn't help anyways.
Anyone tried the monoprice one I linked to, or one of the other ones from there? Or can suggest one to buy from elsewhere? Would greatly appreciate it, thank you!
*edit*
I should mention, I have a car charger uhh splitter thing...to split the one socket into two (one for an FM transmitter, and one for the phone). Could this be a limiting factor in how much power I'm getting to the phone as well? Or should the single socket have enough power for both devices?

I got a Kensington PowerBolt from Future Shop which claims to be 2.1 amps and I still drained the battery a bit when testing the nav. Possibly not as much as you but there is still a net loss. If the charger is accurate in its power then I presume my car isn't delivering enough power.
Any car charger that supports the ipad should be well above 1.0a. Whether it delivers that is a question I cannot answer.
Im going to test direct power charging while having the nav on to see if this thing can ever charge positive while in nav mode. I wonder if that has ever been done.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

I am not aware of any car charger that is 1amp. What you are looking for is pretty rare
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

They are a little more prevalent thanks to the ipads higher power requirements for charging.
Future Shop has a few of them available now if you want. A little expensive though at $30+. I don't see the PowerBolt anymore which is too bad since that was a slim model that barely poked out of the socket.
Sent by an Assonance.

fatttire said:
I am not aware of any car charger that is 1amp. What you are looking for is pretty rare
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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This is completely untrue... did you make this up?
Griffin makes many:
http://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/1207248/griffin-technology-powerjolt-car-charger-reviews/reviews.htm
Belkin and Kensington make them as well. Many are now 2.1A for the iPad.
But to the OP - a 1amp charger is not going to fix your problem in most cases. You need a cable with the data pins shorted so that the phone thinks it is pulling power from something other then a USB port.
A USB port only supplies 500mA - the phone will draw a max of about 750mA; but only if it thinks it is not attached to a PC. The wall charger shorts the data connection so the phone knows to pull more current.
I purchased a dual port (1A per port) charger at target or walmart, and then a took a USB cable and cut open the cable and shorted the data wires (not red or white - but the other 2). My phone says it is charging on AC power and charging keeps up with GPS.
It is possible that you could buy a car charger with the cable built in and the circuitry set to tell the phone to draw more then the USB 500mA, but I am not sure.
But know this; if the phone does not say "AC Charging" under settings->phone-> about - like it does when the wall charger is in use; then you are only getting 500mA.

I use a 2 amp 12v to usb adapter that is use for my ecig passthrough. Charges with bluetooth, streaming music, and navigation all running but charges slowly. Something like $8 on madvapes.com
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Excellent. I am going to give that a try. I have one of those flat retractable cables so its going to be a pain in the ass to do but its worth it.
Sent by an Assonance.

alphadog00 said:
This is completely untrue... did you make this up?
Griffin makes many:
http://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/1207248/griffin-technology-powerjolt-car-charger-reviews/reviews.htm
Belkin and Kensington make them as well. Many are now 2.1A for the iPad.
But to the OP - a 1amp charger is not going to fix your problem in most cases. You need a cable with the data pins shorted so that the phone thinks it is pulling power from something other then a USB port.
A USB port only supplies 500mA - the phone will draw a max of about 750mA; but only if it thinks it is not attached to a PC. The wall charger shorts the data connection so the phone knows to pull more current.
I purchased a dual port (1A per port) charger at target or walmart, and then a took a USB cable and cut open the cable and shorted the data wires (not red or white - but the other 2). My phone says it is charging on AC power and charging keeps up with GPS.
It is possible that you could buy a car charger with the cable built in and the circuitry set to tell the phone to draw more then the USB 500mA, but I am not sure.
But know this; if the phone does not say "AC Charging" under settings->phone-> about - like it does when the wall charger is in use; then you are only getting 500mA.
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Oooo that's interesting, didn't know that. So perhaps the issue could be that my cable is not supplying enough power. Are there instructions somewhere detailing how to short the cable?
lastdeadmouse said:
I use a 2 amp 12v to usb adapter that is use for my ecig passthrough. Charges with bluetooth, streaming music, and navigation all running but charges slowly. Something like $8 on madvapes.com
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Do you mean this? Isn't 2 amps too much though?

Didn't make it up - just havent looked in the last 6 months. Ur right they are pretty common now.
Might invest in one
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

ootz0rz said:
Oooo that's interesting, didn't know that. So perhaps the issue could be that my cable is not supplying enough power. Are there instructions somewhere detailing how to short the cable?
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You're going to need to strip a cable so so that you can get to the individual wires for each pin. You want to short pins 2 and 3 together which are Data- and Data+. Normally that is WHITE and GREEN
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Once you do that, you'll have a charge only cable.
Here's the detailed directions:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=46449

I think the shorted data pins are necessary, but 2 amps wouldn't be too much. Li-ion batts love fast short charges.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Are you saying that the phone will only draw a max of 750mAmps and so anything greater wont provide utility?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

norcal einstein said:
You're going to need to strip a cable so so that you can get to the individual wires for each pin........
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Click to collapse
Awesome! I'll try this out and see if it works, thank you
lastdeadmouse said:
I think the shorted data pins are necessary, but 2 amps wouldn't be too much. Li-ion batts love fast short charges.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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I thought there might be a limit on how much current you can provide at any one time.
On the original subject: I've started using a different car charger, and now have it plugged directly into the socket in my car. This results in it showing up as being charged by AC power in the settings -> phone status. However, it still loses power over time instead of keeping at the same charge or (ideally) charging the phone slowly.
I'm going to see if I can get my hands on that 2A charger and modify a cable, and see what happens then.
If anyone would like to see if the same thing happens to them, the main applications I have running are:
Google Navigation
TuneIn Radio (streaming from one of the DI.FM stations, and outputting audio to the headphone jack to my car)
I have 3g and GPS on, wifi off, brightness set to auto (have also tried with it set to the lowest it goes and the highest it goes, doesn't seem to make a substantial difference. Or even if it does, there is still a net loss in battery charge.)
It's on stock rogers rom, rooted, with no lag fix. And uhhh, that's all I can think of that would be relevant.

I've got an New Trent IMP1000, which is an 11.1Ah battery pack. It can output a max of 1A, but the phone doesn't see it as an AC charger, so it only draws .5A. If I short out the two pins so that it draws more power, how will the battery life of the battery pack be? Meaning how many phone charges will I get out of it? Will it be shorter, longer, or not have an impact?

Moosehunter said:
I've got an New Trent IMP1000, which is an 11.1Ah battery pack. It can output a max of 1A, but the phone doesn't see it as an AC charger, so it only draws .5A. If I short out the two pins so that it draws more power, how will the battery life of the battery pack be? Meaning how many phone charges will I get out of it? Will it be shorter, longer, or not have an impact?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should still get the same number of "phone charges" out from the pack...they'll just be quicker charges afaik. i.e. if the pack took 4 hours to do a full phone charge before, it may only take 2 hours now. The same amount of power is used up each time though.

any progress?

[Q] Portable Chargers

The stock charger provided with the Note 2 charges my phone extremely fast, after all we do know that it is rated at 2A. But naturally being a power hungry device I carry around a portable charger (5V 1A). It worked fine on my previous S2 but with the Note 2 the charge is insanely slow. Less than 10% per hour on standby. With that being said, if I use it while it's being charged, the battery % does not even budge.
Is this normal? Because if it is that slow, it defeats the purpose of carrying it around since it barely charges my phone. Are there alternatives? Do I need to resort to looking for a portable charger that also has a 2A output?
For the other Note 2 Users out there, do you experience similar issues?

Yes sir, normal.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

Friend. I STRONGLY suggest you to get a Samsung Battery Charger Cradle Kit.
It comes with:
One Battery Charging cradle + Phone Stand
One Extra Battery
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I bought it for around $35USD. It may get cheaper but it solves all my problems. It charges your second battery while you use your phone, whenever your phone's battery is low, you swap the charged battery with the low battery one. That way you never have to keep your phone charging! Hell, one extra 3100mAh battery is less than $20 bucks, imagine Hurricane Sandy and you have saved up some leisure money to get a few extra batteries instead. You can last for a week without power.
It's a very good investment. Trust me. You can even ebay the used batteries when you upgrade your phone. Cos they are official accessories. Not those ugly battery sleeves.
BTW if you do want fast chargers, I recommend the Apple USB charger for iPAD. It is rated 2.1A. Any 1.0A chargers result in slow charge. Oh one more benefit, the battery cradle charger charges FASTER because there is no power drain on phone while you charge (compared to charging the battery inside the phone itself)
Hope it helps!

