The TEST - car USB chargers and their differences

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Recently updated on April 3, 2021 at 07:43 am

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One thing is clear, the cigarette lighter in the car is now more versatile than a whole car used to be! 😂 The mobile phone and tablet industry in particular uses the practical socket to supply their devices with sufficient power. But not every charger brings the available power of the cigarette lighter to the end device! In our USB adapter test you can read what the differences can be and we hope to give you a little help when it comes to getting a universal charger for the mobile phone / tablet etc.

The power makes the difference!

It is important to make sure that all devices connected to the USB adapter are supplied with the required power in order to be optimally charged. A normal cell phone usually needs a current of 500 to 1000 mA to be charged as quickly as possible. A tablet is easily above that and requires 1200 mA to 2000 mA. And a navigation device also needs more than expected at around 1000 mA. These values ​​give an approximate indication of what you need for a USB cigarette lighter adapter to charge the device. In the best case scenario, rather simple devices deliver around 1000 mA, so they are only suitable for charging a cell phone or, if the situation is good, a navigation system. If you want to connect a tablet, it is possible that it will hardly charge or only charge extremely slowly - if it runs poorly then nothing at all will happen. This time it was important for us to charge a standard smartphone in the fastest possible time and we put the visual aspects aside. As test objects, we have the top model Anker PowerDrive 2 Elite (A2212011), a typical NoName €4,99 charger with an extendable charging cord and a NoName USB adapter for also €4,99. The test criterion was exclusively the loading time and here the differences are sometimes extreme.

NoName Charger Cable No. 1

An advantage of this charger is the fact that the cord, similar to that of a vacuum cleaner, can be pulled out over 1 meter and is therefore very flexible. The charging time was over 22 minutes for 5% (without using the mobile phone), but extremely slow, if you use the mobile phone during the charging phase, the device does not keep the battery charge but it even drops and in extreme cases the phone would , for example in navigation mode, just go out. The design of the charger is less compact and a bright red LED clearly provides information about the operating status.

NoName USB charger No. 1

The whole thing looks much better with this universal USB charger, which is also quite cheap at € 4,99 but does not bring its own charging cable. We used the USB quick charging cable of our LG G5 smartphone and were able to charge (without using a cell phone) by 5% in under 6 minutes. The construction of the charger is very compact and a small green LED informs about the operating status.

Anchor PowerDrive 2 Elite (A2212011)

The absolute highlight is definitely the Anker PowerDrive 2 Elite (A2212011) that you can find HERE can order. Not only does it have by far the highest quality design, with a charging time of less than 2 minutes for 6%, it is even significantly faster than the supplied LG charger for the home socket. In addition, a big advantage is that you can connect two devices at the same time and the PowerDrive 2 Elite 24W still provides enough energy to charge even the most hungry devices at maximum speed. Visually, it is by far the best device because it impresses with a carbon look design and stylish indirect and blue lighting during the charging process. More than 20 million customers have already decided in favor of ANKER technology and our short test shows why.

With a purchase price of just €12,99 (including shipping and VAT), there are actually no questions raised because the significantly better performance and appearance impressively justify the additional price. Important when Anchor PowerDrive 2 Elite is also the fact that it sits very well in the lighter from above and is always in contact with the two models. Slipping out of the charging socket is almost impossible under normal circumstances. Although all three devices have a control light, the Anker PowerDrive 2 Elite also performs here by having the most unobtrusive lighting of all (our feeling).

Tip: Fast charging is only possible if the device wants it

Many providers advertise that their adapters charge particularly quickly and work as so-called fast chargers. From a technical point of view, this is rather nonsense, because the cell phone, tablet or even the navigation system all alone determine how much power you draw from the USB charger. Even if the supply of electricity is very high, the device only draws what it needs for its charge on a power supply unit. However, we have to partly contradict that, in our tests it was charged with the Anchor PowerDrive 2 Elite namely faster than the supplied LG charger for the socket.

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