Smartphone Tips - Fast charging for Android or iPhone – DIY in 5 Ep 106

Опубликовано 20 сентября 2019, 17:00

A smartphone with no power is a bad start to your day. Luckily, fast charge battery technology is here for iPhone and Android smartphones. A wall receptacle power outlet is the most reliable source of electricity. Wall plugs generally have higher wattage and amperage compared to a power bank. It might be easier to plug into a laptop or power bank but those simply don’t charge as fast as the wall could. Second, you might need to buy a plug that supports the higher power output, but if you’re constantly low on juice it might be worth it.

Android
There are also some Android phones with proprietary charging tech like QuickCharge, WarpCharge, SuperCharge, turbopower, etc. but the specific name is based on your phone’s maker and all boils down to semantics. Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus, Motorola and others all have fast charging options. But to get the best performance out of any of them you need to make sure the phone, charger, and cable all support the same spec and are from the same company. If they don’t all match, you may still get a decent result, but you won’t get the absolute best performance possible.

iPhone
Apple only offers a USB-C to Lightning cable that works to charge newer iPhones faster. It’s nowhere near as fast as some of the Android options, but it’s still much better than the cable that came in the box. And yes, of course you must pay extra for that cable. It is officially supported on iPhone 8 or later models and unofficially on iPhone 7 Plus.

Software and Accessory Help
Here is a trick you can do to speed things up: Enable Airplane mode. The less you’re asking the phone to do while you’re charging, the faster your battery will charge. For even better results just power it down. Next are the cables. Love them or hate them cables can make a difference while charging. I know we talked about matching cable standards before but even if you don’t have some quick charging tech, note that a cheap cable can slow things down. Spend the extra few bucks to get a nice highly rated cable that can pass along more amps to your phone. Reviewers and testers seem to love the Anker Powerline cables if you’re in the market for something new. One popular charging accessory we’ll also mention is wireless charging. If you want to charge fast the reality is don’t use wireless charging. Don’t get me wrong it has its benefits, but speed is not one of them. Save the wireless charging when you’re not in a hurry and as I mentioned before, make sure you set it on the charging pad exactly right.

Power Banks
Ok, so this is all great info, but what if I’m at a convention or something and plugging into a wall isn’t an option - or maybe Starbucks during finals week or the airport during the holidays? This is where a power bank comes in real handy. Make sure you get one that has at least 2-amp output. Some of the cheaper models only produce ½ amp output and that’s just too slow. You’ll also find some portable chargers that support some of the cool Android QuickCharge technology we talked about earlier. But those tend to cost a bit more money and don’t always work as you hope. Do a bit of research before you spend extra for that. And finally, if you need to use your laptop to charge your phone make sure to plug into a USB 3.0 port if you got it. You’ll be stealing the juice from your laptop, but at least you’ll be doing it quicker.