I'm curious on how you use the phone. The original charger fits in a pocket, and you can detach the cable and put that in a other pocket if you like. You travel around for so long that you are able to drain the battery and do not have access to either a usb port or a wall-outlet?
Regarding the stand/charger mentioned... The flimsy battery cover alone is a reason for me not to change batteries, unless the battery is broken. My future Otterbox totally wipes out any battery changing thoughts Personally I do not drain the battery so fast that I do not have time to access a usb port or a wall-outlet before it shuts down... I've even beat my record this weekend. 34% at 3d 6h 58m, 3.5h screen time with Juice Defender controlling the screen brightness. Some Facebook, surfing with Firefox, 10 minutes phone calls, reading (g-)mails, installing some apps and such...
A tip on portable chargers: https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/primatepower/powermonkeyextreme/

swejuggalo said:
I'm curious on how you use the phone. The original charger fits in a pocket, and you can detach the cable and put that in a other pocket if you like. You travel around for so long that you are able to drain the battery and do not have access to either a usb port or a wall-outlet?
Regarding the stand/charger mentioned... The flimsy battery cover alone is a reason for me not to change batteries, unless the battery is broken. My future Otterbox totally wipes out any battery changing thoughts Personally I do not drain the battery so fast that I do not have time to access a usb port or a wall-outlet before it shuts down... I've even beat my record this weekend. 34% at 3d 6h 58m, 3.5h screen time with Juice Defender controlling the screen brightness. Some Facebook, surfing with Firefox, 10 minutes phone calls, reading (g-)mails, installing some apps and such...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks everyone for their comments. Yes indeed I do agree the stock charger isn't all that hard to carry around. But it's a good question that you asked about my usage. So to shed some light, my heaviest usage is during lectures. Some use notes, others fire up their laptops, another group their tablets. For me I whip out my Note 2, put it on a stand and I'm good to go. Wall outlets don't appear often, and even if I sit close to one, the cable length disallows me to use my note while charging. Other than that I would be on the move or in some classroom somewhere.
And yes I too am reluctant to remove my phone case and the flimsy back cover. But I will keep the spare battery option in view.
Right now what I'm doing is plug in my portable charger during lectures. It at least still can sustain the battery. My portal charger has a 5000 + mAh capacity. But the charging speed is so slow, it really doesn't matter. I also use it to listen to music while travelling, but that itself puts minimal strain on battery consumption.

Don't know if you have scanned through this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=33585646&postcount=31
You can actually take out your favorite portable charger and test the charger v.s. cable combination to find the best match.
I am now using the YOOBAO 8400mAh which is a famous brand in China. I do not dare to use unknown brand in China, but this brand is famous and the quality is great. You can easily search on Amazon.
When I use the original Samsung USB cable with that portal charger, I can get a stable of 1.4A current during charging. Which is by far the best current I tested on 1A output portable charger. Some statistics for your reference:
When using USB cable with computer: 0.46A
When using bad cable with 2A output charger: < 1A
When using Samsung original charger + USB cable: 1.8A
So, if you could get a value between 1A and 1.8A, it is good enough to charge the note 2 in a quite reasonable short period of time!
Cable is very important, if you use an iPad charger (2A output) with a bad cable, you may get less than 1A output to the phone...

ardatdat said:
Don't know if you have scanned through this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=33585646&postcount=31
You can actually take out your favorite portable charger and test the charger v.s. cable combination to find the best match.
I am now using the YOOBAO 8400mAh which is a famous brand in China. I do not dare to use unknown brand in China, but this brand is famous and the quality is great. You can easily search on Amazon.
When I use the original Samsung USB cable with that portal charger, I can get a stable of 1.4A current during charging. Which is by far the best current I tested on 1A output portable charger. Some statistics for your reference:
When using USB cable with computer: 0.46A
When using bad cable with 2A output charger: < 1A
When using Samsung original charger + USB cable: 1.8A
So, if you could get a value between 1A and 1.8A, it is good enough to charge the note 2 in a quite reasonable short period of time!
Cable is very important, if you use an iPad charger (2A output) with a bad cable, you may get less than 1A output to the phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have read your link. My phone is rooted, unfortunately due to known errors between Samsung and Windows Updates regarding the drivers to access the phone via USB, I at the moment cannot view my phone on my laptop. And unfortunately the app CurrentWidget does not work with Note 2.
My portable charger has a rated output of 1A. Provided along with it is a retractable charging cable that is much thinner than your conventional USB cable, presumably a dedicated charging cable. Now since it is the provided cable, I'm going to assume that the cable can release the full 1A? And here's another observation. Before this phone I had a Galaxy S2. It charges fine, and over time I can actually see the portable charger's power being drained. (It has 4 LED lights, 1 corresponding to 25%). Meaning from 4 lights, it becomes 3. So far, even after 2 hours of charging the note 2, the charger still registers at all 4 lights. Which is baffling, because this indicates that the charger, is charging my phone slower than it was compared to charging my previous S2. And indeed it does feel that way. A stock S2 charger is rated an output of 0.7A. So in the same amount of time, wouldn't my charger be drained faster from charging the Note 2? Is there some property of chargers that I'm not aware of? Like the phone only recognizes the stock charger to enable fast charge? It seems pretty apparent to me that somehow my phone is not tapping on to the full 1A output of the portable charger. I bought the charger at my local electronics store, also it worked well with my previous S2. So it's hard to imagine that the problem lies with a defective charger.
I'll add in some more information in case it helps:
- I have Juice Defender Plus and Advanced Task Killer. They do save my battery consumption.
- My brightness is always at 0% (I hate the glare, I do this on every screen I use. Laptop etc)
-I have the habit of restarting my phone after heavy use to ensure all background apps are closed properly (e.g. Lecture has ended and I'm hanging out with friends; or before I sleep)
- My phone is rooted, I use Gemini App Manager to disable the bloatware, so the respective background processes do not run anymore
- My ram usage is typically in the low 500s. After a restart It's in the 400s. I also have the habit of clearing my RAM via the task manager.
Edit:
I used ES File Explorer to view the files. And this is very weird. Using the charging cable, on both the laptop and portable charge, it showed an result of 100! I also tested it on my spare, micro-usb charger registered at 0.4A. The result is 400, which is correct.
So what happened here???

Guys the rear battery cover is not flimsy. It is thin But it has very high flexibility. It will not crack or deform unless you deliberately try to destroy it. It can be bent to 90 degrees without deformation.
I have put the cover on and off so many times that not even a single plastic clip has broken off. This is material science.
Get the charging cradle and battery pack. We are not iPhones with undetachable batteries. Utilize this advantage!
THE N7100 has a high power draw when you use it. It charges slowly especially when you are using it. Also, the USB cable grade and length IS VERY CRITICAL also. Try using a long micro USB cable n u will see How even more slowly it charges.
I have three batteries now n one charging cradle. I use my phone like I'm driving a Ferrari. Instant refuel When I'm out of batts.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

Ok an update. I experimented with the combinations. Using the default charger and cable, looking at the current_max, it gives me 1800. Current_now is 1698. But for that thin cable, it only gives me 100mAh.
Now here's the interesting thing. When I tried using the default cable with my portable charger, I also get the same numbers. 1800 and 1698. Also, by using other USB cables with the portable charger, I also get the same numbers.
My problem is solved. But for curiosity why is a charger, registered to have an output of 1000mAh, able to squeeze out as much as an 2000mAh wall charger? Or is it my phone that dictates how much power it wants to draw?

GreenBot said:
Guys the rear battery cover is not flimsy. It is thin But it has very high flexibility. It will not crack or deform unless you deliberately try to destroy it. It can be bent to 90 degrees without deformation.
I have put the cover on and off so many times that not even a single plastic clip has broken off. This is material science.
Get the charging cradle and battery pack. We are not iPhones with undetachable batteries. Utilize this advantage!
THE N7100 has a high power draw when you use it. It charges slowly especially when you are using it. Also, the USB cable grade and length IS VERY CRITICAL also. Try using a long micro USB cable n u will see How even more slowly it charges.
I have three batteries now n one charging cradle. I use my phone like I'm driving a Ferrari. Instant refuel When I'm out of batts.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm using the xtra battery kit with my s3, and now looking forward to purchase it for my note 2 also.
heavy user must buy this kit due to no time to wait/waste for it to be charged, enough said!
x3ternalx said:
Ok an update. I experimented with the combinations. Using the default charger and cable, looking at the current_max, it gives me 1800. Current_now is 1698. But for that thin cable, it only gives me 100mAh.
Now here's the interesting thing. When I tried using the default cable with my portable charger, I also get the same numbers. 1800 and 1698. Also, by using other USB cables with the portable charger, I also get the same numbers.
My problem is solved. But for curiosity why is a charger, registered to have an output of 1000mAh, able to squeeze out as much as an 2000mAh wall charger? Or is it my phone that dictates how much power it wants to draw?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
must be the thin/cheap cable not having the right amount of circuit

Now I have a new question. Just now I have been monitoring my phone's charging speed. Looking at the current_max, it was at 1100. This was when the phone was at 40+ %. After 50%, no matter what combinations I used, even with the default charger, the max_current freezes at 400. Is this some feature the Note 2 has? That it cuts the charging speed after 50%?

