Real-life measurements show ways to speed smartphone charging times

In response to “Is there any way to charge a phone faster?,” reader Peter Rothschild sent in the following interesting and very surprising post, based on his real-life measurements of smartphone charging times. Fascinating info about differences in USB charging cables! (Thanks, Peter!):

“I have done a bit of experimenting with this on my last two Samsung phones. I use a USB current meter like this one: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01E6YSGPG. But most Android phones have a way to read the charging rate in the settings, and if not, a cheap or free app like GSAM battery monitor or AccuBattery will tell you the charging rate and time-to-full.

“First, make sure that you have a good, STRONG charger. Some put out as little as 200 milliAmps (mA), others as much as 2 Amps or more. You can generally believe the markings on the charger (more or less).

“But mainly, make sure you have a good cable. Amazingly, I have found that there is a huge variation in charging rate of different micro USB cables. A good cable can charge at least twice as fast as a cheap one. (USB-C cables are a whole other story, and most of them charge pretty fast; it’s in their spec.)

“One way to make sure you are getting the fastest charge is to use a charge-only cable. It uses all four conductors for charging by “stealing” the data conductors for charging purposes. Most phones will recognize this and take the extra power. PortaPow makes some very good ones, and you can tell if it is charge-only by the red ends. See https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07D9QTDJ8. They also make ones for charge and data, but with extra thick gage conductors and green ends, and these work almost as fast.

“Most phones can charge much faster (that is, take in more power) than the USB spec if the charger has the Amps and the cable can deliver it. A good cable and charger will easily deliver two to four times as much power as a poor one, with a proportional reduction in charging time.

“But beware, while a phone will never charge faster than is safe, it will charge fast enough to make the battery pretty warm, which will reduce the battery’s lifetime. Don’t charge faster than you need to.

“PS: Always use a charge-only cable when plugging into public chargers like in airports. While rare, it has been shown that it is possible to infect a phone through the data/charging port. I hope this helps someone.”

It’s helped me, Peter — lots of good cable info, some of which was totally new to me. Thanks!

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