Question about chargers and extended batteries - Desire Accessories

I have 2 questions. Are there any home chargers that can charge the phone faster than the regular USB cable? With my Hero I could come home and throw it on charge while I was taking a shower and by the time I was ready to go out it'd be fully charged, but the Desire takes a looooong time to charge.
Second question, are there any good batteries with extended life that are exactly the same size as the regular batteries (meaning they don't require you to get a back piece for the case that sticks out and looks silly)?

Related

Car Chargers and Charging Question...

I was curious about car chargers and I heard back in the day that if you use a car charger its actually bad for the battery because the power from the car isn't a constant "flow" is that true? Second question is it bad if you leave your Fuze/Touch Pro plugged charging for over 8 hours a day because im at work Mon-Fri and I just leave it plugged in so I was just curious if it will lessen the life of the battery..? Sorry if its dumb questions just curious
I personally use car charger as my main charger.
i used it also for the Herald and TyTnII... and i didn't feel any battery problem.
however you should pay attention for the charger brand/make.
i advise to have the original HTC one.
sguerra923 said:
... that if you use a car charger its actually bad for the battery because the power from the car isn't a constant "flow" is that true?
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during the start of the engine, the voltage level may drop and the charger may stop charging, but during the time you drive, there's no problem.
The generator produces about 100 A, so the 500 mA or 1 A current of your changer do not matter
So what if you charge you phone for long periods of time even though battery is fully charged? Any neg effects?
sguerra923 said:
So what if you charge you phone for long periods of time even though battery is fully charged? Any neg effects?
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It's not good for any battery to do that, but usually you go into trickle mode, which protects the battery (I don't know if the charger or the phone controls that). Over-charging batteries is one of the things that kills them. You can tell on your phone when it's in trickle mode, because the LED around the scroll wheel stops blinking (well, I think that's the notification for trickle mode-could be wrong).
Farmer Ted said:
It's not good for any battery to do that, but usually you go into trickle mode, which protects the battery (I don't know if the charger or the phone controls that).
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The phone. Otherwise you couldn't charge via USB
I think the "don't charge in your car or you'll damage your battery or phone" is mostly an urban legend. Yes if you buy a crappy USB cig adapter that doesn't provide stable 5v then good luck. That said, even cheap adapters should be able to provide a good 5v source. 5v regulators have been around for ages. I bought them by the dozen 20 years ago when I was a teenager starting to play around with electronics. Even back then, they were less than a buck each if bought in bulk. So stable 5v supplies are not hard to come by. Voltage dips during startup isn't much of a problem either since regulators (even modern switching ones) only requires 10-20% headroom to operate which means as long as you are seeing 6-7v at the cig adapter, you're good. Your car wouldn't even start if it dipped that low. More likely an issue is the voltage spike that might occur right after the engine starts and the alternator kicks in. Most decent regulators will handle those as well. Chances are, you'll blow your adapter before anything damaging goes to your phone.
Recharging batteries requires a "fixed" current source. Modern rechargeable batteries (Li-Ion, Ni-Mh, etc) have charging profiles for optimal charges. That just means they need different currents at different stages of their charge cycle. It became clear pretty quickly that it was better to build the charging circuit into each device which did the best job for the battery it was designed for. That's been the case since the early mid 90s I think. What this means is that pretty much all devices built to be rechargeable (whether the battery is replaceable or not) only requires a simple consistent voltage source. This is why we have the "Universal" chargers today and why they are so cheap. I would still not pay $20 for one though. I'll spend 10 to get the generic brand which is just as good without the brandname on the package. The funny thing is, most of these power supplies come from just a handful of overseas manufacturers so you might be getting exactly the same thing. The only one's I'd avoid are those really cheap ones like the like the ones you might see on ebay. Most of them are actually good but some less reputable sellers might have gotten reject stock form somewhere and is selling them. These units are rejected because they didn't meet voltage/current specs and the person that was supposed to throw them out sells a huge box of them to someone for $50 or some such.
sguerra923 said:
Second question is it bad if you leave your Fuze/Touch Pro plugged charging for over 8 hours a day because im at work Mon-Fri and I just leave it plugged in.
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Li-On batteries dont really have a problem with charging them from any state to full, no memory really. However if you have a full charge and leave it plugged in you can burn them out in which case they do not retain that charge for very long. It will over periods of time shorten the life of the battery. It usually wont happen on the first go (depending on how long after full you leave it charging.)
Safest way to keep your battery happy is not to let it drain to complete empty and to take it off the charger when its done.
Interesting info guys.. so it looks like on the safe side that im not going to leave it plugged in for long hours..
sguerra923 said:
Interesting info guys.. so it looks like on the safe side that im not going to leave it plugged in for long hours..