Just to ask, how long did your phone take to charge completely with the stock charger and cable? And how do you monitor current charging value?

jujuburi said:
Just to ask, how long did your phone take to charge completely with the stock charger and cable? And how do you monitor current charging value?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the method described by ardatdat here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=33585646&postcount=31
As I'm doing work I just open up the current_max file to have a look. Starts off at 1000+ but after a couple of minutes it'll go right down to 400.
Now I've never actually timed it so I'm not sure.

Does the number of pins affect charging? Upon close inspection the micro usb end has 4 pins instead of what I believe usually is 5. I need to reconnect a few times for the charging rate to be stabilized at 1300. So perhaps that accounts for the weird numbers I've been getting?

Mine has 4 pins too, that's the way it is I think.
Btw- What other chargers are there with same freq/spec as Note 2's Stock charger, i.e 2A/5V? iPad or anything?

I have current max 1100 and current now 1700 with original charger. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
Edit: with the galaxy s III's charger it's the same. Wtf
Sent from my Note II using Tapatalk

GreenBot said:
Friend. I STRONGLY suggest you to get a Samsung Battery Charger Cradle Kit.
It comes with:
One Battery Charging cradle + Phone Stand
One Extra Battery
I bought it for around $35USD. It may get cheaper but it solves all my problems. It charges your second battery while you use your phone, whenever your phone's battery is low, you swap the charged battery with the low battery one. That way you never have to keep your phone charging! Hell, one extra 3100mAh battery is less than $20 bucks, imagine Hurricane Sandy and you have saved up some leisure money to get a few extra batteries instead. You can last for a week without power.
It's a very good investment. Trust me. You can even ebay the used batteries when you upgrade your phone. Cos they are official accessories. Not those ugly battery sleeves.
BTW if you do want fast chargers, I recommend the Apple USB charger for iPAD. It is rated 2.1A. Any 1.0A chargers result in slow charge. Oh one more benefit, the battery cradle charger charges FASTER because there is no power drain on phone while you charge (compared to charging the battery inside the phone itself)
Hope it helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for this tip. bought a ipad car charger and it did charge faster than my old charger :good:

quertiy said:
I have current max 1100 and current now 1700 with original charger. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
Edit: with the galaxy s III's charger it's the same. Wtf
Sent from my Note II using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
It's supposed to be that way. Refer to the post by ardatdat (Link in previous post). He says to look at current_max and current_avg. Not current_now. The value of current_now doesn't change no matter what charger you use. current_max and current_avg will display the amount of current going through at that moment. You can try plugging the usb cable to your PC. current_max will drop to probably 400 while your current_now is 1700. For me it always shows 1698.

I have some powerbank, which my friend bought to me in Singapore. It is 12000 mah with 2 outputs : 1A amd 2.1A. When i use cable that i got with powerbank i get 400 in max on 1A and 700 on 2.1A.
When i use Samsung cable with 2.1A i got 1400 in max.. Is that ok?
Handwritten from my Note 2

Laynee1 said:
I have some powerbank, which my friend bought to me in Singapore. It is 12000 mah with 2 outputs : 1A amd 2.1A. When i use cable that i got with powerbank i get 400 in max on 1A and 700 on 2.1A.
When i use Samsung cable with 2.1A i got 1400 in max.. Is that ok?
Handwritten from my Note 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it's ok. I get 1400 from the stock charger. I believe when you compare the stock usb cable to that of your power bank, it is thicker?

Review of Anker Astro E5 15000 mAh external battery w/pics!!!

This is a review of Anker Astro E5 15000 mAh external battery: http://www.ianker.com/product/79AN15K-WA
Being familiar with footprint of their E4 battery, when Anker announced a new E5 model with higher capacity I was expecting to see bigger and heavier model with a typical 30% efficiency loss. I know I bring it up in a lot of the reviews, but labeled capacity of ANY external battery is not what your phone battery going to see. Its a total capacity of cells inside of external battery which gets converted to 5V usb interface output and then back to your cell phone battery while charging - the efficiency loss during the conversion reduces the actual capacity by approximately 30%, with some batteries close to 40% and others maybe slightly better to 25%. On top of that, a lot of no name ebay HK sellers have batteries with super exaggerated capacity where you will be lucky to get even half of what they advertise on the label. That is why I only trust a few brands, Anker being one of them.
Once I received E5 unit for review to my surprise, the footprint stayed almost unchanged and difference in weight was negligible in comparison to previous E4 gen. But you actually get 2000 mAh more in capacity to bring it up to 15000 mAh. The battery cells are changing and improving, and I'm glad to see that Anker is keeping up with a new technology. E5 external battery is not exactly feather light, but at about 11.1 oz and 5"x3"x0.9" is manageable and actually the same as Note 2 with Zerolemon battery. The exterior is solid plastic, no flex, and comes in either white or black. For this review I chose a white unit and found it to be great to cover up any fingerprints. The top has a large power button with dual functionality to also turn on built-in led light. At full charged battery capacity, the light could last up to 700 hours if you only use it for that purpose. Next to power button you have 4-led capacity/charging indicator in 25% increments. Charging input to the battery is a standard micro-usb and has 1.5A charging speed for a fast charging of this battery. Output is a dual full usb port, rated at 2A and 1A both of which can be used simultaneously to deliver 3A of combined current. Each port current output is regulated where I confirmed charging Note 2 from one gave me max 2A and from the other one only up to 1A.
This extended battery comes with usb cable and interchangeable tips for micro-usb, mini-usb, and apple 30-pin connector. Also, it comes with a convenient storage pouch for a battery, cable, and attachment. It also comes with a detailed manual and 18-month warranty card. But there is also a big surprise. I have been reading other independent test reviews of this module and it turned out to have an actual capacity close to 11,800 mAh. We are talking about 21.5% efficiency loss which is very good considering typical batteries of such capacity have it at 30% or higher. This mean you can charge your Note 2 with a standard battery almost 4 times, or easily charge Zerolemon and have some juice still left - all this at a max 2A speed. Overall, I'm very impressed with this battery and its performance!
Here are the pictures.
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Awesome! Thanks for this! What are you using to measure the charge that is going in to the Note 2? I have an external battery rated at 12,000mah, that has both 1A and 2A ports, and would like to see what it's actually putting out, as well as check some wall adaptors that I have. Thanks for the review! Anker is also one of the few brands that I trust as well!
SwiftKey'ed from my White Sprint Note 2 using XDA Premium

stanglifemike said:
Awesome! Thanks for this! What are you using to measure the charge that is going in to the Note 2? I have an external battery rated at 12,000mah, that has both 1A and 2A ports, and would like to see what it's actually putting out, as well as check some wall adaptors that I have. Thanks for the review! Anker is also one of the few brands that I trust as well!
SwiftKey'ed from my White Sprint Note 2 using XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it says it in the last screenshot dude, really? LOL
Galaxy Charging Current

Galaxy Charging Current *Lite* (free version): https://play.google.com/store/apps/...hbnRpcy5nYWxheHljaGFyZ2luZ2N1cnJlbnQuZnJlZSJd
I actually found it to be relatively accurate by comparing charging time versus charging percentage. Ignore "Now" value. Just look for Max/Avg as your charging currents. This app comes very handy for those without root, like myself, to measure your charging current.

vectron said:
Galaxy Charging Current *Lite* (free version): https://play.google.com/store/apps/...hbnRpcy5nYWxheHljaGFyZ2luZ2N1cnJlbnQuZnJlZSJd
I actually found it to be relatively accurate by comparing charging time versus charging percentage. Ignore "Now" value. Just look for Max/Avg as your charging currents. This app comes very handy for those without root, like myself, to measure your charging current.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!! Just tested it out. Like you said, the Now value isn't what the charging rate actually is. Took me reading some reviews on the Play Store to figure that out. The Now value is what the device recommends, while the Average value is what rate you're actually charging at.
I'm not sure how accurate it is though. While using my HTC wall chargers that came with my both my black Evo LTE and white one, the values are Maximum 900, Now 1798, and Average 900. I'm getting the same numbers while using the Samsung wall charger that came with my Note 2. I assume that 900 is correct for the HTC chargers, as they're only 1Amp chargers so I'm getting .9Amp from them. The Samsung charger is 2Amp though, so it should be twice as high as the HTC chargers.
EDIT : Just tested my 12,000mah PowerBank. I got 500 out of the 1Amp port, and 1700 out of the 2Amp port! Very happy with those numbers!! Especially it considering that it appears to be charging at a higher rate than my OEM Samsung wall charger!!!
SwiftKey'ed from my White Sprint Note 2 using XDA Premium

:good:Solid review bro! Something that powerful could almost charge the ZL battery twice, haha.

