How to Identify A Really Great Charger.Power basics explained

At times we find ourselves using our smart phones and devices all the time, and since we don't have infinite batteries our bars could run down quickly. Since time is a big factor in our daily activities we should get a good enough charger that can fill up our batteries and allow us resume our work as soon as possible.

Now, finding a great charger for your phone could be hard and stressful, especially with the numerous details/specifications and proliferation of fakes in the market. But in today's article, we'll be explaining charger mechanics and how to identify a great and fast charger.

1.0: How to identify a Good Phone charger:

Phone chargers are really popular, as almost everyone has a cellphone that requires periodic charging for operation. Check these criteria and specifications to know how your charger really operates.

1.1: Check the Volt and Hz(Frequency) Rating On the power brick:

You must have noticed a writing that reads 120V-240V. This simply means that your power brick can take AC(Alternating Current) of the range of 240 as Input. A typical socket in the USA has 120V, while Nigeria here has about 230V. Which means your charger can be used adequately at any of these places. Only Kuwait that has a Volt rating of about 240. Also Nigeria uses 50Hz while The US uses 60 Hz. Hz is the number of waves that move per second.

2.1: Check the Output Volt Rating:

Now this is where the real problem lies. If you check under the input volt rating, I.e the 240V, you'll see the output volt spec. While the most basic is just 5V, modern chargers now pump out 9V and 12V in line with quick charge specs. Sometimes, there are chargers that even adjust the output mode automatically by the load, hence why you can see different volt ratings like 5V,  9V or like 8V-9V.

Now having higher volts isn't always great, as sometimes our phones might not be able to carry such high amount of volts. For example check the battery rating for a Tecno y3 below:

You can see that the max volts allowed is about 4.35V  so a volt of let's say 12V could damage the battery in the long run.

Fact 1:Each AC/DC power adapter is specifically designed to accept a certain AC input (usually the standard output from a 120 V AC outlet in your home) and convert it to a particular DC output. Likewise, each electronic device is specifically designed to accept a certain DC input.

2.2: Check the Ampere rating:

This is an important factor that plays a role in smartphone charging. Sometimes written as Milliampere-hour(Mah), is the battery capacity and also the energy transfer rating of the charger. Any Serious charger should be rated at least at 1.0A which is equal to 1000Mah. This means that 1.2A means 1200Mah and 2.0A means 2000MAh. Any thing below 1.0A(like 0.75A which means 750mah)  is only good for charging small USB laterns and Toys.

Now you shouldn't worry about the ampere rating exceeding your maximum allowed by your battery, as manufacturers usually adopt a high range of current. And also Ampere rating is less dangerous than the Volt rating.

And also if your charger has Max 3.0A output, and your phone has 2.0A rating, it would regulate the 3.0A and draw only 2.0A as needed. Hence the reason why you don't get quick charge bonuses when using a non quick charge phone.

1.4: Check if it has any quick charge tag:

Although quick charge is Qualcomm's propertiery charging range, other smartphone developers adopt other forms of charging tags even though they're using Snapdragon. Like Samsung's adaptive fast charge and Huawei's super charge.

Fact 2: Huawei's supercharge 2.0 has 10V and 4.0A, which produces 40W(Watts).Samsungs adaptive fast charge has 9V/1.7A which brings out 15.3W or just 15Watts. Xiaomi's Mi 8 Using Qualcomm's Quick charge 3.0 has a charger rated 9V/2.0A Which is a nice 18W charger. Confused how Watt entered the Picture?  Check below:

1.4.1: How to calculate the Rating of my charger in Watts:

Sometimes you might be hearing of 18W chargers or even 27W and that's not even specified on the power brick. This is actually easy to calculate. Just Multiply the Volt rating by the Ampere amount. Like 9V/2.0A. 9 X 2.0=18W. and hence a 9V/3.0A(9 X 3) would give 27W.

1.4.2: Let's practically interpret this Nice charger here:

1. You can spot the AC of about 100-240V, which is decent and quite uniform.

2. The output mode here in this power brick can be adjusted automatically by the load, hence there are three Input volt lines. The 3.6V-6V would equal 3.0A or just 3000MAh. And so on.

3. This Charger is a Quick charge 3.0 certified one. So let loose if you're Phone supports this standard.

4. There are two ports here, the first utilises a 5V standard, and would output 2.1A which is basically a 10W port, which is decent for Phones without quick charge 3.0, but the second is the sweetest as it uses at least 9V-12V which is equal to 1.5A, 9V X 2.0A=18W and 12V X 1.5A also equals 18W. Which is superb.

5. Bottom line this is a really great charger, good for both quick charge and non quick's alike.

2.0: How to Spot a great battery only charger: Usually Known as Universal Chargers.

Although these are becoming extinct due to the advent of non removable batteries(inbuilt batteries), there's a chance you have a few headset batteries lying around, or spare ones you just use in case of a drain.

If you are going to be charging the battery separately from the phone or headset, be sure to find a battery-only charger that matches the voltage of whatever is posted on the battery.

2.0: How to know a great Car charger:

You might just want to charge your phone in your car, or try to reclaim some percentage of battery lost during the day.

Car chargers Can only be used in the 12V cigarette lighter socket found in most vehicles. These Chargers tend to have very high aH (amps per hour) ratings to provide a quick charge, but wary of your phone battery can handle the high current.

2.2: How to spot a great laptop charger:

For laptop power adapters we think that the input of the device should be the same as the output of the adapter. This includes polarity. If the device has a DC input of +12V / 5.4A, get an adapter that has a DC output of +12V / 5.4A. If you have a universal adapter, make sure it has the proper current rating and that you choose the correct voltage and polarity.

Apart from the information mentioned above, The other important term to know is polarity. For direct currents, there is a positive pole (+) and a negative pole (-). For an adapter to work, the positive plug must mate with a negative receptacle or vice versa. Direct current, by nature, is a one-way street, and things just won’t work if you try to go up the downspout.

2.3: How to identify a Good Wireless Charger:

Although wireless chargers are a bit rare in today's collection of adapters, it's is still possible that you have a wireless charge enabled device. To learn about wireless chargers you have to know about Qi.

Now Qi, is an open interface standard that defines wireless power transfer using inductive charging over distances of up to 4 cm (1.6 inches), and is developed by the Wireless Power Consortium.

The Qi 1.2 standard supports charging speeds of up to 15 watts (9 volts/1.67 amps), but 5W, 7.5W, and 10W chargers are more common right now. iPhones support up to 7.5 watts, and many Android phones can do up to 10 watts. Xiaomi's Wireless charger launched with the Mi 9  comes with a exciting 20W, and Huawei's own on their website supports 12V/1.25A 15W.

A 20W Wireless charger. Xiaomi Says it can fill up your Mi 9 in 60 Minutes.

2.4: For your wireless car chargers:
Interesting how Far technology has gone these days. While car wireless charging adopts the same rating as the standard table wireless chargers, generally just choose the one your phone can support, maybe like 10W. Sometimes it might come with an automatic clamp just like Xiaomi's 20W chargers!

A Cool device to have....

Note: USB Cords play a role in charging but as noticed this guide focuses more on the power packs or bricks.

So that wraps up our guide on smartphone plus other devices. If you have any questions, or your'e still confused about the specifications on the chargers, drop a comment and we will answer it for you.