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most modern battery chemistry has a life of around 1000 recharge cycles. It doesn't matter if they are full charges or half charges so even though there isn't a classic memory affect, it does nibble away at the recharge cycles. To put it another way, a given battery loses 1/1000 of it's capacity every time it's charged to full charge. Not really memory but just steady degration. All charging circuits today either stops charging or does trickle charge once full. BTW, trickle is a term that applies mainly to pb and NiCad betteries.. today's batteries actually use a form pulse charging for maintenance. Now this protects the battery from overcharging but if you leave it plugged in, the charging circuit will basically go into this mode of letting the battery drain a bit and then charging it. This will eat away at a batteries life. A real world example... my wife and I had near identical laptops ant one point. She left hers plugged in most of the time whereas I drained my battery each time before recharging. When her battery started lasting only 10mins on a "full" charge, mine was still at about 1.5hrs. It took her battery only a year to fail where mine didn't go dead (i.e. below 1hr per charge) until over 18months.
My advice is don't leave it plugged in but once it's about 20-30% of full it's ok to recharge. Hell, if you think about, 1000 recharges will last almost 3 years of daily charging. So what if it only lasted 2. Any of us would likely be on to the next phone or be willing to buy a second battery.
When I exchanged my Fuze for a new one at AT&T, the service person said my battery was bad, due to overcharging.(Battery had a slight bulge). She said leaving my Fuze plugged into my car charger and my computer(with charging turned on) degraded the battery. Phone was about 7 months old.
There is an option to NOT charge the battery when connected by USB to the computer.(kind of indicates no automatic charging control)
Well, I use my Fuze as a computer 12-14 hours a day. I want to see the screen, which means I need it plugged in either to the computer or car charger.
If I turn off recharging when connected to my computer, I end up with a dead battery pretty quickly, since I use it a lot as my business phone with a Bluetooth speakerphone.
The AT&T person said this information was given to them by HTC.
bigger capacity battery or get another device(netbook) that can sustain the 'abuse'?
bigger capacity battery won't solve it
Without it being plugged in, the screen turns off. Even a large battery wouldn't last with the screen on all the time, if even you could figure out how to make it stay on.
I had to plug in the earphone dongle and plug the car charger in to that, to get the screen to stay on in my car. Plugging the car charger directly into the phone, the screen would turn off no matter what I tried.
I guess I need to replace the battery every 8-12 months.
Yikes, there's so much misinformation about batteries in this thread, it's frightening.
so point us to better info
All I know was that my battery was bulging a bit after 7 months of use, and it was holding a charge less and less.
And I reported what AT&T told me..
hrothnir said:
All I know was that my battery was bulging a bit after 7 months of use, and it was holding a charge less and less.
And I reported what AT&T told me..
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I'm not saying your battery isn't broken, and I'm not saying your charger (part of the phone nowdays) didn't go haywire and break it. I AM saying, however, that leaving the phone plugged in didn't do it (unless, of course, your charging hardware was faulty, in which case you're screwed anyway).
Lithium-Ion batteries don't get overcharged, because they tend to explode. That's generally considered a no-no for batteries, especially in consumer devices, so the charging hardware is designed to stop charging when the battery is full. An occasional "topping charge" is applied (by some chargers) because of the self-discharge of the cells. I kinda doubt that our phones do that, though, because it's only something like 1h of topping charge once every 20 days.
Let me repeat this again for absolute clarity: lithium-ion chargers STOP CHARGING when the battery is full. Leave it plugged in as long as you want, and (assuming the charging hardware isn't broken) it'll be fine.
So you're saying what AT&T told me was bullsh**t
Not that I believe what AT&T says or the given reasons, which didn't make sense from a technical standpoint.
But then you wonder why there is an option in the Fuze to NOT CHARGE the phone when connected to a computer using USB.
And I did see the bulge, and AT&T did replace the battery under warranty.
But then you wonder why there is an option in the Fuze to NOT CHARGE the phone when connected to a computer using USB.
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Perhaps that option is available so when your laptop is not plugged into AC power, you can connect your phone without worrying about draining the laptop battery.
laptop
Seriously doubt that option was designed for laptops.
The phone would take very little from a laptop battery.
And would probably be labeled for laptop use.
I think that the phone drops a few % in power, then recharges, and does that constantly while plugged into a computer, causing the battery to waste the 800-1000 recharge cycles that it has.
Be nice if you could set the phone to not recharge when connected to a computer unless the power dropped 25% --or make it configurable.
Manually turning the charging off/on is impracticable.
Maybe a program can/has been written to cycle the charging off/on properly.

[Q] portable charger or extended battery?

i am going on a travel abroad... will be using camera and camcorder a lot and wifi.... what do you recommend? a portable charger or extended battery? i want a cheap solution..preferably available from ebay
budget : not more than $30-34
extended battery
Battery will do better
I've just come back from holiday and had a portable charger. It was useful, but I often found that the battery would hardly last the day and there wouldnt be any place to charge it (you don't really want to be back in your hotel when you could be out sight seeing). Rather than trying to find a socket, I'd just get an extended battery. You can just swap it over and continue your fun rather than rooting around for power.
if i buy an extended battery i need to also buy a seperate battery charger so that i can charge the 2 batteries at the same time
it depnds how you'll spend your time.
but you can swap the battaries on the phone to charge them.
Normally charging the battary will last 1 hour.
again it depnds about the places you'll visit.
How many mAh are you planning on using per day? An extended battery will give you 3000mAh compared to the 1400mAh on the original battery. A decent portable charger will give you 5000mAh.