stanglifemike said:
...
I'm not sure how accurate it is though. While using my HTC wall chargers that came with my both my black Evo LTE and white one, the values are Maximum 900, Now 1798, and Average 900. I'm getting the same numbers while using the Samsung wall charger that came with my Note 2. I assume that 900 is correct for the HTC chargers, as they're only 1Amp chargers so I'm getting .9Amp from them. The Samsung charger is 2Amp though, so it should be twice as high as the HTC chargers.
EDIT : Just tested my 12,000mah PowerBank. I got 500 out of the 1Amp port, and 1700 out of the 2Amp port! Very happy with those numbers!! Especially it considering that it appears to be charging at a higher rate than my OEM Samsung wall charger!!!
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mike, which 12kmAh charger are you using? I know Anker stuff is universal for Apple/Android, while some other ones will drop your charging current to max 0.5A when connected to "apple" port. Another question, which usb cable are you using? Unless if its original Sammy cable that came with OEM charger or a cable like from monoprice with 24AWG/28AWG rating (thicker power wires to handle up to 3A of current), the cable itself its a bottleneck if its designed for a lower charging current. So for example, if you are using HTC charger/cable and then used their cable to connect to Samsung wall charger - you could be current limiting your phone (thinner wires, more resistance). And even if you are using OEM Samsung wall charger and cable - I noticed that in our house some outlets can't supply enough current depending on what other stuff is connected to the same shared power branch.

vectron said:
Mike, which 12kmAh charger are you using? I know Anker stuff is universal for Apple/Android, while some other ones will drop your charging current to max 0.5A when connected to "apple" port. Another question, which usb cable are you using? Unless if its original Sammy cable that came with OEM charger or a cable like from monoprice with 24AWG/28AWG rating (thicker power wires to handle up to 3A of current), the cable itself its a bottleneck if its designed for a lower charging current. So for example, if you are using HTC charger/cable and then used their cable to connect to Samsung wall charger - you could be current limiting your phone (thinner wires, more resistance). And even if you are using OEM Samsung wall charger and cable - I noticed that in our house some outlets can't supply enough current depending on what other stuff is connected to the same shared power branch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think PowerBank is the brand, and Long March is the model. There is a long thread in the Evo LTE Accessories subforum (my other phone), and that's how I heard about it. I normally wouldn't buy an off brand accessory, but with many XDA members giving great feedback, and some have had it close to a year, I decided to try it out. Very happy that I did!! I looks a lot like your Anker actually. It has 2 USB ports for charging other devices, a 1 Amp and a 2 Amp, and also has a little LED flashlight as well. It works great and this app you mentioned showed me that the 2 Amp port is charging at 1.7 Amp(while using my HTC micro USB cable, so it may charge at an even higher rate using the Samsung cable), so I'm happy with that.
For the Samsung wall charger, I'm using the Samsung wall charger and Samsung micro USB cable. I do have it plugged in to a power strip though, so I'll have to try it plugged directly in to a wall outlet with nothing else plugged in. Thanks for the info!
EDIT : Update - after trying the Samsung charger in a wall outlet instead of the power strip, I'm still getting 900(.9 Amp). Maybe my charger is just not putting out the Amperage it should anymore, and I should just buy another Samsung wall charger if I want to get the correct Amperage. I rarely use my wall charger though, as I just use my external battery charger to charge my extra Samsung battery. When I do plug in the phone, it's usually in to my PowerBank while I'm sitting outside playing on my phone and drinking/smoking (never smoke in my house!).
SwiftKey'ed from my White Sprint Note 2 using XDA Premium

stanglifemike said:
I think PowerBank is the brand, and Long March is the model. There is a long thread in the Evo LTE Accessories subforum (my other phone), and that's how I heard about it. I normally wouldn't buy an off brand accessory, but with many XDA members giving great feedback, and some have had it close to a year, I decided to try it out. Very happy that I did!! I looks a lot like your Anker actually. It has 2 USB ports for charging other devices, a 1 Amp and a 2 Amp, and also has a little LED flashlight as well. It works great and this app you mentioned showed me that the 2 Amp port is charging at 1.7 Amp(while using my HTC micro USB cable, so it may charge at an even higher rate using the Samsung cable), so I'm happy with that.
For the Samsung wall charger, I'm using the Samsung wall charger and Samsung micro USB cable. I do have it plugged in to a power strip though, so I'll have to try it plugged directly in to a wall outlet with nothing else plugged in. Thanks for the info!
EDIT : Update - after trying the Samsung charger in a wall outlet instead of the power strip, I'm still getting 900(.9 Amp). Maybe my charger is just not putting out the Amperage it should anymore, and I should just buy another Samsung wall charger if I want to get the correct Amperage. I rarely use my wall charger though, as I just use my external battery charger to charge my extra Samsung battery. When I do plug in the phone, it's usually in to my PowerBank while I'm sitting outside playing on my phone and drinking/smoking (never smoke in my house!).
SwiftKey'ed from my White Sprint Note 2 using XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you refer to is Yoobao brand power bank model "Long March". Unfortunately, there is only one official reseller of Yoobao brand in US and its KeviKev (I reviewed Yoobao Thunder 13000 mAh from them before - http://kevikev.com/Samsung-Galaxy-NOTE-II-2-N7100-Cases-and-Accessories_c47.htm). Long March is 11,200 mAh model. Did you get it from Amazon or eBay? It's a Chinese knock off of Yoobao, but it doesn't matter since it works for you. They all use the same battery cells anyway, and original Yoobao stuff might be a bit more robust and have more durable plastic shell. But listen, if the one you have works - its all good and don't worry about it!!!
Strange about Samsung wall charger. Sounds like something is gone south. Btw, don't even bother buying anything labeled as "original OEM Samsung wall charger" from Amazon or eBay - it's all fake knock offs as well. For the fun I just look on Amazon reviews, and everybody complaining about Samsung OEM wall charger not even being able to supply 1A. That's a problem with Amazon, anybody can create a merchant account and list their product under original manufacturer listing. And the rest is history because you will never be able to find original Samsung part since everything else will be a fake copy But I assume you are using your original wall charger and cable which came from Samsung when you bought N2?

flynnchen said:
Yoobao brand is quite good. I had one before. Is anker battery stable now ? I just found out this post on xda
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1361749
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That explosion has nothing to do with Anker batteries. That was highly/almost 100% due to the black cheap/low amp charger. I had a random cheap black USB charger similar to that for charging low amp Emerson bluetooth headphones, which was 400 mAH output, and we charged my brother's IPAD 2 with it, and it started to smoke. Same issue happened when charging his S3 with that cheap charger. I think it was their mistake for providing such a terrible charger, which is why it seemed the white one was probably better. The lesson is: don't charge anything that has a higher capacity/requirement with something far below it's capacity - otherwise, you're just asking for a dangerous situation to occur. That's just my two cents and observation from what I have seen, read, and personally experienced

how to charge
Excellent and informative review! 2 questions (I am a novice...). How do I charge the charger...can I use either my iphone 5 plug (output 5V/1A) or ipad2 plug? And, when charging my devices, is it the 1A socket for iphone 5, and 2A socket for ipad 2? Thank you!
---------- Post added at 10:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 AM ----------
Excellent and informative review! 2 questions (I am a novice...). How do I charge the charger...can I use either my iphone 5 plug (output 5V/1A) or ipad2 plug? And, when charging my devices, is it the 1A socket for iphone 5, and 2A socket for ipad 2? Thank you!

maestrojohn said:
Excellent and informative review! 2 questions (I am a novice...). How do I charge the charger...can I use either my iphone 5 plug (output 5V/1A) or ipad2 plug? And, when charging my devices, is it the 1A socket for iphone 5, and 2A socket for ipad 2? Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To charge the charger you can use any wall charger with micro-usb output. Since this is Android forum and Note 2 section, I assume you have one of those. Otherwise as you aware the charging cable for iPhone 5 is not micro-usb. But to charge your device, you can do that with any phone or tablet since charging/data cables have usb on one side (that will go into a charger) and whatever connector you are using on your device on the other side of the cable. In theory you can use either outputs.

Hello! Great review, I purchased it for 50 bucks on amazon 5 minutes ago because of the review. I am a noob, sorry in advance, I made this account to ask these two questions: 1: I just wanna use it for my iPhone 5, do i plug it in on the 1A or 2A? If both is ok, which one is better for the battery in the phone? 2: I will need an adapter, which one is better? Micro Usb to Lightning or 30pin to Lightning? I dont like the size of the 30 pin to lighting, so is it ok to purchase a micro usb to lighting instead? Does this affect anything like charging time?
Thanks for answering, have a nice day

flotschi13 said:
Hello! Great review, I purchased it for 50 bucks on amazon 5 minutes ago because of the review. I am a noob, sorry in advance, I made this account to ask these two questions: 1: I just wanna use it for my iPhone 5, do i plug it in on the 1A or 2A? If both is ok, which one is better for the battery in the phone? 2: I will need an adapter, which one is better? Micro Usb to Lightning or 30pin to Lightning? I dont like the size of the 30 pin to lighting, so is it ok to purchase a micro usb to lighting instead? Does this affect anything like charging time?
Thanks for answering, have a nice day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use either 1A or 2A outputs. Your phone has a fixed charging speed and will not draw more current that it's limited to. So for example if iPhone can charger at a speed of 1A per hour and you connect it to an output that can supply 2A per hour - it will only draw at 1A per hour speed. BUT, if you have Note 2 which takes advantage of 2A per hour charging and you plug it into 1A port, it will be charging at half the speed.
Regarding cable, try to minimize number of connecting adapters. For example, you get a cable with 30pin connector and you can add 30pin to Lighting adapter to it, but with every connection you add resistance which going to affect total amount of current and can slow down the charging, etc. You want to have point-to-point cable. So I would recommend using USB to Lighting connector cable. Not micro-usb, but usb because charing ports on this external power supply are full size usb. Only the port to charge this battery is micro-usb because of a common connection with other charging cables.

reply removed...

