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[Q] Can HOX be charged by 2.1A car charger?

I am going to buy a car charger for my new HOX, but it only has one 2.1A usb output. I know the charging current of the HOX wall charger is 1A, but I think 2.1A should work fine or even charge faster. But my concern is if the larger current would hurt my battery or shorten its lifetime.
Some ppl said the phone itself would take 1A current anyway due to some kind of threshold control inside, but I am not sure about it. So pls let me know if you know the truth. Appreciate it!
ps. I sent an email about this problem to HTC customer care 2 days ago but still no response yet. I will post the official answer when I get their answer.
UPDATE: Here is the official response from HTC about charging current, it seems that HOX does not intelligently control its charging current:
Dear yydnl,
Thanks for getting back to me, yydnl. The One X was designed with the intention of only using 5V 1A chargers. Anything more will cause damage to the phone over time. The phone was not designed to alter the current coming into the phone through the charger. I recommend that you only use the supplied HTC charger with your device.

Yeah I'd like to know. I never opened the oem charger and am currently using my bb playbook charger which shoots out 1.8A. I'm hoping the answer is no damage with a faster charge.

Yep, it'll work fine. Chargers don't "push" the charge, the phone pulls it. If the phone is only designed to charge at 1000ma, then it will only pull that current. So you could use a 10 amp charger and it will be fine, only difference is that with that high a capacity, you'll be able to charge 10 phones at the full charging rate. Changing the voltage, that's a different story.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

There is no problem of the voltage of the car charger because that is 5V as the oem charger, but do you know if HOX is designed to intelligently pull the proper amount of current? or will it take any current fed to it?

yydnl said:
There is no problem of the voltage of the car charger because that is 5V as the oem charger, but do you know if HOX is designed to intelligently pull the proper amount of current? or will it take any current fed to it?
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All Li-ion batteries have intelligent charging circuits. Otherwise, it will simply explode.
I won't worry about 2.1A at all. The problem is other way around, i.e. whether or not the phone will take more than 500ma from your 2.1A charger. It depends on how your charger is wired. If the phone only detects a generic USB connection, it will only charge max 500ma. It requires special wiring from the USB port to allow phone to switch to AC charging mode to draw more current. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell until you have the charger and try it out. One thing for sure, those chargers designed for iPhone/iPad typically won't be recorgnzied by other phones as AC chargers.

foxbat121 said:
All Li-ion batteries have intelligent charging circuits. Otherwise, it will simply explode.
I won't worry about 2.1A at all. The problem is other way around, i.e. whether or not the phone will take more than 500ma from your 2.1A charger. It depends on how your charger is wired. If the phone only detects a generic USB connection, it will only charge max 500ma. It requires special wiring from the USB port to allow phone to switch to AC charging mode to draw more current. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell until you have the charger and try it out. One thing for sure, those chargers designed for iPhone/iPad typically won't be recorgnzied by other phones as AC chargers.
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Gotcha, the car charger I am going to buy is for iphone, but it also claims to be able to charge phones of htc, sony etc. So I guess it is possible to have the ac charging detection.

yydnl said:
Gotcha, the car charger I am going to buy is for iphone, but it also claims to be able to charge phones of htc, sony etc. So I guess it is possible to have the ac charging detection.
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My money is on that it won't be recognized as AC charger. iPhone has special requirement on data PIN wiring that is not compatible with other phone. Yes, you can charge other phones but probably not at anything over 500ma.

Pls see my updates, it seems that 2.1A charger is not safe.

[Q] Charger Question

So, I've been wondering this for a while and thought I just ask. I've read about stories where people bought 3rd party chargers and had their phone malfunction. Because of this I have been worried about using any other type of charger and stick with the stock. Would it be fine to charge my Nexus 5 which a more powerful charger. For example the Nexus 7 charger? There's also a few other 3rd party chargers which seem to be much more powerful, but I was just worried that it would cause problems for the phone. Thanks in advance!