The only down side of using the portable charger is waiting for the battery to charge, most will do that at 500mAh so 3 hours to totally charge the normal desire battery from flat. However while the extended life battery has died the charger will still have about 1.5 charges left in it.
1 thing to point out unless you get a solar charger some portable charges will only charge from USB so make sure you have a way to charge that when out and about
I would get the potable charger (and remember to put it on charge when you have a spare min throughout the day) as when you replace your phone you cant really do much with the extended battery with your new phone, least the portable charger can be used over and over again.
i finally opted for a spare battery solution. I bought an oem battery for desire/nexus one. and i will buy a battery charger so that i can charge both batteries when i go to sleep so that they are both ready the next day
Get a portable charger instead. Taking the battery in and out can wear off the back lid easily.
Get a big battery, it's better than changing between batteries. As well you have to carry the portable charger when you travel. And you have to charge it, too.
So the extended battery should last one day (except you use GPS all time) and you can charge phone when you sleep.
I use a proporta turbocharger and I found it more usefull 'cause I can spare it with my friends with Desire HD, iPhone 4 and LG Optimus 7: with 2 of this we managed to stay all charged all day long and recharged both of them in hotel during the night.
For a trip is a Extended 3000mAh Li-Ion Battery a good solution. It comes with battery cover. Price about 25 $
For the daily use, its too big for me.
yeahman45 said:
i am going on a travel abroad... will be using camera and camcorder a lot and wifi.... what do you recommend? a portable charger or extended battery? i want a cheap solution..preferably available from ebay
budget : not more than $30-34
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Extended battery for sure.
can aosp/sense kernel recognize bigger extended battery? afaik, there is a problem when charging bigger extended battery.
in my personal opinion, the standard battery (htc original) is much better than other and my desire remain slim. and if i travel, i prefer to use big portable charger to charge the handset when is not used. and charge them both when i sleep.
Most batteries with lots of ampere just have them as a tag... Check this site for information:
http://batteryboss.org/
I suggest you buy another original battery as from time any battery will lose capacity and this way you are flexible.
To charge you can buy a cable designed for charging the smartphone from your car e.g. HTC CC-C200 or the car dock from my signature.
Why you should use this: The data line is used for power and not for data and therefor the charger is recognized as a wall charger, not as usb cable. Thus recharge is lots faster (with 1000 mAh) than with any 3rd party charger/cable with 500 mAh although the charger itself could give you 1000 mAh (USB specifications!).
I'd go with an portable charger because you don't acutally need to restart your phone when plugin it in.
drabbster said:
I'd go with an portable charger because you don't acutally need to restart your phone when plugin it in.
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If one is in a sunny place would it not be better to use Solar Charger?
solar charging is super slow
bliblablub said:
Most batteries with lots of ampere just have them as a tag... Check this site for information:
http://batteryboss.org/
I suggest you buy another original battery as from time any battery will lose capacity and this way you are flexible.
To charge you can buy a cable designed for charging the smartphone from your car e.g. HTC CC-C200 or the car dock from my signature.
Why you should use this: The data line is used for power and not for data and therefor the charger is recognized as a wall charger, not as usb cable. Thus recharge is lots faster (with 1000 mAh) than with any 3rd party charger/cable with 500 mAh although the charger itself could give you 1000 mAh (USB specifications!).
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Thank you very much for the info.
I use a car charger (not HTC) which gives 1000 mAh and even with the original cable that came with desire, charging is slow. If I get this right, it is fault of the cable, right?
xristosdino said:
Thank you very much for the info.
I use a car charger (not HTC) which gives 1000 mAh and even with the original cable that came with desire, charging is slow. If I get this right, it is fault of the cable, right?
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I suppose, best is you try it yourself - maybe a mate got one. As you may know USB allows only 500 mAh, using that secial cables that don't comply with USB (as they only charge) the producer can avoid this restriction.

Universal battery chargers - battery outside the phone while charging

Hi
I've ordered a new mugen 1950mAh battery and now I'm going to buy a new battery charger (not for the phone, only for battery). Here are some links such types of chargers:
Omg, I don't have 10 posts so I'm not able to post outside links. So please just write in 'images.google': "universal battery charger" and see the results. I take interest to the one which is a little bit similar to a computer mouse
Do you think it will work properly? Does anyone have got such a charger? Or maybe can you suggest sth other? I just want to use the phone with one battery, while the second one would be charged. Binding the phone to socket with cables during a day is very annoying.
No one? Can't believe..
not sure what you're referring to but http://www.amazon.com/Laza-Battery-Charger-Sensation-Shooter/dp/B0057HJU1Q is a good deal for 2 1700mah batteries and a standalone battery-specific charger. no pins to align every time. just slam the battery in and it goes.
or there's dozens of universal ones with sliding pins like http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Multi-Purpose-Universal-Battery-Charger/dp/B0058XGN7I
I'm sure you could find one of these for less than $5 shipped on ebay if not amazon.