I wonder if you could try something for me.
Could you find out if the Anker will supply a phone/device while it is itself being charged? Also, whether it will keep supplying the phone/device without interruption when its own charging supply is connected and disconnected?
I want to use it like a mini-UPS for my phone while charging it from my bicycle dynamo, but for this, it needs to cope with a charging supply which stops and starts, while continuing to supply any connected devices.

I think I tried it before, and it didn't work. These external battery devices are not intended to work in pass-through mode. I think there are some other ones (I'm 100% sure if that was NewTrent), but the vendor will not guarantee the device under warranty because of an additional overheating and cut of the efficiency. This will really complicate the controller of such ext battery where it has to keep balance between charging and discharging of the same battery at the same time. I'm pretty sure Anker stuff will not allow that because they have smart current monitoring functionality built-in in order not to overcharge or over-drain the device.
But it would be an interesting experiment where you connect ext battery to the outlet and to the phone. I wonder if it starts charging battery first until it's full, and then switch to charging the phone

vectron said:
I think I tried it before, and it didn't work. These external battery devices are not intended to work in pass-through mode. I think there are some other ones (I'm 100% sure if that was NewTrent), but the vendor will not guarantee the device under warranty because of an additional overheating and cut of the efficiency. This will really complicate the controller of such ext battery where it has to keep balance between charging and discharging of the same battery at the same time. I'm pretty sure Anker stuff will not allow that because they have smart current monitoring functionality built-in in order not to overcharge or over-drain the device.
But it would be an interesting experiment where you connect ext battery to the outlet and to the phone. I wonder if it starts charging battery first until it's full, and then switch to charging the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did just that yesterday, and it worked fine. Now, the anker would not actually increase its charge due to simpe physics: it charges with 1.5A from the wall, and my nexus 10 used 1.2A of those, and adding some inefficiencies on that it would likely mean that it would just hold a charge level in the anker battery, not increase it. But as soon as the tablet ramps its current draw down the anker would suck up any left over juice. This becomes even worse of course if you charge a phone at the same time.
One little note: The battery in this is not the most awesome (also the capacity measurement is a simple voltage-based instead of counting coulumbs). While charging with ~1A from the 1A port, when I added my nexus 10 to the 2A port the charge indicator actually went from 50% to 25%. When removing the tablet the LEDs indicated 50% charge again. This is due to voltage sag which is itself due to internal resistance of the batteries. Meaning: The faster you charge the more heat will be wasted in the batteries. So to really prolong the battery life you should actually charge slowly, at least as far as the Anker is concerned.

Thanks for the review, I will probably be getting one now.

Monoprice Premium USB Cable Charging Speeds

Hi,
I'm looking at purchasing some monoprice premimum mico usb charging cables but before I spring AUD$26 for shipping plus cables, I'd like to know what sort of charge people that people are getting in mA .
I know the N5 charger maxes out at 1.2A and the N5 is limited to 1.65A itself, however I'd like to know if anyone is getting between these two figures by using a monoprice cable.
I'm getting the following using CurrentWidget
Stock N5 charger and cable - 1,012mA
HP Touchpad charger (5.3V/2A) and cable - 1,015mA
Apple 10W charger (5.1V/2.1A) and 28AWG/2C cable - 930mA
It would be great if people could post what charger they are using with the monoprice premium cable together with the mA they are getting with their N5.
Also, if your using another type of cable that allows for charging between 1.2A and 1.65A that would be great too.
Thanks

I ordered some of the 6ft premium usb cables ,will let you know when i get them. My original usb cable that came with the phone has a bad connection wobbles. Using Battery Monitor Widget the highest i got was
980mA - OEM Nexus charger and cable. Charging from 60%, will test more when battery depletes.

ACHILLES R32 said:
I ordered some of the 6ft premium usb cables ,will let you know when i get them. My original usb cable that came with the phone has a bad connection wobbles. Using Battery Monitor Widget the highest i got was
980mA - OEM Nexus charger and cable. Charging from 60%, will test more when battery depletes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the offer to test the monoprice cables and report back.
In the interim I've ordered some Motorola Ecomoto cables which from a video review on xda showed a charge of around 1,480mA on a N5 using current widget. I'll also report back once I get these.

Was looking to try either Ecomoto or the Monoprice premium cables. Looking forward to hearing both your opinions on them.

I have the 6ft Premium cables and did a quick comparison using Battery Monitor Widget suggested above. Both screenshots are using the OEM wall wart and at ~80% battery.
OEM Cable
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MonoPrice Cable
Not much of a difference, but a more thorough comparison might show a bigger difference. I'll leave that to the others in the thread.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Thanks Native89.
I heard the best time to do a test is when the battery is between 20% and 70%.
Try that and see if you get better results

I have the 6ft Premium Cable from Monoprice and I see up to 1050 mA using the stock charger.

raptir said:
I have the 6ft Premium Cable from Monoprice and I see up to 1050 mA using the stock charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
raptir, that doesnt seem to be good news.
Are there any markings on the cable to tell whether it has 28AWG/2C or 24AWG/2C power conductors?
From what I've read it appears that you need 24AWG/2C power conductors to be able to handle charging above the 1,000mA mark.
I'm still waiting on delivery of the Motorola Ecomoto cables, but for those who are interested I purchased them from this US based seller on ebay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/360885775315?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
I also purchased this cable from another ebay seller http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111292267460?var=410287001944&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649. The cable states it supports a 2.1A fast charge and the cross section in the ebay listing shows 24AWG/2C power conductors, so it looks promising.
Its going to be a few weeks until I get these cables and provide a review, so please subscribe to this thread to get updates when I do.

raptir said:
I have the 6ft Premium Cable from Monoprice and I see up to 1050 mA using the stock charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get around 850mA~1,050mA depending on the % i plug the phone into charging.
And i got this one http://amazon.com/gp/product/B003L18S0E/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Rambler76 said:
raptir, that doesnt seem to be good news.
Are there any markings on the cable to tell whether it has 28AWG/2C or 24AWG/2C power conductors?
From what I've read it appears that you need 24AWG/2C power conductors to be able to handle charging above the 1,000mA mark.
I'm still waiting on delivery of the Motorola Ecomoto cables, but for those who are interested I purchased them from this US based seller on ebay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/360885775315?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
I also purchased this cable from another ebay seller http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111292267460?var=410287001944&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649. The cable states it supports a 2.1A fast charge and the cross section in the ebay listing shows 24AWG/2C power conductors, so it looks promising.
Its going to be a few weeks until I get these cables and provide a review, so please subscribe to this thread to get updates when I do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's "not good news" then it's bad news about the charger, not the cable. You said you get slightly less from your stock cable with the stock charger. A 1.2A charger is never going to actually give you 1.2A charging speed. They're just not 100% efficient.
Edit: Fast charging is also not the best thing for your battery, and that's why they don't just ship every phone with a 2A charger and let you have at it. A higher charging rate leads to increased battery degradation.

Mmmm... Not sure about that... Battery damage?
NEXUS 5

raptir said:
If it's "not good news" then it's bad news about the charger, not the cable. You said you get slightly less from your stock cable with the stock charger. A 1.2A charger is never going to actually give you 1.2A charging speed. They're just not 100% efficient.
Edit: Fast charging is also not the best thing for your battery, and that's why they don't just ship every phone with a 2A charger and let you have at it. A higher charging rate leads to increased battery degradation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have another charger perhaps a 2A one to test the cable with so that we can confirm that it definitely isn't the cable.
I know that the stock charger is limited to 1.2A so even if the charger is 80% efficient you'd be getting just below a 1A charge which probably explains why everyone using a stock charger is getting this.
I don't quite agree with the battery degradation due to fast charges. I've always been of the opinion that it has to do with chargers that have a higher voltage spec, eg higher than 5V rather than the amps they're pushing out.
For instance the 1A Apple charger has been measured to provide a current of 1.79A and the 2A charger provides 3.4A
I really haven't come across any that are way over 5V in my time. Seeing that Apple's 2A charger uses 5.1V and the HP Touchpad charger which is one of the best chargers out there uses 5.3V, I don't think that any of these would be causing accelerated degradation or damage to the battery.

