Charger and cable for newer devices

littlemoney

I have a Samsung Galaxy A56 phone and a Galaxy Tab A9. Both have a 4900 mAmp battery. I have been using old charger and charging cable.

I am thinking about getting a more powerful charger but there are so many with different ratings. Also do I need a new cable to cope with faster charging.

Can a charger be too powerful and damage the battery?

Advice on suitable charger and cable would be much appreciated please. Thank you.

dumpster_fire2025

Devices will only pull as much power as they need from the charger so there's no issue with the charger being able to supply more than the device needs. Cable wise they are rated in watts so you'd need a cable rated for whatever wattage the most demanding device requires at a minimum.

RumRat

If you want to go worry free the official Samsung charger and cable are not expensive…. 24% off if you are quick.

Samsung Galaxy Official 45W Super Fast Charger 2.0 (with USB-C to C Data Cable), Black: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

I use that one on my S26 and Tab S9 and my wife has one for her A56 5G…..So guess you would be covered…😉

littlemoney

How do I know what wattage I need for charger and cable please

flaneurs_lobster

I just bought these from Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DBPT55S9?ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details&th=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GGKZ2SC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

£16 for the charger, cable £5ea

Charger is 65W but has 2 ports that can run together at half that. Use it for a laptop full time and a couple of Samsungs that can handle "super fast charging".

Version of this charger I bought 20 months ago still powering another laptop OK.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81948015#Comment_81948015

Galaxy A56 5G supports 45 W Super Fast Charging, compared to 25 W for Galaxy A55 5G.

https://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-a/galaxy-a56-5g-awesome-lightgrey-256gb-sm-a566bzaceub/

The A9 supports 15W, can't find the Samsung spec page for it (no longer sold by them) but plenty of other sources.

Some chatter about a "fast charge" switch in the battery settings that needs to be set "on" after each restart.

The cables are a bit of a lottery, use the ones that came with the devices, decent third party (Anker etc) or Amazon's own stuff. All these will quote a max wattage but they should all be well in excess of your use.

Having said that, just had an expensive Samsung 2m cable (bought with their 45W USB-C charger) fail after 18 months.

littlemoney

If I use my older existing cables with a new faster charger, will the charging speed be slow.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81949166#Comment_81949166

Unless they are Poundstore Specials you'll be very unlikely to find any difference, particularly on the slow charging tablet. Be worth seeing if there is a difference with a new, shiny rated cable and an old one when using a fast charger on the fast phone.

Cheap cables tend to fail physically because of poor construction/materials but up until that point they are usually fine conductively.

littlemoney

My main cable is a 3 meter Belkin USB A to USB C which the spec states 5V/2.4A/12W and supports standard charging up to 15W

The other cable was from Aldi but I don't have any other information.

My current chargers state 5V /2.1A and the second one says 5V/1.55A

poseidon1

I can recommend all IKEA reasonably priced USB C to C cables and indeed their chargers.

I bought a Belkin 25w USB C charger from Amazon when on offer, but when mated with a Samsung cable for a Note 10 phone, only achieved fast charging. Replacing the cable with the IKEA version suddenly produced super fast charging which I did not know the phone was capable of.

Clearly, not all cables are created equal, and I would add the IKEA cable does appear to be far more durable in construction compared to Samsung's rather flimsy offering.

flaneurs_lobster

Clearly, not all cables are created equal, and I would add the IKEA cable does appear to be far more durable in construction compared to Samsung's rather flimsy offering.

True that, when a chunky Samsung cable gave up a while ago I took time to check which of my spares would actually charge at "super fast" - maybe half, and two had died just by sitting in the bottom of a draw.