But I've already ordered new mugen 1950mAh so I don't need to buy anything new. Mugen and stock batteries are enough
Unfortunately I can't find such a battery charger on ebay. But it's a cool thing because I would better buy something branded than some noname rubbish. Any ideas?
i'm using this: http://ioomobile.com/shopbybrand/990-momax-smart-battery-charger-for-htc-sensation-z710e.html
can use usb. but it only supply 500mA so it took longer to charge.
I've been using these for ages
These chargers are the best way to charge your battery, for me at least. I've been using them for years. Of course you need at least two batteries, but I usually have at least 3
These chargers are chinese creations. Some can be really slow, others a bit faster, but usually they give out around 200-400mAh which is kinda slow, but will charge your battery overnight.
The good thing about these chargers is when your phone dies or is about to die you just pop in the already charged battery and you are ready to go, no charger, no cables. And from my experience the battery lasts longer than if charged in the phone, sounds strange but it's true.
A downside is while charging they have this LED flashing, which indicate charging, and when they stop, battery charged. But these can be really bright and if you charge overnight in your room, you have this flashing colour changing lights.
I totally recommend these chargers. On chinese sites they go around 3-4$. Don't go for the cheapest, probably will be crappy.
Thanks for info guys. A week ago I bought YIBOYUAN 100-240V EU Universal Battery Charger USB Output F HTC Sensation/G14. Will see how it works
Hello
Battery charger i found is the Best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kovhQ9PoFzI

Full power charging dock?

I want a charging dock for my S4 that will feed the phone the full amount of power that it can take, for quickest charging. I believe the stock charger that came with it supplies 2 amps.
I also would like said charger to have a slot for charging a spare battery at the same time.
All the charging docks I've found so far only claim to supply 1 amp to the phone, or less. Except one dock I found that did say it outputs 1.6 amps.
Does anybody know of a charging dock that will supply the full 2 amps? How about one that also has a slot for charging a spare battery?
Thanks.
stuartv said:
I want a charging dock for my S4 that will feed the phone the full amount of power that it can take, for quickest charging. I believe the stock charger that came with it supplies 2 amps.
I also would like said charger to have a slot for charging a spare battery at the same time.
All the charging docks I've found so far only claim to supply 1 amp to the phone, or less. Except one dock I found that did say it outputs 1.6 amps.
Does anybody know of a charging dock that will supply the full 2 amps? How about one that also has a slot for charging a spare battery?
Thanks.
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Would you like it to serve you eggs and ham as well?
Damn.. you are really asking for so much and not nearly searching for it yourself enough if that makes sense.
There are charging docks that have a battery charger slot as well. They have a microusb port for power input. You can use a 2A charger with it and I believe it should be charging the phone at 2A but only when you're not charging the spare battery. I do not have the link as I saw it while randomly browsing through S4 docks on eBay. It's easy enough to find.
No, thanks. If it could cook my eggs and ham, it would be too bulky. LOL!
I looked through roughly 150 listing on eBay. I saw a whole bunch that said 1A output. And a few that were 700 mA, and at least one that was 500 mA. And exactly one model, available from a few different vendors, that said 1.6A output.
I did not see any that said 2A output. Just because the wall wart can supply as much as 2 amps, doesn't mean the charger will actually output that much to the phone.
stuartv said:
No, thanks. If it could cook my eggs and ham, it would be too bulky. LOL!
I looked through roughly 150 listing on eBay. I saw a whole bunch that said 1A output. And a few that were 700 mA, and at least one that was 500 mA. And exactly one model, available from a few different vendors, that said 1.6A output.
I did not see any that said 2A output. Just because the wall wart can supply as much as 2 amps, doesn't mean the charger will actually output that much to the phone.
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My advice, is you should risk it.
If you're looking a product with such precise specs, I'm afraid you're not going to find it.
I messaged several different ebay sellers last night to ask if their charger is really only 1A and if they'll be having a 2A model. So far, I've gotten responses from 3 or 4. All of them have said sorry, we only have 1A. Please note, it will charge more slowly.
Update info. This may be old news to many, but here it is.
I had an online chat with a Supervisor at Seidio this morning. Their website has 2 charging docks for the S4 and neither lists charging output.
They told me that the dock will output whatever the wall adapter supplies. The charging dock is a passthrough. So, if I use the stock OEM charger with the Seidio dock, my phone will (allegedly) still receive 2A of charging current.
This may have been intuitively obvious to some, but it wasn't to me.
So, my quest is now much easier. Apparently, the docks I looked at on eBay that say 1A charging output must say so because the supplied wall adapter only provides 1A. And ones that say that but don't include the AC adapter are just making an assumption about that AC adapter you'll use.
BUT, though the phone charging port may be a passthrough, the slot for charging a second battery (on docks that offer that) would have the charging logic/circuitry built into the dock, so that could still be limited to 1A or less. At least, that's what I think. Could be wrong.
Regardless, i ordered a cheap dual charging dock off eBay that should be here by Friday. Using Galaxy Charging Current (a free app in the Play store), my phone shows 1900 mA charging current when plugged into the OEM charger directly. After I get the dock I ordered, I'll test that and report back.