I've had the monoprice cables for over 5 months and they charge fast and great, one problem is that the tips start separating from and you can start seeing the inside. It'll still charged fast and without problems, I have 2 in my car and 4 in my house only 2 don't have this problem. Overall these cables charge fast partnered up with my HP touchpad and nexus 7 chargers.

Noriega813 said:
I've had the monoprice cables for over 5 months and they charge fast and great, one problem is that the tips start separating from and you can start seeing the inside. It'll still charged fast and without problems, I have 2 in my car and 4 in my house only 2 don't have this problem. Overall these cables charge fast partnered up with my HP touchpad and nexus 7 chargers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Noriega813.
Any chance of a test with the cable and the HP touchpad charger using CurrentWidget?
I dont know which N7 charger you have but I do note that the 2013 edition is rated at 1.35A so you be limited to about 1A with it. The 2012 edition should be OK as that outputs 2A.

Rambler76 said:
Thanks Noriega813.
Any chance of a test with the cable and the HP touchpad charger using CurrentWidget?
I dont know which N7 charger you have but I do note that the 2013 edition is rated at 1.35A so you be limited to about 1A with it. The 2012 edition should be OK as that outputs 2A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, soon as I get home I'll test it out. I have two of them and post results of both to show how they're doing.

Noriega813 said:
Sure, soon as I get home I'll test it out. I have two of them and post results of both to show how they're doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers. Thanks for the help.

I have the monoprice 3 and 6 foot premium cables. I've also got an inline USB current meter so I can test current directly.
According to an email from monoprice they are 28 gauge. I also got some 24 gauge monoprice USB extension cables (3 foot) that i planned to use with some adapters.
For testing I used a 2A Samsung power adapter (belonging to the Note 10.1 tablet) and either my Nexus 5 or my Samsung Note 10.1 tablet. The Note 10.1 when around 50% charge pulls slightly under 1.7A from it's own charger using the OEM cable. I have an adapter to allow me to charge the Note 10.1 using any micro USB cable so it's a better test for the cable as it pulls more current than the Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 with a good cable pulls under 1.3A from the 2A charger.
Interestingly, I had no problem getting full current (up to 1.7A) from any of the Monoprice premium USB cables. I've read good reviews of these cables but was a little skeptical since they are 28 gauge but they do seem to work well for fast charging. I don't have a device that pulls more than 1.7A so I can't test its limits.
In contrast, when I add the 24 gauge extension (3 foot with a 3 foot cable so the total length is the same as a single 6 foot premium cable) I can't get any higher than 1A. I don't understand why it's so limited. I've used a number of additional adapter on the end such as a right angle adapter or the micro usb to Samsung connector without any noticeable loss in current. So either there is something wrong with monoprice's 24 gauge cables or they are using some seriously bad connectors.
I haven't had the premium cables for very long but have been using them happily in the car (3 foot) and at home (6 foot) for when I need to charge while using the phone (otherwise I use a Qi wireless charger). The connectors at the phone end could be a little slimmer - they do fit all the cases I've tried but it's a bit tight for some of them. The fact that the cables aren't too thick is nice for storage and flexibility. Only time will tell how durable they are.
I also have some older monoprice standard 26 gauge USB cables which also seem to be limited to 1A. (Correction: these are 28AWG not 26/28)
I've got some Startech right-angled USB cables which are convenient for my car due to the right angle but can't support currents above 500 mA. These are 30 gauge cables.
In summary:
1. The cable's gauge doesn't tell the whole story.
2. Monoprice premium USB cables do seem to be a good buy.

Rambler76 said:
I don't quite agree with the battery degradation due to fast charges. I've always been of the opinion that it has to do with chargers that have a higher voltage spec, eg higher than 5V rather than the amps they're pushing out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Charging voltage determines that final charge capacity. And yes, overcharging the battery does cause additional degradation. So does keeping the battery in too warm an environment. And charging speed. And discharging speed. And percent charge during storage. It's not just a single factor.
---------- Post added at 12:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:39 PM ----------
tmagritte said:
According to an email from monoprice they are 28 gauge. I also got some 24 gauge monoprice USB extension cables (3 foot) that i planned to use with some adapters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess it that they didn't give you the whole story on the cable gauge. The data lines are always 28 gauge, only the power lines are 24 vs 28.
That said, a 28 AWG wire can carry 2A without too much of an issue. Your only problem is going to be an increased voltage drop which may lead to incomplete charging of your battery.

I finally received the USB cables from monoprice, shipping was slow took over a week. Here are the results I got with Battery Monitor Widget.
Stock USB Cable 90% charge.
922mA
927mA
953mA
919mA
930mA
Monoprice 6" Premium USB Cable 90% charge.
873mA
710mA
805mA
714mA
863mA
This was just a quick comparison, will do another comparison when the battery discharges more. I'm not sure how accurate the battery monitor apps are. For most accurate results we probably need one of theses USB Volt Meters.

ACHILLES R32 said:
I finally received the USB cables from monoprice, shipping was slow took over a week. Here are the results I got with Battery Monitor Widget.
Stock USB Cable 90% charge.
922mA
927mA
953mA
919mA
930mA
Monoprice 6" Premium USB Cable 90% charge.
873mA
710mA
805mA
714mA
863mA
This was just a quick comparison, will do another comparison when the battery discharges more. I'm not sure how accurate the battery monitor apps are. For most accurate results we probably need one of theses USB Volt Meters.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am curious if the differences have to do with length of cable. 6 feet is a long way to travel.

Charger observations: Nexus 5 vs. Galaxy S4

I have been on the hunt for good charging solutions for my Nexus 5 (and other devices). During this process I have made some observations that many of you probably already know but I wanted to post them here for others and hopefully gather more information as well.
It started off with me looking for dual port chargers that could fast charge my devices. Much to my dismay, I found that all the dual chargers I found had one Apple port and one non-Apple port which meant decreased charging rates for devices that weren't meant for its port. With that I decided to do a little non-scientific study. This was not meant for getting exact performance numbers, just to get an idea of what kind of performance I could get with different phone/cable/charger combinations.
Phones used:
Nexus 5 running 4.4.4
Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-I337) running 4.4.2
Method of measuring charge amperage:
Current Widget. Set to update every (1) second and I put 2 instances of each type of widget on the screen (total of 4 widgets): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manor.currentwidget
Although I did the measurements with the phones connected to WiFi and not in airplane mode, the differences with the phones in airplane mode were insignificant for the purposes of this observation. The bigger factor was the difference between screen on and screen off (the rates you see immediately after turning the screen back on). I only used screen on rates. The readings I used below were when the phones batteries were below 90%.
Chargers that I have tried so far:
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From left to right, starting at the top left: Nexus 7 (2012) stock charger, Galaxy S4 stock charger, Nexus 5 stock charger, PowerGen dual port charger, GT Max 2 port car charger, LectronicSmart by Conair 2 port car charger.
Charger ratings:
Nexus 7: 2A
Galaxy S4: 2A
Nexus 5: 1.2A
PowerGen: 2.4 total divided between an Apple port and a Non-Apple port (NA)
GTMax: 2.1A and 1A
LectronicSmart: 2.1A each
Cords I used: Motorola SKN6378A, stock Nexus 5 cable, stock Galaxy S4 cable. All these cables had the same performance.
Nexus 5 results:
N5, N7 and PowerGen (NA port) all peaked in the 900mA range but the readings were constantly fluctuating between the peak and the 600mA range except for the PowerGen NA port had lows in the 300's. The PowerGen Apple port could barely peak in the 300's with lows in the single digits. The Samsung S4 charger had peaks in the 1500mA range and lows in the 1400 range.
Both car chargers were miserable, with peaks in the 300's and lows in the single digits.
Samsung Galaxy S4 results:
The Samsung values didn't fluctuate like the Nexus did. In spite of it being set to update every second, it just showed a constant charge value. I'm not smart enough to divine what might be the cause but I am assuming it may be due to the widget compatibility or how the S4 reports charging amperage, I cant imagine that it doesn't fluctuate.
On all chargers it showed 1200mA charging rate, even on the Apple port of the PowerGen charger. It is interesting that the N5 pulls a better charging rate off of the Samsung charger than its own phone does.
I also decided to try out some 3rd party cables to see how they might perform. On the S4 power adapter with a generic eBay/Amazon cable the N5 pulled around 400mA and the S4 pulled 600mA. With a generic cable from Fry's the N5 pulled into the 900's while the S4 pulled 1200mA.
I have a couple more chargers on order and will update this along with links if anyone is interested.
I am still on the hunt for a good dual port charger (both car and wall) that can fast charge a Nexus 5 and another Android device (Nexus 7, Galaxy S4, etc) so if anyone has any good leads, it would be appreciated.
Here is a screenshot of the N5 with the 4 widgets to illustrate the wide fluctuations:

