Is the Note 2 Picky About USB Cables?

[jayscottphoto]

I have had my Note 2 for a few months now and have had no problems with it whatsoever. It is my first smart phone, though I have had experience with others, just never owned one before.

The only problem I have had with the Note 2 has been that I have found mine to be very picky about the cable I use to charge it. As long as I use the cable that came with either it or with my wife's S3 it charges exactly as quickly as I would expect it to considering that it has a 3500 mA hour battery. Run the numbers on a two amp charger or a 500 mA USB port, considering your expected inefficiencies, and it charges a 3500 mA hour as quickly as I would expect it to.

The only exception being when I try any other cable than the ones that came with our phones. I have tried a number of off market cables including small retractables, highly rated standard micro USB cables and all of them seem almost completely useless. I am lucky if I gain 2% an hour, even with a two amp wall charger. This includes the additional car and wall USB charger that came with our phones when we purchased them from Costco. I know that they are not Samsung brand chargers but they certainly aren't cheap Chinese knockoff $.50 cables and they still fail to charge the phone quickly.

I ordered another variety of cables from DX.com, including a supposedly OEM Samsung two amp wall charger and cable. I have yet to try it out and am just experimenting with the additional charging cables that came with this most recent order. Monitoring my phone charging on the desk beside me I may have found a cable that is up to par with Samsung's cable, but it would be the first of many that I have tried.

Considering that as long as I'm using the cables that came with the phones I have no problems charging I do not expect it to be an issue with my battery. I am very impressed with the battery life of this phone with a little help from Juice Defender. I just don't want to be stuck with only the OEM cables. I want a couple of spares as well as one to throw in my vehicle.

All things being equal, has anyone else had trouble charging their phone with aftermarket cables? I should also add that the aftermarket cables do not have a problem transferring data to the phone when connected to a computer, just are unable to supply enough power to charge the battery properly.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[rankar7]

it's definitely going to be picky with a 3000+ma battery and chargers rated between 500ma and 2a. you're going to have to get the shortest usable cable possible (keep it to three feet or less for best results) at the heaviest gauge possible to reduce resistance in the line. i'm using mediabridge high-speed micro usb cables and they're excellent. very good quality and available on amazon too.

 

[zmann]

I don't understand,, I use other cables and it charges just fine. My other cables were from other high end smartphones so maybe that's why they work.

Note 2, it's true, ,size is everything!

 

[jayscottphoto]

This one that I am having the best luck with, so far, is the shortest one I have had but it is thicker than a few of the aftermarket cables I have tried to this point. The Samsung cables are probably twice as long as the one I'm currently trying. Thank you for the advice on the mediabridge cables. I will look into them.

I will post my results with the few cables I have left to try with links of where to buy them.

 

[Jerry-O]

With other cables that came work old smartphones I have no problems with cheap generic USB cables it is hit or miss

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[karsdroid]

I noticed the same thing....old charger we keep in the kitchen for "dumb" home phone doesn't do a thing for my note 2....i bought an oem replacement charging cord from amazon and it works great. rather have the real thing than screw around trying to find cheap knock offs.

 

[TheOtherBill]

Not all USB cables meet the newer charging specs. The easiest way to test a cable is to use your 2A stock wallplug that came with the phone. Attach the cable you want to check to the phone and the stock wallplug. Go to Settings > Battery It will say "Charging (USB)" or "Charging (AC)" if it says USB you can't fast charge with that cable.

I should add: Using an old wallplug of lower capacity the above test will show AC charging, but it won't be fast. I tried an old Blackberry charger I had laying around rated at 750ma (3/4 Amp) with the stock cable and it still showed AC, but obviously it's not putting out 2A. It would still charge faster than a PC USB port which only puts out 500ma (1/2 Amp).

Summary: If just one stock charger/cable isn't enough, buy an OEM cable and charger unless you're willing to put up with slower charge times. I often charge overnight and I use an old cable and charger for that since it will still be done by the time I wake up.

 

[jayscottphoto]

That is some great information, especially the "Charging (USB)" or "Charging (AC)". Thank you. I am just testing the replacement OEM charger. Once I have tried all that I have I will post a comprehensive list of my results.