If the dock will charge the phone at full speed, I can live with the spare battery being charged more slowly.
stuartv said:
I want a charging dock for my S4 that will feed the phone the full amount of power that it can take, for quickest charging. I believe the stock charger that came with it supplies 2 amps.
I also would like said charger to have a slot for charging a spare battery at the same time.
All the charging docks I've found so far only claim to supply 1 amp to the phone, or less. Except one dock I found that did say it outputs 1.6 amps.
Does anybody know of a charging dock that will supply the full 2 amps? How about one that also has a slot for charging a spare battery?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's NOT a dock but a charger and it does come with an OEM spare battery. It charges a battery from 0 to 100% in about 4 hours, which is faster than your phone would deplete a battery, even when gaming. Paid $47, no shipping from Amazon
I see the price have changed a bit meanwhile but it's worth it if they still don't charge any shipping. Ships directly from Korea (made in Korea - both, charger and battery)
stuartv said:
Update info. This may be old news to many, but here it is.
I had an online chat with a Supervisor at Seidio this morning. Their website has 2 charging docks for the S4 and neither lists charging output.
They told me that the dock will output whatever the wall adapter supplies. The charging dock is a passthrough. So, if I use the stock OEM charger with the Seidio dock, my phone will (allegedly) still receive 2A of charging current.
This may have been intuitively obvious to some, but it wasn't to me.
So, my quest is now much easier. Apparently, the docks I looked at on eBay that say 1A charging output must say so because the supplied wall adapter only provides 1A. And ones that say that but don't include the AC adapter are just making an assumption about that AC adapter you'll use.
BUT, though the phone charging port may be a passthrough, the slot for charging a second battery (on docks that offer that) would have the charging logic/circuitry built into the dock, so that could still be limited to 1A or less. At least, that's what I think. Could be wrong.
Regardless, i ordered a cheap dual charging dock off eBay that should be here by Friday. Using Galaxy Charging Current (a free app in the Play store), my phone shows 1900 mA charging current when plugged into the OEM charger directly. After I get the dock I ordered, I'll test that and report back.
If the dock will charge the phone at full speed, I can live with the spare battery being charged more slowly.
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Hope it works out. The dock i ordered from seidio for my evo 3d did not charge at full power with the supplied adapter. I used a diff cable and power source and the results were better, but still not very good. Most nights I simply removed the cable and plugged the phone directly to it bypassing the dock, kind of defeated the purpose. I hope to find one that keeps the S4 charged.
Well, I received my eBay dock today, 2 days early. It is this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111066155507?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
And when I plug it in and put the phone in it, I get a message that the connected charger is not compatible with this phone. And the phone shows a red X over the battery icon in the notification bar, and doesn't charge at all.
I tried it using the OEM charger and cable, the cable that came with the dock, and I also tried both cables using my OEM charger that came with my Note 10.1 tablet.
Exactly one time, when I put the phone into the dock, it didn't display a message and Galaxy Charging Current (app in Play) showed that it was charging at 1900 mA. But, several times before, and every time after that, it just displayed the message and wouldn't charge at all.
:crying:
nacos said:
It's NOT a dock but a charger and it does come with an OEM spare battery. It charges a battery from 0 to 100% in about 4 hours, which is faster than your phone would deplete a battery, even when gaming. Paid $47, no shipping from Amazon
I see the price have changed a bit meanwhile but it's worth it if they still don't charge any shipping. Ships directly from Korea (made in Korea - both, charger and battery)
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I've seen that and that's a big "no way". My normal deal is, if I run out of battery, it's because I'm out and about. Traveling on a plane. Riding my motorcycle. Whatever. Situations where I don't have the option to plug in. So, I swap batteries on the go and the charge when I get to where I'm going.
This charger on Amazon would require me to carry it, plus my phone charger, plus an additional phone charger to run the separate battery charger. If I were just going to share my phone charger between the phone and the separate charger, I would rather just have the phone on the charger and, when it's fully charged, swap batteries, to charge the next one - not swap the charger cable over to the separate battery charger.
if I were going to go the route of a separate battery charger, I would spend $7 or so on eBay on one of the ones that has a flip-out plug built in and plugs right into the wall. That is the kind I have been using for a while to charge my Rezound batteries when traveling.
The biggest problem with those is that they charge the battery at something like 350mA. Ridiculously slow!
stuartv said:
I've seen that and that's a big "no way". ...if I run out of battery, it's because I'm out and about. Traveling on a plane. Riding my motorcycle. Whatever. Situations where I don't have the option to plug in. So, I swap batteries on the go and the charge when I get to where I'm going.
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Click to collapse
...buddy, that's EXACTLY what this is. It simply gives you the option of charging another OEM battery (in the charger NOT in the phone) BEFORE you go out and about and then swap them as you need.
NO, it's NOT charging as slow as you suggest. They use a technology called direct charge which means that it draws as much (or as little) as your wall plug allows it. In other words if you plug it in the PC USB, then yes, you'll have to wait until you grow a nice thick beard, but if you plug it in your original 2A charger, it'll charge the battery from 0-100% in about 4 hours or less.
stuartv said:
This charger on Amazon would require me to carry it, plus my phone charger, plus an additional phone charger to run the separate battery charger.