Ok, It turns out that not all cables that report "Charging (AC)" are created equal, more on that below.
I got more chargers in the mail:
From left to right: Anker dual port car charger with PowerIQ, CHOETECH, Pwr+ single charger, Pwr+ dual charger.
The Anker dual port car charger with PowerIQ is great. I can get 1A+ on either port on the Nexus 5.
Both the Pwr+ chargers gave 1A+ charging. They have fixed cables. The power supply for the dual charger is a bit big but its still better than carrying two single chargers.
The CHOETECH also worked great, giving 1A+ charging with the included cable. Here is where the interesting part with the different USB cables come in. The included cable showed Charging (AC), as expected. However, when I plugged the stock Samsung or the Motorola SKN6378A from A4C they only reported USB which is odd because they report Charging (AC) on other chargers. They could also only pull around 400mA from the CHOETECH. The CHOETECH's included cable showed Charging (AC) and pulled 1A+ on the other chargers. It was even able to pull 1A+ on both ports of the PowerGen charger when the other "good" cables could only pull good amps off of the NA side.
So it seems that it can be important to be able to pair the right USB cable with the right charger.
Here are the Amazon links to the chargers listed above:
Anker car charger: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D82O68Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
CHOETECH: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IG05402/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Pwr+ single charger: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009STIJWA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Pwr+ dual charger: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKSMXLC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Reserved again.. cuz the first one was so much fun!

phoenyx said:
N5, N7 and PowerGen (NA port) all peaked in the 900mA range but the readings were constantly fluctuating between the peak and the 600mA range except for the PowerGen NA port had lows in the 300's. The PowerGen Apple port could barely peak in the 300's with lows in the single digits. The Samsung S4 charger had peaks in the 1500mA range and lows in the 1400 range.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very odd. I have a 2012 N7 charger and I am able to get an average of 1.6A with my Nexus 5. I do my measurements differently (I take the charge time between two known percentages and use that to calculate the average current) but it shouldn't cause that significant a difference. The issue with the current meter widgets is that they're measuring the total current flowing into the battery. That means that anything that is using power on the device (screen, CPU, etc...) causes a fluctuation in the current reading. The charger itself is providing a fairly flat current, your phone's usage is changing rapidly over time.
The reason you see low charging rates on the car chargers/apple chargers with the Nexus 5 is probably due to the charging method being used. Apple chargers put a voltage across the data pins to tell the phone the charging rate of the adapter. Android chargers short the two data pins to tell the device that it's a charger and not a USB port. When you plug the Nexus 5 into a charger designed for an Apple device, the Nexus 5 thinks it is a computer and won't pull more than 500mA off of the charger. If you check the battery menu during that time you will likely see that it says "Charging (USB)" instead of "Charging (AC)." Some of the cables I have cause this issue as well. Monoprice's Premium USB cables are super cheap, guaranteed for life and charge every phone I have tested properly assuming the charger itself isn't an issue.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=9762&seq=1&format=2
As far as a charger recommendation, I love Anker products. Their "PowerIQ" chargers will charge any device at its maximum rate.
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-P...MK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1405347957&sr=8-14
Two Nexus 5s will charge at 1.6A each on this charger. The only issue is that they don't have a good wall charger with PowerIQ. The only option is this "desktop" charger.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Sized-...ETFG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405348099&sr=8-1
I followed up with them and they said that more PowerIQ chargers were coming over the summer, but I haven't seen anything yet.
You can also use a "charge only" cable to get the maximum from any charger.
http://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Micr...TYUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405348221&sr=8-1
That should allow you to get a better charge out of the "Apple" port on the "A/NA" charger you have.

raptir said:
That's very odd. I have a 2012 N7 charger and I am able to get an average of 1.6A with my Nexus 5. I do my measurements differently (I take the charge time between two known percentages and use that to calculate the average current) but it shouldn't cause that significant a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. Admittedly, it wasn't a very scientific approach and I could have been more accurate but my goal was to just show that two Android phones using the same chargers and cables were getting different vastly different results. Especially that the Galaxy S4 could get 1200mA on the Apple port while the Nexus 5 couldn't even get half that.. and they are using the same charger, same cable and both widgets are showing AC charging (FWIW I tested all the cables on each charger, each showed AC and all had the same results across setups).
raptir said:
The issue with the current meter widgets is that they're measuring the total current flowing into the battery. That means that anything that is using power on the device (screen, CPU, etc...) causes a fluctuation in the current reading. The charger itself is providing a fairly flat current, your phone's usage is changing rapidly over time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am aware of that and I guess I should have explained it better. I had two points about this. The first was that the Galaxy S4 didn't fluctuate while the N5 did, but I suspect that has to do with the way the app is interacting with the phone.
The second was that on the Nexus 5 with 4 instances of the widget from the same app, all set to update 1 second apart were showing 4 very different amperage readings when they were supposed to be getting the sample at the same time. I just found it curious is all.
raptir said:
The reason you see low charging rates on the car chargers/apple chargers with the Nexus 5 is probably due to the charging method being used. Apple chargers put a voltage across the data pins to tell the phone the charging rate of the adapter. Android chargers short the two data pins to tell the device that it's a charger and not a USB port. When you plug the Nexus 5 into a charger designed for an Apple device, the Nexus 5 thinks it is a computer and won't pull more than 500mA off of the charger. If you check the battery menu during that time you will likely see that it says "Charging (USB)" instead of "Charging (AC)." Some of the cables I have cause this issue as well. Monoprice's Premium USB cables are super cheap, guaranteed for life and charge every phone I have tested properly assuming the charger itself isn't an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That it what I understood as well. Which is why I am mystified why one Android phone (S4) can pull 1200mA off an Apple port but a different Android phone (N5) can't, using the exact same cable and showing AC Charging on the widget. I would be interested to hear if you have any ideas on why that would be.
raptir said:
As far as a charger recommendation, I love Anker products. Their "PowerIQ" chargers will charge any device at its maximum rate.
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-P...MK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1405347957&sr=8-14
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ordered that when I was having issues with the Nexus 5 on my current car charger, it should be here any day now. It was one of the ones I mentioned in the original post that is on order. Their description of PowerIQ made me hopeful, but then I read a product description of one of their other products with PowerIQ on their website and it talked about Apple and non-Apple ports so now I'm just hoping that it will work the way I originally thought/hoped it would.
It was the car charger that alerted me to the possibility of a difference in charging performance between the Galaxy S4 and N5. I noticed that when I drove around with navigation on the Galaxy S4 could charge up decently while the Nexus 5 wouldn't charge much if at all using the same cable and charger.
raptir said:
Two Nexus 5s will charge at 1.6A each on this charger. The only issue is that they don't have a good wall charger with PowerIQ. The only option is this "desktop" charger.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Sized-...ETFG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405348099&sr=8-1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I almost ordered that last week until I ready that other product description. I decided to wait to see how the car charger above works.
raptir said:
I followed up with them and they said that more PowerIQ chargers were coming over the summer, but I haven't seen anything yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is great news! If this PowerIQ works like I hope it works, I'll be happy. Thanks for that info!
raptir said:
You can also use a "charge only" cable to get the maximum from any charger.
http://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Micr...TYUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405348221&sr=8-1
That should allow you to get a better charge out of the "Apple" port on the "A/NA" charger you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is also one of the cables I mentioned in the OP that are on order. Unfortunately since my other cables here are showing AC Charging, I am assuming they have the data pins shorted and so I'm not expecting anything from this. This still doesn't really answer the question of why the Samsung can pull a better charge out of an Apple port than the Nexus 5. Any ideas? Same cables and all.
Thanks again.

