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Chargie is small a device that’s been designed to be more useful than Apple’s Smart Charging feature by being very configurable and flexible.
The gadget charging problem
The de facto standard in gadget batteries is lithium ion. They’re light and very efficient, but the backside is that they need sensible charging management so that you can benefit from their capacity for as long as possible.
As you probably know, gadget batteries can be damaged in two ways: by depleting them completely and by keeping them fully charged for a long time, like overnight charging.
Chargie has been optimizing battery charging since 2019, long before Apple or any other manufacturer really did something about it. For example, Apple introduced the Optimized Battery Charging functionality in iOS 13 and soon every other manufacturer followed suit. It would “magically” predict when the user wakes up and top up the phone from 80% to 100% right before that estimated time.
However, Android phone manufacturers only copied Apple and did not provide any significant control to the user other than the mere information that the battery is being “automatically” and “magically” protected. Their technology relies on fixed user schedules and does not work most of the time.
Some people have their phone on charge at their desk, for example, taking it with them for internal or external meetings on a variable schedule.
This is where Chargie comes in.
Chargie makes your regular phone charger pretty smart
Chargie is a small device you fit between your charger’s power adapter and your charger cable.
It links by Bluetooth to the Chargie app on your phone. You can then set the target percentage you want to charge to manually, just like the feature offered in high-end electric cars like Teslas.
You can tell the app to schedule your device to be topped up manually, at a time you know precisely. For example, you can keep your phone at 50% throughout the night (much better for the battery) and top it up to 90% or whatever level you find suited for the next day, thus completely avoiding high charging states and using the two-step charging process. Even if you top it up to 100%, it’s much better doing it this way and then immediately starting to consume from the battery than plainly keeping it charged at that level for the entire night.
Chargie as PD power limiter
Because the newest PD chargers can put out up to 65 watts of instant power, batteries heat up during the charging process, which is causing internal damage to it every time you charge. Moreover, the charging current is lowered when the battery is warmer, which slows down the entire charging process. The new Chargie C Basic deals with your PD charger through its built-in hardware and tells it to limit available power to some 8 watts only, so that your battery doesn’t get hot and the time it takes to charge is not prolonged by much compared to full PD charging, just because the process doesn’t get throttled by iOS due to overheating.
Chargie for laptops
Ovidiu Sandru, the founder of Lighty Gadgets LLC, and creator of the Chargie project, said they’re also working on a laptop version of Chargie that will switch up to 100 watts of power to protect your very expensive laptop’s battery in the same way it does for phones. The waiting line will probably be huge on this one, so reserve your seat as soon as possible. If you want Chargie C for Laptops, there is a $10 reservation fee per order (non-refundable, deductible at order time with a coupon), with deliveries to start sometime in April/May. The final price is estimated at $45. Your laptop battery deserves the best protection you can get it, especially if you keep it plugged in all day long.
Universal Battery Protection
You can protect all sorts of other “dumb” devices you may have: flashlights, older GPS navigators, Bluetooth speakers, wireless headphones, smartwatches, and more. Most of them have no smart charging limits at all and can spend days or even weeks with batteries that are 100% charged, which leads to much lower battery life. Chargie can also be used with basic lithium-ion contraptions created by hobbyists and makers.
Chargie is green and protects your wallet
By extending the usable life of your battery, Chargie saves you the hassle and expense of replacing it prematurely.
That doesn’t just save you money, though – it also helps the environment. Batteries use rare minerals which need to be mined, and also create an e-waste problem when it is time to dispose of them. Chargie reduces or eliminates battery replacements, so is kind to the planet.
Chargie is manufactured in Europe in an environmentally responsible way. The process is lead-free, and both the circuits and contacts are gold-plated to protect against oxidisation, prolonging the life of the device itself as well as your smartphone.
An inexpensive solution for very expensive phones
Chargie A Gold Edition, for use with USB-A power bricks, costs just $32.99, and you can use it with any of your existing chargers and charging cables. Chargie C Basic costs $34.99 and is an even more flexible and future-proof solution because it can accommodate any type of cable that ends in a USB-C connector.
Using the coupon “chargieforgeeks” you can get a 10% discount on your order, only this weekend. You buy a bulk pack for an even better price and also equip your loved ones’ phones with this revolutionary smart charging technology
Disclosure: “This is a sponsored post. Geeky Gadgets has been compensated for this post.”.
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