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Click to collapse
Absolutely NOT true:
1. You ONLY need to carry the charger if you plan on recharging the depleted battery BEFORE doing another swap - that's at least 12-15 hours on EXTENSIVELY using BOTH batteries - that's 12-15 hours screen on!!!
2. ONE phone charger can be used on either/or - you'll never have to charge them both in the same time (that's the idea with swapping the batteries, right?)
stuartv said:
If I were going to go the route of a separate battery charger, I would spend $7 or so on eBay on one of the ones that has a flip-out plug built in and plugs right into the wall.
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Up to you buddy, but usually you get what you pay for. The one I suggested comes with an OEM battery. I always suggest using this method over any battery pack as an OEM battery will ALWAYS give you just as much "juice" (this translates into running time) as the...yeah, you guessed it, the Original Equipment Manufacturer's battery. Although the battery packs manufacturers, they all claim huge capacities and running times, this mostly never holds true to the advertised specifications. It's called marketing
nacos said:
...buddy, that's EXACTLY what this is. It simply gives you the option of charging another OEM battery (in the charger NOT in the phone) BEFORE you go out and about and then swap them as you need.
NO, it's NOT charging as slow as you suggest. They use a technology called direct charge which means that it draws as much (or as little) as your wall plug allows it. In other words if you plug it in the PC USB, then yes, you'll have to wait until you grow a nice thick beard, but if you plug it in your original 2A charger, it'll charge the battery from 0-100% in about 4 hours or less.
Absolutely NOT true:
1. You ONLY need to carry the charger if you plan on recharging the depleted battery BEFORE doing another swap - that's at least 12-15 hours on EXTENSIVELY using BOTH batteries - that's 12-15 hours screen on!!!
2. ONE phone charger can be used on either/or - you'll never have to charge them both in the same time (that's the idea with swapping the batteries, right?)
Up to you buddy, but usually you get what you pay for. The one I suggested comes with an OEM battery. I always suggest using this method over any battery pack as an OEM battery will ALWAYS give you just as much "juice" (this translates into running time) as the...yeah, you guessed it, Original Equipment Manufacturer's battery. Although the battery packs manufacturers, they all claim miraculous capacities, they NEVER actually last as per specifications. It's called marketing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think you're getting me. The point is, I get to the end of the day and I need to charge my phone AND the battery I used up. In order to charge both at the same time, using this Samsung separate battery case/charger, I would have to have 2 actual chargers. One to attach to my phone, to charge that battery, and one to attach to the separate case/charger.
Get it now?
More detailed:
- I start the day with 2 fully charged batteries. One is in the phone.
- I ride my motorcycle all day, streaming music via Bluetooth to my helmet, and talking on the phone while I'm riding.
- Before I'm done riding for the day, my battery dies, so I swap it.
- I continue riding, etc.
- I get where I'm going and I'm ready to go to bed.
- I now have a dead battery in one hand and phone with a partly depleted battery in the other hand. I want them to both charge while I'm sleeping.
This separate case/charger does not help me.
stuartv said:
I don't think you're getting me. The point is, I get to the end of the day and I need to charge my phone AND the battery I used up. In order to charge both at the same time, using this Samsung separate battery case/charger, I would have to have 2 actual chargers. One to attach to my phone, to charge that battery, and one to attach to the separate case/charger.
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Click to collapse
No offense, but I believe you don't get it. You say: "I need to charge my phone AND the battery". I should ask you then, do you still need to charge your phone and the BATTERIES (this is the plural, meaning two or more) should you go by my suggestion?
Either, or, if you're such a heavy user and you find yourself at the end of the day with 2 or more depleted batteries on a regular basis, then this becomes even more handy - admittedly, yes, using a second wall plug...or, again, if you're such a heavy user, then buy a 3rd OEM battery - case solved. (1 charger, 2 extra batteries, 1 USB cable, 1 wall plug)
nacos said:
No offense, but I believe you don't get it. You say: "I need to charge my phone AND the battery". I should ask you then, do you still need to charge your phone and the BATTERIES (this the plural, meaning two or more) should you go by my suggestion?
Either, or, if you're such a heavy user and you get to deplete 2 (or more) batteries on a regular basis, then this becomes even more handy - admittedly, yes, using a second wall plug. Furthermore, again, if you're such a heavy user, then buy a 3rd OEM battery - case solved. (1 charger, 2 extra batteries, 1 wall plug)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You obviously didn't read my whole last post. Otherwise, you would understand that saying "I need to charge my phone AND the battery" is a short way of saying "I need to charge the battery that's in my phone (but not totally dead yet) AND the battery that I depleted earlier in the day."
And if I added a 3rd OEM battery (which you would also see that there is no need for, if you read my whole previous post), it still would not change the fact that, at the end of the day, I have 2 batteries I need to charge and only 1 wall charger to use. So, the separate case/charger still does not help.