I've got a ton of Chargers laying around and they all work just fine. As long as the charger output is 5 volts you should be okay.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

0dBu said:
I've got a ton of Chargers laying around and they all work just fine. As long as the charger output is 5 volts you should be okay.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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Exactly 5 volts? The Nexus 7 charger is 5.2

PsychDrummer said:
Exactly 5 volts? The Nexus 7 charger is 5.2
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It should probably be fine. I used my Mom's Nook charger at her house the other day with no issues.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

0dBu said:
It should probably be fine. I used my Mom's Nook charger at her house the other day with no issues.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Dual-Po...5839252&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+usb+car+charger
So this one is apparently 18V...says should work though. Weird.

PsychDrummer said:
http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Dual-Po...5839252&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+usb+car+charger
So this one is apparently 18V...says should work though. Weird.
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the charger that you linked to is 18 W (aka Watts), but it is still 5V. it has a max output of 3.6A (amp). Watts = Volts x Amps.
As long as it's 5V, you should be fine. using a charger with a higher max A rating won't change anything, how much current that is actually drawn (amps) depends on the device.

jss2 said:
the charger that you linked to is 18 W (aka Watts), but it is still 5V. it has a max output of 3.6A (amp). Watts = Volts x Amps.
As long as it's 5V, you should be fine. using a charger with a higher max A rating won't change anything, how much current that is actually drawn (amps) depends on the device.
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Oh I see. Thanks!

Okay, quick electrical lesson.
Volts: This one is relatively fixed at 5 for all "USB-Powered" devices. However, virtually all electrical devices have a 10% allowable variance. So... anything from 4.5V to 5.5V should work just fine, and be considered "safe." Of course, this can be tricky since some less-than-trustworthy manufacturers (*cough*China*cough*) will include the 10% variance in the specs. So... a charger rated for 5.5V charger may actually be running at 5.8V, which is within the 10% variance for a 5.5V device, and since 5.5V is within the variance for the 5V spec, they'll just double-down, and stamp it with 5V, which is bad. Confused? Yeah, me too. Just stay away from those cheap eBay chargers, to avoid such shenanigans.
Amps (aka Current): The thing to remember here is that the draw is king. What I mean here is that the device drawing power is what's important. If your device draws 1A, then it will ALWAYS draw 1A, no matter if it's plugged into a 1A, 5A, or 1000A charger. However, it will also attempt to draw 1A if it's plugged into a 0.2A charger, which would obviously be very bad (well, unless you're TRYING to start a fire). USB devices are designed to draw 0.5A, since that's what USB 2.0 (on a computer) provides. However, many devices can draw more if plugged into a wall charger. So... you're almost always safe plugging into a computer, but your wall charger needs to be rated AT LEAST what the device expects. That can be hard to determine, so the rule of thumb is that whatever Amperage charger the device came with is the MINIMUM amperage charger you should use. However, there is no maximum, since draw is king, so go nuts in the other direction.
Watts (aka Power): Power = Voltage x Current, so Watts is nothing more than Voltage times Amperage. Thus, a 5V charger charging at 2A is 10W (5x2=10). Now that you know this, you can ignore it. Nobody but the electric company cares how many Watts your wall charger is pushing. The only, and I mean only, thing this is good for is determining the Amperage if the manufacturer doesn't provide it. So... if the only spec listed for your micro-USB charger is 12W, then you can figure out the amperage by dividing that by 5 (since all USB devices are 5V). Your 12W charger, therefore, is pushing 2.2A. See the section on Amps, since that's what's really important.