phoenyx said:
Thanks for the reply. Admittedly, it wasn't a very scientific approach and I could have been more accurate but my goal was to just show that two Android phones using the same chargers and cables were getting different vastly different results. Especially that the Galaxy S4 could get 1200mA on the Apple port while the Nexus 5 couldn't even get half that.. and they are using the same charger, same cable and both widgets are showing AC charging (FWIW I tested all the cables on each charger, each showed AC and all had the same results across setups).
That it what I understood as well. Which is why I am mystified why one Android phone (S4) can pull 1200mA off an Apple port but a different Android phone (N5) can't, using the exact same cable and showing AC Charging on the widget. I would be interested to hear if you have any ideas on why that would be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, what I posted mainly applies to the Nexus phones. I think Samsung has put some more intelligent circuitry in the Galaxy S4/S5 that allow it to charge on Apple ports as well. It's not a hard and fast rule, it's just the "standard." The S4 is hard-capped at 1200mA though, so the Nexus 5 will charge faster on an appropriate charger.
phoenyx said:
Yes, I am aware of that and I guess I should have explained it better. I had two points about this. The first was that the Galaxy S4 didn't fluctuate while the N5 did, but I suspect that has to do with the way the app is interacting with the phone.
The second was that on the Nexus 5 with 4 instances of the widget from the same app, all set to update 1 second apart were showing 4 very different amperage readings when they were supposed to be getting the sample at the same time. I just found it curious is all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. My guess would be that even though they're supposed to poll at the same time, they're really pulling the data in quick succession. As in they end up in the service's queue and receive the data at slightly different timepoints as a result.
phoenyx said:
I ordered that when I was having issues with the Nexus 5 on my current car charger, it should be here any day now. It was one of the ones I mentioned in the original post that is on order. Their description of PowerIQ made me hopeful, but then I read a product description of one of their other products with PowerIQ on their website and it talked about Apple and non-Apple ports so now I'm just hoping that it will work the way I originally thought/hoped it would.
It was the car charger that alerted me to the possibility of a difference in charging performance between the Galaxy S4 and N5. I noticed that when I drove around with navigation on the Galaxy S4 could charge up decently while the Nexus 5 wouldn't charge much if at all using the same cable and charger.
I almost ordered that last week until I ready that other product description. I decided to wait to see how the car charger above works.
That is great news! If this PowerIQ works like I hope it works, I'll be happy. Thanks for that info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I don't have a Galaxy device but I do know that the PowerIQ chargers work great for the Nexus 5. I get the full 1.6A current that the Nexus 5 can accept. It charges it from dead in under an hour and a half. It's great for recharging on my way home from work.
I did see on their website that they have a two-port wall charger on their PowerIQ page, but when you click through to Amazon it shows as the old A/NA charger.
http://www.ianker.com/poweriq/poweriq.html
Hopefully they actually update it soon.
phoenyx said:
That is also one of the cables I mentioned in the OP that are on order. Unfortunately since my other cables here are showing AC Charging, I am assuming they have the data pins shorted and so I'm not expecting anything from this. This still doesn't really answer the question of why the Samsung can pull a better charge out of an Apple port than the Nexus 5. Any ideas? Same cables and all.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as Samsung vs Nexus, see above. I've personally never experienced a slow charge out of a charger that showed "Charging (AC)." Very odd. If you're getting the Anker chargers, I would pair them with the Monoprice Premium cables.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=9762&seq=1&format=2
I can attest that the Anker charger or my Nexus 7 2012 charger plus a Monoprice cable will charge all the devices I've tried at full speed (Nexus 7 2012, Nexus 5, Nexus 4, Kindle Fire HDX, and my friend's Razr M). Their "non-premium" cables work well also, but I find that they wear out. They do replace them for free though.

raptir said:
Well, what I posted mainly applies to the Nexus phones. I think Samsung has put some more intelligent circuitry in the Galaxy S4/S5 that allow it to charge on Apple ports as well. It's not a hard and fast rule, it's just the "standard." The S4 is hard-capped at 1200mA though, so the Nexus 5 will charge faster on an appropriate charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. I was assuming it was the standard that all Android phones used to determine charge rates... lol. Silly me. What you say makes sense and is what I was afraid of. I was hoping I was "doing it wrong" or there was some other trick to getting more charge out of the PowerGen wall chargers that I have. I will give it another shot with the cables I have on order when they come in. I will see how it goes and maybe I'll order that Monoprice to try out as well.
raptir said:
Interesting. My guess would be that even though they're supposed to poll at the same time, they're really pulling the data in quick succession. As in they end up in the service's queue and receive the data at slightly different timepoints as a result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind of what I was thinking too but then again, the widgets are only reporting information the main app is seeing. You would think that when the app takes a sample at a given time, it is that info that is transmitted to all the app instances so the info should be the same. Apparently not. It's not a big deal, I just notice and am curious about strange things sometimes.
raptir said:
Well, I don't have a Galaxy device but I do know that the PowerIQ chargers work great for the Nexus 5. I get the full 1.6A current that the Nexus 5 can accept. It charges it from dead in under an hour and a half. It's great for recharging on my way home from work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is great news! I'm looking forward to getting mine in the mail soon. I'll post what I find with that charger along with the other ones I have coming.
raptir said:
I did see on their website that they have a two-port wall charger on their PowerIQ page, but when you click through to Amazon it shows as the old A/NA charger.
http://www.ianker.com/poweriq/poweriq.html
Hopefully they actually update it soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too. I'll be keeping an eye out for that. Which PowerIQ chargers do you have? Just the car charger or do you have this 2 port wall charger too?
raptir said:
As far as Samsung vs Nexus, see above. I've personally never experienced a slow charge out of a charger that showed "Charging (AC)." Very odd. If you're getting the Anker chargers, I would pair them with the Monoprice Premium cables.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the Nexus 5 only really got a slow charge with Charging (AC) showing out of the Apple port on the PowerGen and car chargers. When the same cable is plugged into the non-Apple, it works fine. Kind of disappointed that I cant get the same performance on the Apple port like the Galaxy does. I bought a bunch of these when I was using the Galaxy. Makes me apprehensive about buying more chargers that may not work that well.
I'll play around a bit more with the new cables and see what I can find. Thanks again for the info and the recommendations.

phoenyx said:
Me too. I'll be keeping an eye out for that. Which PowerIQ chargers do you have? Just the car charger or do you have this 2 port wall charger too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the two-port car charger and an external battery (second-gen Astro2). I really want a 2-port wall charger (to use with my Kindle Fire and Nexus 5 at home) but I haven't been able to find one.

raptir said:
I have the two-port car charger and an external battery (second-gen Astro2). I really want a 2-port wall charger (to use with my Kindle Fire and Nexus 5 at home) but I haven't been able to find one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out this cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKSMXLC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I just got it in the mail and it works good with the N5. Rated at 4A.
I put the new chargers in the 2nd post above and also noted that cables that report Charging (AC) on some adapters will only report USB (and lower charging rates) on other adapters.

phoenyx said:
Check out this cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKSMXLC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I just got it in the mail and it works good with the N5. Rated at 4A.
I put the new chargers in the 2nd post above and also noted that cables that report Charging (AC) on some adapters will only report USB (and lower charging rates) on other adapters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only issue is a really want something with detachable cables. So I can change length/connect my wireless charger to it.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=52142798

fyi samsung galaxy phones aren't really compatible with current widgets.
use an external meter for accurate measurements

Akoolive said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=52142798
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I've seen that post.. It's a good one but like another poster here I'm after chargers with USB cables that are detachable and dual chargers. I created this mainly to cite some observations that all chargers may not perform equally on different phones.
Nevertheless, thank you for your reply and for posting the link.
sucsss said:
fyi samsung galaxy phones aren't really compatible with current widgets.
use an external meter for accurate measurements
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I kinda figured it must be a compatibility issue. However, an external would only show how much the charger could put out, which is not the same as how much the phone will take.. Unless you measure it inline. Other than that you'd have to take a sample over time and do the math.
I got the Anker dual car charger and it has been great. So I orders ordered a couple more. the PowerIQ seems to be the key for their chargers.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

phoenyx said:
Thanks. I kinda figured it must be a compatibility issue. However, an external would only show how much the charger could put out, which is not the same as how much the phone will take.. Unless you measure it inline. Other than that you'd have to take a sample over time and do the math.
I got the Anker dual car charger and it has been great. So I orders ordered a couple more. the PowerIQ seems to be the key for their chargers.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to sound condescending but that's exactly how it would work. A good charger can only output up to the max designed. It's completely dependent on what the phone wants.
To measure amps the meter is in serial circuit and to measure voltage it's in parallel. The prebuilt usb meters are only a few bucks on ebay. I use a multimeter to check that the usb meter is correct.
And most phones will attempt to do their max charge rate when below 80-90% battery. (if temperatures allow). So you don't need a fancy graph. Just plug in the phone with low battery and not overheating and it'll try to charge at the max rate it can.

sucsss said:
I don't want to sound condescending but that's exactly how it would work. A good charger can only output up to the max designed. It's completely dependent on what the phone wants.
To measure amps the meter is in serial circuit and to measure voltage it's in parallel. The prebuilt usb meters are only a few bucks on ebay. I use a multimeter to check that the usb meter is correct.
And most phones will attempt to do their max charge rate when below 80-90% battery. (if temperatures allow). So you don't need a fancy graph. Just plug in the phone with low battery and not overheating and it'll try to charge at the max rate it can.
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LOL.. You sound more confused about what I've said than condescending. I've never implied a charger will charge more than its rated for. If I did, please show me where I said that so i can correct it because that was not my intention.
I know it was probably a little bit of a confusing post since i kind of mashed several thoughts together (and this one is probably no better... I've been up way too long and sorely jet lagged.. LOL) but if you read the thread I stated that I observed different USB/phone combos will charge at varying rates... Even between "good" USB cables on the same charger.. even when they are showing AC charging. It was my impression that two "good" USB cables that report AC charging would perform similarly on the same charger or one would have similar performance across similar chargers. That is apparently not the case.
Also as I originally posted it's just observations... Not trying to geek out on it and be pedantic over it. However the USB meter you mentioned sounds interesting, maybe I'll pick one up. Thanks for the suggestion.
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the Anker chargers so I think I'll stick with them.
Thanks for your input..
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