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Charging your devices when travelling

One of the challenges when traveling is being able to connect and charge all the different devices we take with us. These devices differ depending on the purpose of the trip (business or pleasure) but have the same challenges.When traveling for pleasure you may be staying with friends or at an AirBnB. What is available may be unknown. Many hotels cater for international travelers and have sockets that allow many different plugs to be used - The JW Marriott in Bangalore allows you to plug in any type of plug (all that I have seen!). One hotel in Sydney had USB charger ports available.

The first challenge is being able to plug your charger in. When traveling for work I always carry two adapters that convert from the local plug standard to the plugs required for my devices and chargers. An alternative is to carry one adapter and a power board. The exception to the two adapters is when I am traveling to multiple countries which have different plugs! In those cases a universal adapter is useful - such as the Oneadaptr Twist. The problem with universal adapters is they don't always plug in securely or are too bulky to fit when the plug is awkwardly placed - such as right down by the floor or behind a cabinet.

I recently got a new mobile phone - a Samsung S8 - which supports fast charging. What this means is that with the supplied charger it will charge in about an hour. What I didn't know was that with the wrong charger it would charge very slowly - even if the charger is capable of providing enough power. On my last trip I found it would not charge overnight - in fact after ten hours it had only charged to 70%. This was using a charger that supplied 10W and charged an iPad Pro on one of the 5W ports. I have now bought a Oneadaptr evri - this supplies a total of 80W and supports fast charging the S8. It is also reasonably small and light so will be easy to carry.


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