jt3 said:
Okay, quick electrical lesson.
Volts: This one is relatively fixed at 5 for all "USB-Powered" devices. However, virtually all electrical devices have a 10% allowable variance. So... anything from 4.5V to 5.5V should work just fine, and be considered "safe." Of course, this can be tricky since some less-than-trustworthy manufacturers (*cough*China*cough*) will include the 10% variance in the specs. So... a charger rated for 5.5V charger may actually be running at 5.8V, which is within the 10% variance for a 5.5V device, and since 5.5V is within the variance for the 5V spec, they'll just double-down, and stamp it with 5V, which is bad. Confused? Yeah, me too. Just stay away from those cheap eBay chargers, to avoid such shenanigans.
Amps (aka Current): The thing to remember here is that the draw is king. What I mean here is that the device drawing power is what's important. If your device draws 1A, then it will ALWAYS draw 1A, no matter if it's plugged into a 1A, 5A, or 1000A charger. However, it will also attempt to draw 1A if it's plugged into a 0.2A charger, which would obviously be very bad (well, unless you're TRYING to start a fire). USB devices are designed to draw 0.5A, since that's what USB 2.0 (on a computer) provides. However, many devices can draw more if plugged into a wall charger. So... you're almost always safe plugging into a computer, but your wall charger needs to be rated AT LEAST what the device expects. That can be hard to determine, so the rule of thumb is that whatever Amperage charger the device came with is the MINIMUM amperage charger you should use. However, there is no maximum, since draw is king, so go nuts in the other direction.
Watts (aka Power): Power = Voltage x Current, so Watts is nothing more than Voltage times Amperage. Thus, a 5V charger charging at 2A is 10W (5x2=10). Now that you know this, you can ignore it. Nobody but the electric company cares how many Watts your wall charger is pushing. The only, and I mean only, thing this is good for is determining the Amperage if the manufacturer doesn't provide it. So... if the only spec listed for your micro-USB charger is 12W, then you can figure out the amperage by dividing that by 5 (since all USB devices are 5V). Your 12W charger, therefore, is pushing 2.2A. See the section on Amps, since that's what's really important.
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I've plugged my device into chargers before that have rated outputs of .5A-1A when the device "expects" more... so, why didn't it start a fire?

Nitemare3219 said:
I've plugged my device into chargers before that have rated outputs of .5A-1A when the device "expects" more... so, why didn't it start a fire?
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How much "more" are you talking about?

طوني تبولة said:
How much "more" are you talking about?
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The stock charger is 1.2A, correct? So given that much... a charger I have used a few times on my Nexus 4 and 5 at a friend's place only outputs .5A... so at least .7A from what our phones should be able to draw.

Nitemare3219 said:
The stock charger is 1.2A, correct? So given that much... a charger I have used a few times on my Nexus 4 and 5 at a friend's place only outputs .5A... so at least .7A from what our phones should be able to draw.
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An Android device knows that it's plugged into a wall charger, and thus can use more than 0.5A, only if the data pins are shorted together. Otherwise, it will assume it's plugged into a computer and only use 0.5A. Chargers made for android devices are usually so equipped. Apple chargers and some cheap-o chargers aren't. That's one reason why you'll see chargers with nothing more than a USB slot (no cable) specify that they're only compatible with Apple devices. Technically, they're compatible with any USB device, but not at the high charge rate.
Having said that, manufacturers can build in some safeguards. Quality chargers simply won't output more current than they're designed for. How they go about this varies. They may limit the output to their rated specs, they may blow an external breaker, or they may blow an internal fuse (usually killing the charger forever). Cheap chargers may not have such safeguards. Plus, many (if not most) phones/tablets will recognize when they're hooked up to a low-current source, and automatically switch to the low charge rate mode (0.5A).
In short, quality equipment is usually designed to be safe, with safeguards to protect against common scenarios. It's the cheap chargers that you have to worry about, because they tend to cut corners to keep the cost down. Safety provisions aren't technically necessary, and are usually the first to go.

[Q] Is it safe to use higher mAh chargers?

