Surface 3 Charging

[nicsv19]

Nobody read my information about much faster charging with the docking station? I still don't understand why this is so much faster than the micro USB charger alone...

`

At least according to the Swedish Microsoft page, the docking station is rated at 48W so without owning it myself and not being very familiar with the usb protocols my guess is that it is charging through the usb 3.o port (I can only see displayport and usb 3.0 connectors on the docking station pictures). With 48W compared to 13W it is no wonder it appears to charge faster but the question to me is can I get something similar without buying the docking station?

 

[mtalinm]

makes a lot of sense...I'd gladly charge via usb3 if it were faster...just don't want to pay $200 for a huge, non-portable charger

 

[lookingforward]

Does anyone here own the Anker 20W 2-port charger?
http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger...&qid=1432705849&sr=8-3&keywords=anker+charger

I thought it was working at first with the S3, but now charging seems to stop after a couple minutes and it reports as connected, but not charging. I have tried both ports and use the OEM charging cable. The Anker brick charges my Nexus 5 and the OEM brick charges the S3 without issue.

 

[Zippy0n]

I dont have the 20w wall charger however I bought the Anker 2nd Gen Astor e5 external battery pack, last night I fully charged the Anker and plugged it in to my S3 which was on and noticed like the gentleman above that it reports as connected, but not charging, however I charged the surface from 93% to 100% overnight (I know it was only 7% but I tried it anyway) and it worked fine and charged to a 100% when I went down this morning.

Anyone else have it where you work on the Surface 3 and it charges while you work?

 

[LibbyLA]

I have a Limefuel LP200X 20000 mAh charger that charged mine from 89% to 100% using a generic micro USB/mini USB Y-cable. Wasn't using the computer much, didn't keep track of how long it took. This was the 2.1 A port. Haven't tried either of my Ankers. Have ordered the elivebay one with the 3A port.

ZippyOn, I noticed when I plugged my Limefuel in, at first it reported plugged in, not charging, but it obviously charged so maybe it takes a minute or two for the S3 and battery to sync. Or maybe it doesn't charge when you are using it. I haven't checked that.

 

[Zippy0n]

Yeah I just charged the S3 last night again from 65% to 100% with the Anker and found that it charged well, however I'm pretty sure that someone on here said they had used their S3 and a battery pack at the same time when using it and it charged, shame mine doesn't do that.

Still an amazing bit of kit

 

[netuser]

To contrast the slowness of micro USB charging vs power charging.

Surface 3 charged 20% in one hour while idle.

Surface 2 charged 25% in 30 minutes while idle or 50% in one hour.

Give us Type-C next time and put the beef back in charging. 1999 called and wants their charge rate back. Otherwise S3 knocks it out of the park, instead it's just a ground rule double.

Surface 4 will probably have Type-C next year since the cheap ASUS T100HA is getting it this year.

 

[GreyFox7]

`

At least according to the Swedish Microsoft page, the docking station is rated at 48W so without owning it myself and not being very familiar with the usb protocols my guess is that it is charging through the usb 3.o port (I can only see displayport and usb 3.0 connectors on the docking station pictures). With 48W compared to 13W it is no wonder it appears to charge faster but the question to me is can I get something similar without buying the docking station?

No doubt the reason for the larger wattage on the Docking Station is to power peripherals plugged into the USB ports. The dock could be charging the Surface via the DP connection but that's unconfirmed and I haven't seen any chargers that connect via DP; that would represent an undisclosed feature.

 

[GreyFox7]

Does anyone here own the Anker 20W 2-port charger?
http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger...&qid=1432705849&sr=8-3&keywords=anker+charger

I thought it was working at first with the S3, but now charging seems to stop after a couple minutes and it reports as connected, but not charging. I have tried both ports and use the OEM charging cable. The Anker brick charges my Nexus 5 and the OEM brick charges the S3 without issue.

I have that charger and it generally works well although I did observe an instance where it did something similar it only happened once to me. That said, in such a small test sample a single failure usually indicates a problem to investigate.

 

[mogulman]

I wonder if the S3 charging is similar to the Asus T100 that I used to have. There were issues with chargers, but also with cables. Some cables seemed to charge the device faster than others. Not sure why. Portapow made a Faster Charger cable that always seemed to work well. I am using one right now on my S3 with a 2.1 A charger and it seems to charge fine. So I wonder if maybe the issue is more with the cable than the charger.

 

[mogulman]

Specifically, this cable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088HTYUE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00

 

[nicsv19]

I wonder if the S3 charging is similar to the Asus T100 that I used to have. There were issues with chargers, but also with cables. Some cables seemed to charge the device faster than others. Not sure why. Portapow made a Faster Charger cable that always seemed to work well. I am using one right now on my S3 with a 2.1 A charger and it seems to charge fine. So I wonder if maybe the issue is more with the cable than the charger.

It has to do with the resistance in the cable and connectors which causes a voltage drop. A long thin cable can cause quite a big voltage drop. One of the reasons that the OEM charger is specified to 5.2V is to be able to keep the voltage above 4.5V. You can read more about it on http://goughlui.com/2014/10/01/usb-cable-resistance-why-your-phonetablet-might-be-charging-slow/.

The Portapow is a really large gauge cable (normal for charging USB-cables is AWG 24) with its AWG 20.