Ok, I have to leave in a few minutes. Laptop, check! Spellbook, check! phone... not charged?!
NOOOOO!
If this seems all to familiar, hold onto your butts and I’ll have you fast-charge ready in no time!
This is DIYin5!
Hey everyone and welcome to DIY In 5.
I’m your host Trisha Hershberger and today
we’re gonna help you wheeze all the juice outta that little phone of yours!
Encino man? No? Ok moving on!
Whether you forgot to plug it in or placed it on the wireless charger ever so slightly incorrectly,
a smartphone with no power can start your day off on in the sour of sourest moods.
Luckily, fast charge battery tech is a thing that exists if you know how to make use of it.
And if you find any today’s video useful, please go ahead and subscribe
so you don’t miss out on any future tech tips.
Whether you’re an iFriend or Android there’s a few universal truths to quick charging.
The first thing is when in doubt use a wall plug. Wall plugs generally have
higher wattage and amp outputs which can get you going faster.
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.
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 boil 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.
Now for our iFriends, the good news is your options are easier.
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 have to pay extra for that cable.
Pro-tip: There’s a quick software trick you can do to speed things up as well.
Enable Airplane mode! The less you’re asking the phone to do while you’re charging,
the faster your battery will go up… it’s that simple. For even better results just power it off.
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 tremendously.
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, and I personally love it, but speed is not one of those benefits.
Save the wireless charging for when you’re not in a hurry and as I mentioned before,
make sure you set it on the charging pad exactly right.
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 charge banks 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.
So, 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.
That should get you back up and running. Please feel free to share your most frustrating,
hilarious or otherwise infuriating low phone battery story in the comments below and we
can all share in the tech woes that unite us.
Until next time, I’m Trisha Hershberger and you’re watching DIY in 5.