Your cable could be slowing down your charging speed.

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What makes a good charging cable

Your cable influences the charging speed of your device so even if you have the latest fast charger you might still not be charging at the fastest possible speed.

What is the difference between cables?

From the outside, many cables all look the same but on the inside, the construction is different and many cables have a slow only design. It all comes down to the wire’s ability to carry a fast speed.

Inside a USB cable are 4 wires,

USB cable inside wires
The inside diagram of a USB cable.
  • The white and green are for data.
  • The red and black are 5V and carry the power for charging, these determine charge speed. (Some fast-charging protocols can be up to 20V)

The amount of power your cable can carry is determined by the size of the 2 power wires inside, a standard cable is 28 gauge and is capable of about .5A, this is the standard charge rate. A faster charger cable has larger internal wires (mostly 24 gauge) that can carry larger currents of 2A or more.

Phone cable USB gauges
The size difference between a 28 and 24 gauge wire, easy to see here on the chart, but difficult to distinguish once it is made into a USB cable.

The relationship between gauge and the total current is basic electrical physics, a wire is limited in the amount of current it can transfer therefore a larger wire can carry more current. This effect is even worse if you buy really long USB charger cables, you get a longer cable at the price of charging speed. Cable makers can make a low gauge cable cheaper than a fast one, so that is why fast charger cables are usually more expensive as the wires inside are larger. As most devices now are fast compatible, I expect to slowly see all third party cables become faster. Currently, there are mostly slow standard cables in the market so if you are ready for fast charging, be sure to check your cables are also ready for your latest device and charger.

Cables like these come in cool colours and are long and convienent however, most are low gauge and really slow down your charging speeds.

Cables like these come in cool colors and are really long. Most of these style cables though are high gauge and really slow down your charging speeds. Ok if you are in bed or in the office but not useful for fast charging and on newer phones. Some of these cables are so long that if you are using it while charging the battery may not even charge.

Need a fast charging cable?

Firstly check your device is fast charger capable (most are) and you have a charger capable of supplying a faster rate. Then check the original cable that came with your device, some larger phones and tablets come with fast good size cables so test with that first; if you don’t have the original, grab a fast charger cable that matches your device and desired length, and enjoy your fully compatible fast-charging system.

We have a few fast charger brands for Android and Apple but we strongly recommend BlitzWolf chargers. They offer great value and performance.

View our recommended Apple, Android, and TypeC cables.