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[Q] Which is better for the battery trickle or mains?

I tend to charge my transformer by leaving it plugged into my pc via usb for most of the day.
Does anyone know if this is bad for the battery compared to using mains to charge?
Obviously with the transformer it takes a very long time to fully charge via usb so it is plugged in for hours and hours.

The battery is a Lithium Polymer (Lipo) so it doesnt have a memory like the old Nicads and its even better than NiMH or Li-ion. Newer Lipos can be charged at upwards of 2-3C. There is no benefit from trickle charging these batteries. The internal charging circuit wont allow it to happen anyway. Once the battery hits 4.2v per cell it will stop the charge. So to answer your question; no it doesnt matter which you use to charge it. Might as well use the main charger and have it done faster.

Interesting, but do we know the transformer uses the newer battery and could you provide a reference to the info for this newer type of li-ion battery?

Well in this case the 2-3C charging is irrelevant since we have no way of charging it that fast anyway since the TF has some sort of internal charging circuit. I was just trying to make the point that the main charger is not nearly putting out enough current to cause the battery any harm or for that matter a shorter life than the USB would. Looking at the AC charger it says 15v 1.2A so it should charge at about 2.5 times faster than a typical USB port if it were putting out 15v (it doesnt...it only puts out 5v 500mA). Im actually surprised that at 5v it manages to charge it at all....guess thats why it has to be off and sit there for 2 days.

carrera0to60 said:
Well in this case the 2-3C charging is irrelevant since we have no way of charging it that fast anyway since the TF has some sort of internal charging circuit. I was just trying to make the point that the main charger is not nearly putting out enough current to cause the battery any harm or for that matter a shorter life than the USB would. Looking at the AC charger it says 15v 1.2A so it should charge at about 2.5 times faster than a typical USB port if it were putting out 15v (it doesnt...it only puts out 5v 500mA). Im actually surprised that at 5v it manages to charge it at all....guess thats why it has to be off and sit there for 2 days.
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I had the general impression that slower charging of batteries is usually better. You usually don't get something for nothing. If the newer batteries are different that great but where did you read this?

[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.

[BATTERY] Cradle Chargers // Voltages, mAh

I'm interested in buying an external battery charger, or a cradle charger, so I can have two batteries going—one always charging outside of the phone—and thus never having to plug my phone in to charge. After a brief eBay search, all of the cheapest ones appear to be the same: you can find the model I'm referring to here.
My concern, however, is with the specifications listed, which read:
Input: AC 100-240V~50/60Hz 0.15A
Output: DC 4.2V~350mA~±50mA
USB: 5.2Vd.c.800mA
The output appears to be 300-400mA, which is slightly lower than a stock charger. As far as I know, this tells me how fast it will charge the battery. Since it will be plugged into the battery charger when I swap batteries (for the full discharge of the other battery), I don't care if it charges slower. However, the voltage appears to be quite low at 4.2V—and I'm entirely unsure how this will affect things. Will it still charge? Can it do damage to the battery? Should I not purchase this unit? What exactly does a lower/higher voltage mean?

Anyone?
Does it work? Is it safe? Does the lower voltage matter?

I've been using this same battery charger for over a year now. It charges my stock and extended battery (3500mAh) without any problem. Yes it does take longer compared to the normal charger to charge your battery because of the low mA but I don't think it has had any affect on my batteries. So the only downside is it takes comparatively longer to charge.

mo_danish said:
I've been using this same battery charger for over a year now. It charges my stock and extended battery (3500mAh) without any problem. Yes it does take longer compared to the normal charger to charge your battery because of the low mA but I don't think it has had any affect on my batteries. So the only downside is it takes comparatively longer to charge.
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Great! That's what I wanted to know. Thanks!

I have this charger as well. I can confirm that I have have not had any problems with the charger sense I got it. I ordered mine from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/2600mAh-Batte...3352199&sr=8-4&keywords=Galaxy+note+batteries

anker 5200 mah battery showing capacity of 2600mah??

hello.
is it correct that the anker extended battery for the s4, should be showing a capcity of 2600mah in battery monitor pro?
is it because it is 2 x 2600 batteries joined together?
bit confused.

To my knowledge battery Mon pro won't be able to automatically determine accurate capacity of the battery when you just plug it in. It has to calculate it through extended use by monitoring discharge rate, and even that is not accurate.

anker 5200
same as me,
i try using battery doctor or du battry saver but it's only show 2600 mah in system.
i wonder how to make it show 5200mah

just watch the voltage. You will know what it's got left by watching the voltage drop after a few days. The cheap apps are telling you 2600 because that's what the phone comes with. It's written in

Use Android Tuner or battery calibration on appstore, they give actual voltage

Any Doubble Power Battery ???