The only reason I was trying aftermarket cables was that I wanted a few extra cables, not necessarily a charger with each. Otherwise I would have bought the OEM charger and cable immediately for just the few dollars more.

 

[z71kris]

I noticed I could not get my thunderbolt charger to plug in to my note, I did not want to force it, but it would not plug in. But a few others I have I have including an old LG flip phone, and a Blackberry one both fit.

 

[Droid_Evo_8]

Just buy an extra battery / charger combo (Samsung one) AND the mediabridge cable. Problem solved.

 

[pluka]

The Note 2 supports a 2A charger and is one of the few Smartphones that will accept a charge rate over 1A. However, using a "data" USB cable may only allow 500mA and a charge+data cable may only reach 1A. I recall reading at XDA and somewhere else that to get a 1A and over requires bridging 2 pins on a USB cable. So, any brand 2A charger with a cable or a Samsung USB cable will support 2A. Getting a retractable or cheap USB cable may drop even a 2A charger to an actual rate below 1A. There is a good thread at XDA Developers about this - do a search for more info.

Paul

 

[tirith]

Works fine, even with my moto cable...

My fiancee's s3 charges faster off my 2a charger than her 1a charger... expected though.

~swyped from my galaxy note 2 on the now network

 

[susheelleo]

Note 2 cable repair

Samsung Note 2 charger is of 5 Volt 2 Amp and the data + charging cable is shielded cable, not the ordinary one. It takes lots of time if you charge through other cable or charger. One good thing about this USB cable, it is not soldered, it is crimped. So, you can repair it with little efforts.

There is a video on youtube for the same, As I am new in this community, can't post the link. You can copy the above text and search in google.

 

[Liquidretro]

Side note, buying things from DX.com is fun and cheap but you should pretty much assume they are not genuine.

Ok there are a lot of factors here, I have spent a decent amount of time and some money reading about this and buying a few different cables to test. I actually have some being delivered today. My interest was more about the charging speed of the USB power banks than the wall charger but the same principals apply. To do this I bought a couple of different USB Charger Doctor like devices that you connect at the source end and it will show you power draw in Watt, Amp, Voltage, and how much current has flowed in my favorite model.

I am going to write up a blog post at some point with photos of all this but here is an abbreviated version.

The charger does matter, lots of counterfeits on the market and models that look similar. Also some manufactures charges dont deliver what they say but it's more than the charger. See Ken Shirriff's blog: A dozen USB chargers in the lab: Apple is very good, but not quite the best for more on that front. I am going to assume the OP is using the stock Samsung charger his Note 2 came with.

The Cable is one of the biggest impact and where most have trouble. Something like 95+% of the cables you buy online and in the store are 28/28 gauge cables. These cables don't support the full 2A that the Note 2 is capable of accepting. The better option that is capable of handling that are 28/24 gauge cables. So the 28 gauge wires are the data pins, and the 24 gauge wires are the charging wires. 24 gauge wires are nearly 60% larger and handle the power with ease. Buying you cables from a trusted vendor is important too. Monoprice is a great place to get cheap cables, shipping does hurt some of the cheapness but they are a trusted vendor. Length of cable also matters, your 1ft cable will have less resistance than the 6ft cable you have. This is true regardless of gauge, but the thinner gauges make the problem even worse.

Last thing that matters is what charge state the phone is in. As a phone fills up it does slow down it's charge rate as part of the battery protection and over charge protection. So if you have a meter you can see the difference between charge rates for a phone at 20% vs a phone at 90% on the same cable and same charger.

I plan to do some testing with a couple of different devices, different cables and different chargers here in the coming weeks to create some tables etc.

 

[tdusar06]

I had a similar issue. I bought a "high speed data charger cable" off of Amazon and quickly realized it didn't work as well as my original charger cable. It was a little over 6 ft long and relatively thin. Amazon did get me my money back but I was stuck with the crappy charger.

I went and bought the Media Bridge cable, from Amazon for $5, after reading this thread and it works great! It is still the length I needed, 6 ft, but it is much thicker than my previous cable and it has gold plated ends. I just got it in the mail today and it charged my phone from roughly 63% to 96% in about an hour. Thanks for the tip!