If I charge the battery in my phone and then want to use my one and only wall charger to charge the battery that's in the case/charger, I may as well just swap the batteries and charge the second battery in my phone. Thus, I would save running down the battery that's in my phone while the other battery is charging in the case/charger AND I would save spending $50 on the case/charger when I just used my coupon last night and got an OEM battery straight from Samsung for only $20.
stuartv said:
You obviously didn't read my whole last post. Otherwise, you would understand that saying "I need to charge my phone AND the battery" is a short way of saying "I need to charge the battery that's in my phone (but not totally dead yet) AND the battery that I depleted earlier in the day."
And if I added a 3rd OEM battery (which you would also see that there is no need for, if you read my whole previous post), it still would not change the fact that, at the end of the day, I have 2 batteries I need to charge and only 1 wall charger to use. So, the separate case/charger still does not help.
If I charge the battery in my phone and then want to use my one and only wall charger to charge the battery that's in the case/charger, I may as well just swap the batteries and charge the second battery in my phone. Thus, I would save running down the battery that's in my phone while the other battery is charging in the case/charger AND I would save spending $50 on the case/charger when I just used my coupon last night and got an OEM battery straight from Samsung for only $20.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, now I did get what you were saying (admittedly, I didn't read the whole post initially) but I still believe that carrying a second set (wall charger + USB cable) would render a better overall usage time without compromising on convenience or quality (again, due to using a certified OEM battery). Think about it, the only "compromise" you're making is carrying another set - which is nothing, both in terms of money and used space/volume.
So, your on-the-go package would consist of: 1 Samsung charger, 1 extra battery and 2 sets of wall chargers/USB cables.
Now, we're getting somewhere!
Your alternative would cost me something like $70 for the case/charger (w/battery) plus a second AC adapter.
My alternative will cost me less than $30. $20 that I already spent on a second OEM battery, plus less than $10 for a wall charger like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Charging-Cr...l_Phone_PDA_Chargers&var=&hash=item27d35082af
And I have less "pieces" to carry around.
Of course, the cheap wall charger won't charge the battery as quickly. But, I have been using a charger just like that for my Rezound batteries for a while now and it always seems to manage to get the job done overnight.
However, the PREFERRED solution is what I asked about in my OP in this thread. I want a dock that will supply full power to the phone and a spare battery at the same time. As I posted later in this thread, it now seems that most any charging dock should supply full power to the phone (as long as the AC adapter is providing 2A). Those docks still won't probably give full power to charge the spare battery, but I can live with that. So, with a dock like that, I would carry the same number of "pieces", but I'd have the advantage of having a dock to prop my phone up next to the bed, so I can see it.
stuartv said:
Update info. This may be old news to many, but here it is.
I had an online chat with a Supervisor at Seidio this morning. Their website has 2 charging docks for the S4 and neither lists charging output.
They told me that the dock will output whatever the wall adapter supplies. The charging dock is a passthrough. So, if I use the stock OEM charger with the Seidio dock, my phone will (allegedly) still receive 2A of charging current.
This may have been intuitively obvious to some, but it wasn't to me.
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Click to collapse
I can 100% attest to this NOT being true. I have my OEM Samsung S4 2A charger hooked up to my Seidio Innodock Jr. at it receives a MAX of 1020mA. Yes, I realize it isn't the exact charger you are looking for since it doesn't have the spare battery compartment, but Seidio is NOT being truthful to you when they say that it is "a passthrough" dock. Just a heads up!
KryptosXLayer2 said:
I can 100% attest to this NOT being true. I have my OEM Samsung S4 2A charger hooked up to my Seidio Innodock Jr. at it receives a MAX of 1020mA. Yes, I realize it isn't the exact charger you are looking for since it doesn't have the spare battery compartment, but Seidio is NOT being truthful to you when they say that it is "a passthrough" dock. Just a heads up!
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Click to collapse
What are you using to determine your max of 1020A? Galaxy Charging Current? Battery Monitor Widget?
stuartv said:
What are you using to determine your max of 1020A? Galaxy Charging Current? Battery Monitor Widget?
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Click to collapse
Both, they both display the same data - the BMW widget takes longer to update since I paid for the full version of GCC
KryptosXLayer2 said:
Both, they both display the same data - the BMW widget takes longer to update since I paid for the full version of GCC
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Click to collapse
I have both and they do not display the same data. As far as I can tell, GCC shows the actual full incoming current. OTOH, BMW shows the current being used to charge the battery.
When I plug in my OEM charger, GCC shows 1900. But, if the screen is using 100 and other stuff running is using another 100, the BMW would only show 1700.
So, as far as your post about the Innodock, if GCC shows 1020, then that's what I would believe. But, if it's BMW that's telling you 1020, then that could simply be because there is other stuff using almost 900 mA of current.
For the record, I looked through my BMW Usage log from last night when my phone was on the charger. The log shows every 5 minutes, I think. It only had one log entry where it showed 1992. All the rest were in the 1500 - 1600 range or less. And the phone screen was off that whole time.

[Q] Which do you prefer: spare battery VS external battery pack ?