Hi guys,
My LG G3 has uses a charger that outputs 5v 1.5mAh
I have a USB charger here that outputs 5v 2.1mAh (used for my GoPRO highcap batteries)
I've been using this 2.1mAh charger for my LG G3 and everything works great. But I'm beginning to worry if this is damaging my batteries or phone in anyway?
and to push this question further, is it safe to use even higher mAh? i have a 3mAh usb charger here as well but im afraid to use em.
Thanks

BrownChiLD03 said:
Hi guys,
My LG G3 has uses a charger that outputs 5v 1.5mAh
I have a USB charger here that outputs 5v 2.1mAh (used for my GoPRO highcap batteries)
I've been using this 2.1mAh charger for my LG G3 and everything works great. But I'm beginning to worry if this is damaging my batteries or phone in anyway?
and to push this question further, is it safe to use even higher mAh? i have a 3mAh usb charger here as well but im afraid to use em.
Thanks
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As far as I know, current is drawn from the device, not pushed from the charger.
Almost all modern devices limit the amount of current they can draw from the power supply in order to protect the battery and the inner circuits. The amperage of the charger just tells you how much current it is able to supply, not how much current it will supply to the device it is connected to.
If you plug a 2.1A charger to a phone that limits the amount of current at 1.5A, it will charge at 1.5A.
If your phone has an amperage limit (which is most likely the case), then you're fine.

Adrianrff said:
As far as I know, current is drawn from the device, not pushed from the charger.
Almost all modern devices limit the amount of current they can draw from the power supply in order to protect the battery and the inner circuits. The amperage of the charger just tells you how much current it is able to supply, not how much current it will supply to the device it is connected to.
If you plug a 2.1A charger to a phone that limits the amount of current at 1.5A, it will charge at 1.5A.
If your phone has an amperage limit (which is most likely the case), then you're fine.
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ONe of the main reasons I wanted to use a 2.1A charger is because LG's wireless charger keeps getting "slow charging" notice.. i theorized that perhaps the "wireless range" could be increased if i used a higher amp charger.. does this make any sense?
Although I have noticed much lesser "Slow Charging" warnings now..

BrownChiLD03 said:
ONe of the main reasons I wanted to use a 2.1A charger is because LG's wireless charger keeps getting "slow charging" notice.. i theorized that perhaps the "wireless range" could be increased if i used a higher amp charger.. does this make any sense?
Although I have noticed much lesser "Slow Charging" warnings now..
Click to expand...
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I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here, you threw me off when you talked about wireless charging. Were you talking about plugging the 2.1A charger to the charging pad or plugging it directly into your phone? Either way, it all comes down to the maximum amperage a given device will let through.
If you meant plugging the higher amperage charger to the charging pad, the result will be the same, as it is very likely that the pad also has current limiting mechanism. If the current flowing through the charging pad coils is set at a maximum value, then the magnetic field created by the coil and the current induced by this magnetic field inside the phone will also be set at a maximum value, thus charging the battery at the same rate, regardless of the wire charger output (unless, of course, the charger can handle less amps than the pad [or the phone], in that case it will charge slower).
I don't really know why you're getting the "slow charging" warning, I've never used wireless charging before, but i do know that the position of the phone in relation to the pad is very important, because the strenght of a magnetic field decays strongly with distance.

I see. Wow thanks for the knowledge share.
BTW, sorry for the confusion, I actually meant both. I have a wireless charging dock that gets the "SLOW CHARGING" warning frequently w/ the original cable and charger.
So I replaced that cable w/ the 2.1mAh w/c I use for the wireless charger most of the time, but occasionally plug the usb cable from the wireless charging dock directly into the phone (for an even faster charging = when I'm in a hurry)

BrownChiLD03 said:
I see. Wow thanks for the knowledge share.
BTW, sorry for the confusion, I actually meant both. I have a wireless charging dock that gets the "SLOW CHARGING" warning frequently w/ the original cable and charger.
So I replaced that cable w/ the 2.1mAh w/c I use for the wireless charger most of the time, but occasionally plug the usb cable from the wireless charging dock directly into the phone (for an even faster charging = when I'm in a hurry)
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Do you notice any difference when charging directly with the 2.1mA cable and the original? There shouldn't be any, unless the original is rated at a lower amperage than what your phone draws, which doesn't make much sense.

[Q] Can I use over 2A while charging my phone?

