Car Charger advice

[northerngeezer]

Hi,

I have just bought my daughter this car charger for her Nintendo DSi.



The charger itself is just the charger with a usb slot on the other end into which I put the appropriate cable for charging her DSi.

My question is can I use this charger with the HTC desire USB cable to charge my phone or will it damage the phone.

Thanks

 

[samdale36]

From the picture it just looks like a standard USB charger and they have given you the attachments. If the attachments include the correct usb plug for your Desire then you should be able to use it without any problems.

You should also be able to use the cable that came with your Desire to plug into the car charger's usb port.

You don't need a specific 'HTC Desire Charger' to charge your phone in the car. Hope this helps

 

[northerngeezer]

Thanks for the quick reply.

My only concern was if certain phones have different voltage input and the fear of damaging the phone.

 

[Nodders]

You don't need a specific 'HTC Desire Charger' to charge your phone in the car. Hope this helps

Kind of misleading advice here I'm afraid. You don't need a HTC branded charger, but a normal micro USB charger will be next to useless. You wimply don't get the power from it to charge at a decent rate (a few percent over a 4 hour drive when I had one). If you are using the phone for e.g. satnav, then the power intake from such chargers is less than the power use rate i.e. you will still lose charge even if it is plugged in.

The officially branded ones merge a couple of wires in the charger thereby giving more power and a much much better charge rate. The branded one is the one I got - there are others, but I don't know how they will be described in shops.

 

[Phenomenological]

...However a generic charger will still charge the phone at the same rate as having it plugged into a USB port. Which unless you're using applications like sat-nav heavily will be enough to charge it, and even if you are it will extend your usage time considerably.

 

[Nodders]

In theory yes, but as I noted after a couple of hours in a car bumping a charge up from e.g. 30% to 35% doesn't really hack it. The official one will bump it up into the 90s if not fully charge it. For a fiver more it is a bit of a no brainer.

 

[Phenomenological]

For a fiver more it is a bit of a no brainer.

Can't argue with that logic!

 

[samdale36]

Kind of misleading advice here I'm afraid.

My bad. I stand corrected. I didn't take into account lower voltage supply ones. Was only thinking of the fact that you do not need a specific HTC one to charge it, you can buy a 3rd party one with the same power.

 

[Nodders]

I didn't word that very well - it does read very aggressive. Apologies.

 

[sw2010]

I would recommend always using the exact lead for the model, the small investment would maximize the potential lifespan of any product of this nature. (In the long run!)

 

[Jason71]

In theory yes, but as I noted after a couple of hours in a car bumping a charge up from e.g. 30% to 35% doesn't really hack it. The official one will bump it up into the 90s if not fully charge it. For a fiver more it is a bit of a no brainer.

My experience is standard USB charger 20% per hour. HTC CC C200 40% per hour. Google maps navigation -30% per hour so as mentioned it is possible for the phone to discharge while on charge however if only getting 2.5% an hour on USB I think you must have had a very poor charger of have been using some quite heavy apps at the same time.

Bottom line the DS charger will be better than nothing but I still agree. You can get a CC200 for

 

[adam1985]

The main thing to look out for when you are getting a car charger is that it can output 1amp which is what the HTC wall charger and car chargers do where as the USB from a computer only outputs at 0.5amp hence the difference in charging time.