[Nexus 5 Accessories] thelastguardian:
My Nexus 5 not reaching full current potential?

Hey everyone!

I've been looking for a fast and stable charger for my Nexus 5 for a while, and was happy I found this thread, because it confirmed that the N5 could take a 1700mah input current sustained.

However, the Blackberry charger being talked about here is really hard to get where I live (India). I'd have to order off chinese sites and/or wait upto 1.5 months for international delivery.

So, I found this Sony-CP-AD2-USB-AC-Adaptor:

www(dot)amazon(dot)in/Sony-CP-AD2-USB-AC-Adaptor/dp/B00FF4GBYA/ref=zg_bs_1389415031_1

(sorry, new user, can't post links)

It's a Sony 2.1 Amp charger, decently cheap (for the Indian market, anyway), and even has a few reviews specifically about it working well with the Nexus 5.

I know a lot has been said about simply using the mentioned Blackberry chargers to avoid risks of unsustainable or low-quality chargers, but it's extremely likely this is just as good, and it was really accessible to me, the way these Blackberry chargers at a couple of bucks are to people in the US/US/CA.

It charged my 10000mAh power bank in about 5 hours, so there's a 2000mA sustained and experimentally measured current right there, to indicate the charger is what it says. Besides, you'd expect a genuine and good quality charger from Sony. So, (unless anyone knows more about this charger) I'm considering it to be capable of atleast the 1.8A the Blackberry blade charger puts out.

N5 is settled down after boot, no apps running, 10% brightness, on 2G, WiFi connected (though I tried airplane mode too, no significant difference in the figures below). All figures were when the phone's battery was anywhere from 10% to 60%.

However, using the current widget, my N5 doesn't go above 1250mA!

The original OEM LG 1.2A charger + cable gives readings of 1150-1250mA, as expected.

The Sony 2.1A charger + big thick high grade cable that came with it, reads about 1050-1100-1200 mA as well.

I also have a cheap no-name (well, it 'says' Samsung, but it's one of those generic cheap ones) 2A adapter + its cable, gives around 600mA.

The above "Samsung" charger + the OEM LG cable or the Sony cable = around 1100-1250mA again. (Seems the cable it came with isn't good, dropping that.)

All interchangements of these chargers and cables maxes out around 1250/1300mA!

I did a 40%-70% charge run, screen off, with the Sony charger+cable, to see if maybe currentwidget wasn't reporting proper values.

It took about 32 minutes, so that comes out to about 1290mA. Still nowhere near 1700 mA!

Just once, with the Sony charger + cable, I got 1500mA. But when I reconnected it just to check, back to 1200mA.

Heck, even using the 10000mAh power bank that I mentioned, rated at a 2.4A max output, currentwidget still read upto 1300mA only!

I'm rooted, stock 4.4.4 KTU84Q, xposed and all, and have tried Franco r63, Code-Blue r414, big-bum r28 and the stock kernel too.

To find out whether my N5 wasn't bad, I tried a friend's completely stock, bootloader locked and unrooted, N5. That N5 too showed a max of 1200mA on all combinations of chargers and cables.

So, I'm confused. Is my N5 somehow limited to 1.2A?

I don't see why, because mmmmmBACON is getting a 1600-1700mA reading, and many others in this thread have reported positive results too.

Can anyone help me out with why my N5 isn't taking the current it should?

Thanks.