[Nexus 5 Accessories] phoenyx:
I have been on the hunt for good charging solutions for my Nexus 5 (and other devices). During this process I have made some observations that many of you probably already know but I wanted to post them here for others and hopefully gather more information as well.

It started off with me looking for dual port chargers that could fast charge my devices. Much to my dismay, I found that all the dual chargers I found had one Apple port and one non-Apple port which meant decreased charging rates for devices that weren't meant for its port. With that I decided to do a little non-scientific study. This was not meant for getting exact performance numbers, just to get an idea of what kind of performance I could get with different phone/cable/charger combinations.

Phones used:

Nexus 5 running 4.4.4

Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-I337) running 4.4.2

Method of measuring charge amperage:

Current Widget. Set to update every (1) second and I put 2 instances of each type of widget on the screen (total of 4 widgets): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manor.currentwidget

Although I did the measurements with the phones connected to WiFi and not in airplane mode, the differences with the phones in airplane mode were insignificant for the purposes of this observation. The bigger factor was the difference between screen on and screen off (the rates you see immediately after turning the screen back on). I only used screen on rates. The readings I used below were when the phones batteries were below 90%.

Chargers that I have tried so far:

[IMG="Chargers"]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-xzmRk6_P_Aw/U8LWA8ao1LI/AAAAAAAB_hQ/FbDP0zKJkmo/w935-h526-no/IMG_20140713_085455.jpg[/IMG]

From left to right, starting at the top left: Nexus 7 (2012) stock charger, Galaxy S4 stock charger, Nexus 5 stock charger, PowerGen dual port charger, GT Max 2 port car charger, LectronicSmart by Conair 2 port car charger.

Charger ratings:

Nexus 7: 2A

Galaxy S4: 2A

Nexus 5: 1.2A

PowerGen: 2.4 total divided between an Apple port and a Non-Apple port (NA)

GTMax: 2.1A and 1A

LectronicSmart: 2.1A each

Cords I used: Motorola SKN6378A, stock Nexus 5 cable, stock Galaxy S4 cable. All these cables had the same performance.

Nexus 5 results:

N5, N7 and PowerGen (NA port) all peaked in the 900mA range but the readings were constantly fluctuating between the peak and the 600mA range except for the PowerGen NA port had lows in the 300's. The PowerGen Apple port could barely peak in the 300's with lows in the single digits. The Samsung S4 charger had peaks in the 1500mA range and lows in the 1400 range.

Both car chargers were miserable, with peaks in the 300's and lows in the single digits.

Samsung Galaxy S4 results:

The Samsung values didn't fluctuate like the Nexus did. In spite of it being set to update every second, it just showed a constant charge value. I'm not smart enough to divine what might be the cause but I am assuming it may be due to the widget compatibility or how the S4 reports charging amperage, I cant imagine that it doesn't fluctuate.

On all chargers it showed 1200mA charging rate, even on the Apple port of the PowerGen charger. It is interesting that the N5 pulls a better charging rate off of the Samsung charger than its own phone does.

I also decided to try out some 3rd party cables to see how they might perform. On the S4 power adapter with a generic eBay/Amazon cable the N5 pulled around 400mA and the S4 pulled 600mA. With a generic cable from Fry's the N5 pulled into the 900's while the S4 pulled 1200mA.

I have a couple more chargers on order and will update this along with links if anyone is interested.

I am still on the hunt for a good dual port charger (both car and wall) that can fast charge a Nexus 5 and another Android device (Nexus 7, Galaxy S4, etc) so if anyone has any good leads, it would be appreciated.

Here is a screenshot of the N5 with the 4 widgets to illustrate the wide fluctuations:

[IMG="Screenshot"]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MaAbuXFzZew/U8LFQ6pYlEI/AAAAAAAB_gY/vokcj5emp5o/w317-h563-no/Screenshot_2014-07-13-06-00-33.png[/IMG]