How does a smartphone charger work?

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Our office recently installed new wall plugs with both the Type D plug outlet (South Africa) and a USB point to charge your phone straight from the wall, without the need for the little white charger that you’d otherwise use.

IF we can use electricity straight from the wall into the phone/powerpack/battery through a USB cable, what is the use of a charge and how exactly does it work?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A charger, the plug, simply converts 120V AC electricity to 5V DC electricity. 5V DC is what all USB plugs use. They are simply power supplies, dumb ones that simply covert electricity.

Each plug also has an Amperage rating, which limits the speed/power the plug can produce. Higher amperage allows the phone to charge faster(if the phone supports that). The device drawing power decides how many amps to use, the power supply simply has a “max amperage” it can go up to.

The phone has it’s own “charger” built in, that controls the power coming from the plug, before it gets to the battery. This is the actual “charger”, a smart device that regulates the power going into the battery, charging it and preventing overcharge.

Your phone and laptop, are weird cases where we call the power supply brick a “charger” but the actual charger is in the device, the plug/brick simply converts electricity to the correct format(power supply).

So the thing in your wall is a powersupply(like the bricks/plugs) that converts electricity to the correct format. 5v DC

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