Charging cable & Charge Questions

[shobuddy]

I picked up a Charge today from Costco. Two questions:

1. My old phone is an LG and the charging cable for the LG plugs in perfectly into the Charge. Is it safe to use the LG cable or will it/could it damage the phone?

2. The Charge I got today had about a 65% charge. Is this normal? In past experiences with new cells, they come completely discharged and this way you can give it a full charge on the first go around...allowing for better battery life. With all the battery issues being talked about, I don't want to be stuck with anything less than the best possible battery.

Thanks

 

[rambag3]

1) Yes it will charge your phone but in my experience only the provided cable will let your phone connect to your laptop. I've been using my old vx9700's cable for 2 weeks now and my battery seems fine.

2) I really don't think that has been an issue since Li-ion batteries. My laptop actually recommends not letting the battery completely discharge very often as it may effect battery life.

 

[shobuddy]

Thanks Ram! Saves me from having to buy extra charging cables. I wasn't sure if the volts for the cables would be different (the Samsung cable has no info on it). A while back there was a mandate that was going to require all cell chargers be universal. Has this taken effect yet?

 

[Farabomb]

All my micro USB cables allow me to connect to PC/Mac. LiPo batteries don't have the issues that NiCad did, they shouldn't be run totally flat but the phone should have a low voltage cutoff.

 

[shobuddy]

I should mention that my LG charger has a spec of 5.0V and 1.0A while the Charge's charger has a spec of 5.1V and 0.7A. I don't imagine this discrepancy makes a difference or affects the phone in any way when using the phones and chargers interchangeably?

 

[tintn00]

Interesting. The charger that came with my droid charge has output spec of 5V and 1A exactly. I'm sure it will work just fine. If the screen becomes unusable after plugging it in, disconnect it right away. It means its sending way too much current to the screen and making more sensitive and unstable.