I bought a new tablet but I’m unable to use the charging cable it came with until I can get an adapter because I don’t have anything that can except USB type C. I have multiple cables with a USB A connector but the tablet says that it’s “slow charging” when I use them. I tried to look this up before posting but for some reason, a lot of websites refer to “normal changing” as slow charging now and I’m unable to find anything relevant to my issue. Would I be fine to use the other cables I have until I can get an adapter?
Edit: I no longer need help with this. I originally made this post because, for several years, I was told and had read that both slow and fast charging damaged batteries significantly more than normal charging. But, as multiple users have stated, it seems like I was being told and reading false information and slow charging is actually better for a battery than normal charging.
So what other posters may be missing here is that, depending on the device and how it’s powered, “slow charging” may not actually be fast enough of a charge to keep it charged while powered on.
So while its true, slowly charging your battery is better for it, in this case, you may be receiving the warning because the device may eventually power down while in use.
If that is indeed the case, in the meantime if you charge it while it is off and use it until the battery gets down to about 30% and then turn it off to charge again and you should be fine. Honestly pretty safe just mildly frustrating, if you ask me.
Source: a friend’s girlfriend’s old laptop which we discovered needed its fancy charging cable to both charge and stay on and a regular usb cable actually failed to give it the proper power delivery. She was having all kinds of issues with it and it took me digging through the whole manual for the device to figure it out.
I’m ok with it taking longer to charge and not being able to use it while it’s charging, I have other device, including a computer, that I can use while it’s charging. I made this post because, from what I’ve read and was told over the years, is that slow charging (actual slow charging and not normal charging) can damage the battery. From what other users have told me, this seems to be a lie (or that it’s at least not as bad as fast charging).
However, there is once case, where the extremes are bad, and hitting the sweet spot is good: temperature.
For example, this graph shows that charging in very cold and very hot will kill your battery faster. If you stay in the middle, you’ll get the maximum number of cycles possible before the battery eventually dies.
Those C-values are the charging rate. 1 C = normal, 2 C = very fast 3 C = crazy fast.