Hi
I really have no idea how much 0.1A is, so this might be a very dumb question, but here we go.
I know the phone is capable of 2A charging with the charger there is with it, but will it hurt the phone using more or less A? The volt is still 5V tho.
Because I have a powerbank, that is 1A and 2.1A in second USB port, so is it safe to use both? (If yes, I would of course use port 2, for faster charging).
Also, is this true for any (newer) devices? I mean, can I plug any newer device into any Amp and just enjoy faster (or slower) charging or do I need to use the Amp that was with the original charger?
Thanks in advance

The phone will regulate it, 2.1amp won't hurt it. I have a power bank that does 2.1 and use it all the time. You likely won't find a charger that will put out much more than that tho. Even for tablets with much larger batteries.

You're fine...

A stands for amps which is a measurement of current. Just FYI.
Sent from my Nokia 3210

Faster charging?

i recently bought the P900 (wifi version).
full charge will take around 5 hours, which in practice translates to 4 hours (i never get to 0% and charging from 90%\95% and on will be slowed down by the device anyway).
is there any way to speed up the charging?
like buying a 5.3V 3A charger. will the OEM cable be able to transfer the additional current?
could the device even take advantage from a 3A charger?
if so, can you recommend on any?
its important to me because i always use 100% brightness.

No. In the past mobile devices (mostly phones) shipped with cheap 500ma chargers and bumping up to higher amperage chargers would have an affect on charge time. Those days are gone as charging efficiency of chargers and cost to produce have lead to included chargers being optimized for charging times. Charging circuitry in the devices is going to take what it's rated to take and no more, so once a charger is plugged into it that's rated the same as the device is designed to take there's little else that can be done to speed up charging.
Bottom line - the charger that came with the tablet if it's the official one (i.e. if you bought new, not used and someone included the wrong one) is optimized to charge the tablet at the fastest rate. Based upon the numbers you noted your charge times are not excessive, the tablet is designed to take around 2A and it won't take 3A even if the charger is rated for it.
If you want faster charging you need to sell your tablet and get a Snapdragon variant instead (LTE tablets from various carriers) or start practicing better battery management to reduce how depleted your tablet gets. For me that means not running at highest brightness unless I really need it and topping off the battery whenever I can. When I get really low and I have a reasonably long period that I can charge I'll sometimes shut the tablet completely down rather than put it to sleep so that charging is accomplished with near zero load on the battery.

oh, bummer.
well, i guess i would have to learn how to live with that.
TY for your reply.

im planning on buying a 2 port charger so i wont have to carry so many stuff with me,
how much slower the device will charge with a 5.0V charger?
should i look for a 2 port 5.3v charger? a normal device wont have troubles with that?

It's not the voltage it's the amps. If you want to charge two devices simultaneously as quickly as possible the power supply needs to be rated to output the wattage necessary to provide the amperage the devices will draw for maximum charge rate.
My recommendation is to find something capable of over 20 watts (2A x 5V = 20watts). I'd buy this for future Qualcomm quick charge use.
https://www.anker.com/products/A2031111
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

my question was how much slower the note pro will charge with a 5.0v 2A charger as opposed to the OEM one which is 5.3v 2A.
and if there is any problem to use a 5.3v charger with a normal smartphone.
charging the note pro is more important to me than my other devices.

Yonany said:
my question was how much slower the note pro will charge with a 5.0v 2A charger as opposed to the OEM one which is 5.3v 2A.
and if there is any problem to use a 5.3v charger with a normal smartphone.
charging the note pro is more important to me than my other devices.
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Click to collapse
Yes but you also noted that you want to buy a 2 port version and I'm saying that the voltage is only part of the equation. Unless you are already aware that you need one rated at 2A simultaneously (you didn't specify). I honestly never measured between the two, I do not worry about 5V vs 5.3V since the charging voltage of the lithium ion cells is under 5V anyway. AFAIK the current is more critical. Maybe someone else more knowledgeable in electrical engineering can chime in since I'm unsure how the charging circuit within the phone will step down the voltage from the charger to the battery. All I know is if one tops off regularly or charges overnight there's no night and day difference between the stock 5.3V charger and a 5V one so long as the aftermarket one is rated 2A or more.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk