smart phone charger question

[Ron Victoria]

I bought an ac cube charger with the usb port at Walgreens but it's slow. Do they make different ones? Someone I know has one with 2 usb ports and one port is faster. Any advice?

thanks, ron

[Anders Eriksson]

There is four different versions of USB

• 1.0
  2.0
  3.0
  3.1

One of the things that differ between them is the speed. The higher the version the faster it is.

since you didn't specify exactly what charger you have it's impossible to say what USB version you have.

// Anders

[Ron Victoria]

it's just a cube that plugs in ac and has a usb slot.

[Dave Potter]

it's just a cube that plugs in ac and has a usb slot.

There are currently only 3 specs active for USB, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 (3.1 is a subset of 3.0), as pertains to charging ports, and there are three types of charging ports in question. The type of charging port your "cube" provides determines how much current it will provide for charging. All this is explained pretty thoroughly here.

I haven't spent the time to fully research this, but my understanding at this point is that the type of cable you use can also affect the charge rate. There are what are referred to as USB "Charging Cables" available. These cables are for charging a USB device only; they cannot sync the device, because the data cables are either absent or are internally shorted. Since you are charging from your "cube", where no data is desired, you might explore this option.

It may be somewhat device-specific, but if the USB specs are adhered to, such cables will allow the highest charge rate, higher than a USB cable with all four pins/wires intact.

[Ron Victoria]

well, the old saying "you get what you pay for" is certainly true. I bought a rapid charger, 12 watts for $20 at BestBuy. It will charge the phone in less than an hour. Those cheap ac cubes are ok if you are charging overnight.
Ron