USB cables and slow charging

When you charge things, the cables make a huge difference. I have bought various cables, microusb and apple, at various times, and I have never really paid attention to them, as long as it charged, I assumed the charger was the thing that made the most difference.

However, it turns out that most cables are utter junk.

I have a microusb cable and used it to charge a Nexus 7. However it was excruciatingly slow - about 7 hours to charge fully. I recently bought a really good 2 metre USB extension cable, and a very short 3-way adapter (microusb, apple, new apple) and I have discovered that it charges the Nexus 7 more than twice as quickly - 3 hours - on the same charger.

I guess the same thing applies to all pads, and to a lesser extent, to phones. I had one cable that wouldn't charge an iPad at all, because it was so bad - it would charge a phone, but not an iPad.

I now use a 2m high quality USB extension cable, with a very short splitter that goes from USB to microusb, and both the apple connectors. Very convenient.

Do not skimp on cables, especially long ones - quality pays.