Can't seem to make up my mind on this!
most of the time i have access to power socket, but after i ran out of battery the other day, leaving me without navigation system and clueless on how to drive back home, i realized i need some sort of back up!
so first thing first, i added Anker 24W Car Charger to my list.
second, I'm trying to decide between a spare battery, like Anker 3220mAh Li-ion Battery , Or a power pack like Anker Astro E3 /// Astro E4.
like i mentioned, most of the time i have access to power socket, as well as car charger (soon).
also, when i wake up in the morning, i plug my phone right away to the charger, so i usually leave the house with 90%+ battery.
which of the two options would you recommend?
no matter which one, most chances it will lay in my bag for a while until i do need it, won't be on regular use.
i nearly ordered the Astro E3, but then i ran some of the comments on amazon, claiming it works fine at the beginning only!
Sounds like all you need is the car charger and a couple of Anker 3220mah spare batteries. The spare batteries are much more convenient to carry that a power pack. Along with the fast charger you should be set, unless you are travelling to the moon without a power source.
Just a matter of what purpose you want it for.
Battery pack pros:
-can charge any device
-can charge itself with usb cord, phone isn't needed
-no phone interruption
-can charge multiple devices at once.
-larger capacity than spare battery
Spare battery pros:
-easier to carry
-phone will be instantly charged to 100%
-not prone to idle drain like some battery packs
Extended battery
BAD ASS NOTE 4 + BAD ASS GEAR S
of course the power bank.
just try replacing the batteries (turning on-off, putting the back cover off/on), etc.
you also have to fully charge the spare battery... need a spare charger for that.
with the good power bank you can just add as much juice as you need and continue to use the phone hassle-free.
i just dont understand those swapping the batteries in a device that charges 50% within 30 minutes...
lisbon2004 said:
i just dont understand those swapping the batteries in a device that charges 50% within 30 minutes...
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Click to collapse
You don't always have a 2a output charger sitting around though... If you try charging a note 4 on some PC usb slots and you use the phone a little bit, it basically won't charge faster than it drains.
Also holding the phone and using it with a power bank + usb cable attached is not as convenient as swapping the battery and instantly having 100%.
thanks for your replies .
i just bought a replaceable Anker battery+external charger. the main battery last me the entire day most of the time, so for the occasional battery emergency drain, i prefer to instantly replace with a 100% charged one.
although the power bank seems like a nice idea for any long vacation i go to each year. but they are cheap anyway, so will buy one as well later on.
lisbon2004 said:
of course the power bank.
just try replacing the batteries (turning on-off, putting the back cover off/on), etc.
you also have to fully charge the spare battery... need a spare charger for that.
with the good power bank you can just add as much juice as you need and continue to use the phone hassle-free.
i just dont understand those swapping the batteries in a device that charges 50% within 30 minutes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spare batteries are great for when you are out and about without access to a charger. The spare battery route works for me as I did the same with my S3.
I vote for the spare battery which is why I got one. I have used external chargers often in the past and I hate having to walk around with the darn thing and its cable. You cannot beat swapping in a battery which takes less than a minute. It is also more compact as well. Sure, you have to charge it separately, but you will have to do that with an external charger anyway.
bleuiko said:
I vote for the spare battery which is why I got one. I have used external chargers often in the past and I hate having to walk around with the darn thing and its cable. You cannot beat swapping in a battery which takes less than a minute. It is also more compact as well. Sure, you have to charge it separately, but you will have to do that with an external charger anyway.
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Click to collapse
Exactly this. I have both but the spare battery is my "go to". The official OEM spare battery kit is awesome for our N4 since it charges separately and is super compact. I have an external battery pack that can charge several devices but it'll usually be left behind with a few exceptions. It's mainly to charge devices when away from power but is not a good solution if you want to continue using the device since you have to lug the wire and charger with you if you choose to go that route.
---------- Post added at 10:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 AM ----------
lisbon2004 said:
of course the power bank.
just try replacing the batteries (turning on-off, putting the back cover off/on), etc.
you also have to fully charge the spare battery... need a spare charger for that.
with the good power bank you can just add as much juice as you need and continue to use the phone hassle-free.
i just dont understand those swapping the batteries in a device that charges 50% within 30 minutes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
0 to 100% in seconds. 'Nuff said.
jlczl said:
Exactly this. I have both but the spare battery is my "go to". The official OEM spare battery kit is awesome for our N4 since it charges separately and is super compact. I have an external battery pack that can charge several devices but it'll usually be left behind with a few exceptions. It's mainly to charge devices when away from power but is not a good solution if you want to continue using the device since you have to lug the wire and charger with you if you choose to go that route.
---------- Post added at 10:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 AM ----------
0 to 100% in seconds. 'Nuff said.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can buy a similar item from a good company half the price:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q4NQQA0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&m=A294P4X9EWVXLJ&tag=ianker-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00Q4NQQA0
it's what i ordered.
666pluto said:
you can buy a similar item from a good company half the price:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...17145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00Q4NQQA0
it's what i ordered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but Amazon recently had the OEM version on sale for $29. I had Best Buy price match it since I had a $25 BB gift card laying around I hadn't used so I paid nearly nothing for it. Plus I prefer OEM (nothing against Anker, I actually have a great portable battery charger from them I got on Amazon).
I mention the price because OEM versions of products can frequently be purchased at great discounts if you watch for them. I use the slick deals app to notify me of good deals.

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