Review: Speedy Micro USB Cables
I have seen these cables pop up on Qoo10 a number of times and picked up a couple to try out. They are relatively inexpensive at S$1.99 for the 2.1A SPEEDY 25cm MicroUSB flat cable and $2.99 for the SPEEDY 100cm NEW 2in1 cable. I have bought some dubious quality cables from eBay in the past but other buyers seem to have good experience with them.
The 25cm MicroUSB flat cable has magnets on the end tips for easy cable organisation. However, they are pretty weak magnets and a slight tug would separate the cables. Not something that you would want to hook around your keychain. Otherwise, it is well constructed and sports gold plated copper contacts for better conductivity.
The 2in1 cable is lightning and micro USB compatible. The connectors here are standard nickel-plated instead of gold. The lightning adapter is molded with a closed loop retainer hook so that it remains on the cable. It’s a smart design, as forgetful souls like me would otherwise lose the adapter after a few instances.
Anyway, I picked up the 2 in 1 cable as it can be handy so that a single cable can used to charge both Android and iOS devices. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long before all devices can standardise on a common USB interface.
Testing Micro USB Cables
I tested both cables with Ampere. Ampere is an Android app that is able to measure the charging and discharging current of your Android phone. Ampere is able to measure the current amount of power you are receiving during charging, and the amount of discharge as well when not charging.
One point to note is that the Ampere app current indication does not represent the maximum current capability of the cable, instead it is to be used more of a comparison across other cables to determine which is most compatible with your phone. In other words, the results need to considered in relation to one another.
On average, my phone was consuming around 200-250mA without a charger connected.
Also, another important point: batteries don’t draw the maximum as it starts approaching it’s full charge. If your battery is charged almost full then the charging current will be much less as by lower battery levels.
The longer 2in1 cable performance was disappointing – 540mA versus 950mA for the 25cm flat cable. I compared both results to the flat microUSB cable that came with the Xiaomi Powerbank. It is one of my fastest charging cable around. Good quality stuff from Xiaomi.
As it turns out, the 25cm Speedy cable is around 10% slower compared to the Xiaomi cable. I think that is still quite good. On the other hand, I was quite disappointed with the performance of the 2in1 cable. Charging on it was quite slow for me. I tested it separately a couple of times too, when my phone battery was at 40%. Charge current reading on Ampere for the 25cm cable was 1280mA, while the 2in1 cable only reach a maximum of 580mA.