Six hours continuous use
Confirming my Anker 5200mAh Extended Battery provides six hours continuous use with my Galaxy S4.
Very happy with my purchase, and recommend the Hyperion HoneyComb TPU Extended Battery case for use with this extended battery.

how much do you know about external chargers
samuelson said:
hello.
is it correct that the anker extended battery for the s4, should be showing a capcity of 2600mah in battery monitor pro?
is it because it is 2 x 2600 batteries joined together?
bit confused.
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many external chargers especially ordinary chargers are oversized in capacity. though they may be very cheaper, they are usually shoddy and deceptive. i recommend you to read this article.
Don’t buy external battery before you read this!
As we have more and more gadgets, we are expecting our gadgets can always work when we need them. Our gadgets can do almost everything — until they run out of fuel. Times when you need to make that important call, send out an urgent e-mail, or need to use the apps on your device – but alas there is no battery…we’ve all been there and know first-hand the stress of being offline when you need to get things done!
External battery is indispensable for our smart life, but how much do you know about the external battery? Does your external battery really charge your gadget or make the damages to your battery of gadgets?
1) What’s external battery?
External battery serves as an ‘extra battery’ or external charger for your phone or other electronic devices.
2) Where is external battery made from?
Majority of the external batteries in the market are actually made in China. And the battery cells or PCB modules are from different countries.
3) How do I charge the external battery?
You can charge your external battery via the charger that came with your phone, computer usb port or using other external battery
4) How long do I need to charge the external battery?
It depends on the REAL CAPACITY of the external battery. The larger REAL CAPACITY, the longer charging time may required. Different charging methods may result in different charging time as well. Charging with the original charger will be faster than charging with computer usb port.
5) Why sometime I need longer time to charge the same external battery?
Even though using the same charging method, the charging time may be differ due to environment, temperature, power flow and etc.
6) What is mAh?
mAh mean milli Ampere Hour, the capacity of the external battery is measured with mAh
7) Is a 12000mAh REAL CAPACITY external battery, able to charge a 1500mAh capacity phone for 8 times full?
This is a common mistake made by most of people. For rough calculation of the total charge time, kindly use this formula
REAL CAPACITY * conversion rate * phone battery health / phone capacity = total charge times
EXAMPLE: 12000 x 0.8 x 0.8 / 1500 = 5.12 charge times (0.5-1 times plus minus)
8) What’s conversion rate?
Conversation rate is the remaining percentage of the battery after the battery loses in heat or PCB operation.
9) What’s phone battery health?
In simple, it means how ‘healthy’ your phone battery is. Phone battery storage capacity will be lower and lower. That’s also the reason why our phone can last longer when it’s newly bought than after 3-6 months of use. Different mobile phone models also will affect the calculation as some phones drain battery faster than others.
10) What’s PCB?
PCB means Printed Circuit Board, which controls all the operation flow inside the external battery. A good quality PCB will allow the external battery to charge more and have better durability
11) What’s the difference between 18650 and Li-Polymer in the external battery?
- 18650 size and dimension are fixed. Li-Polymer size and dimension are flexible.
- 18650 produces more heat. Li-Polymer is much safer
- 18650 is cheaper. Li-Polymer is more expensive
- 18650 has a higher self discharge rate. Li-Polymer has a very low self discharge rate
- 18650 battery capacity drops faster. Li-Polymer battery capacity is more durable
12) What’s the common REAL CAPACITY in 18650 external battery in the market?
- External battery using 1pcs 18650 is 1200mAh – 2600mAh
- External battery using 2pcs 18650 is 2500mAh – 4400mAh
- External battery using 3pcs 18650 is 3750mAh – 6600mAh
- External battery using 4pcs 18650 is 5200mAh – 8800mAh
- External battery using 5pcs 18650 is 6500mAh –11000mAh
- External battery using 6pcs 18650 is 7800mAh –13200mAh
- External battery using 7pcs 18650 (no info)
- External battery using 8pcs 18650 is 10400mAh –14400mAh
1 3) Is there any external battery with a capacity higher than 2200mAh per 18650?
Yes. There are, but it’s not common due to the expensive pricing.
14) What’s the difference between branded external battery and generic external battery?
Branded external battery is mostly sold in REAL CAPACITY. Generic external battery is mostly sold in MARKING CAPACITY. That’s the reason why you will never see any branded external battery (standard size) with a capacity as high as 30000mAh – 50000mAh. That’s also the reason why a good 12000-13000mAh external battery is able to charge more or almost the same as the market level of 30000-50000mAh. Most of the external batteries sold on amazon.com with low price are MARKING CAPACITY but not REAL CAPACITY. Those with higher price and long warranty(more than one year, some brands offer 18 months of warranty, like Sony, KINKOO, Xstorm) are REAL CAPACITY and reliable.
15) Is it true branded external battery won’t explode and generic external battery will explode?
Anything to do with battery will have a chance to explode. No matter it’s branded external battery or generic external battery. But chances for both branded and generic external battery to explode are very low, except for those cheap and poor-quality 18650 batteries. And the Li-Polymer is safer than 18650 battery, it’s easy to fit the high-temperature environment.
,

Can't charge from external battery

I have 2 external batteries one is 3000mAh and the other is 8000mAh, I have previously used them both with another device with no problems. When I plug either into my G3 it stops charging after about 5 seconds. I can however charge from a car charger, just very slowly. Anyone else experience this? (yes I have confirmed both batteries indicate they are full before trying.)
Listed output for 3000mAh battery is 5V, 1000mAh. 8000mAh battery doesn't have that info printed on it, will update if I can find it.