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I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone that has a mini-USB3 socket. It came with a USB2 charger and cable.

I can buy a new USB3 cable, bud did not find a charger.

Can I use any USB2 AC adaptor to plug my USB3 cable and connect to the mini-USB3 port of the phone? Will it charger faster? Will anything break?

4 Answers 4

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USB 3 is backwards compatible with USB 2

Standard USB 3 will work fine with a standard USB 2 plug/outlet
And I believe that the new micro USB 3 is split into two parts where one part is the usb 2 style plug and the other is the additional part required for USB 3. So you can just plug in the USB 2 compatible part and it should work. (This requires a version of the connector that does in fact split the two)

But as long as everything fits, no it won't break.

Also, you will only get a charge faster by plugging it into a source with more amps (like a wall socket). USB 3 has the support for more power but that requires a USB 3 charger.

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Since USB 3.0 is rated for slightly more power (4.5 Watts vs 2.5 Watts), it’s very unlikely you’ll get problems. It will not charge faster.

That being said, USB chargers have nothing to do with USB (as in data transfer) at all. Not only do they use proprietary signalling for determining the charge current, they also provide way more power than USB (2.0 or 3.0) is meant to transfer, usually ranging from 5 to about 10 Watts.

Your phone won’t charge faster than it’s designed to. There’s an integrated charging circuit that will never draw more power than spec’d. The shipped (or official) charger will provide the best performance.

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That will work absolutely fine - although, if you plug it into your PC to do file transfer speeds you will only get USB/USB 2 speeds.

USB is generally fully backward compatible and will always work at the speed of the slowest device. a USB1 port, USB2 cable, USB3 phone will work at USB1 speed (slowest) but will work. Likewise, if your computers port is USB2 capable - you will get a USB2-USB2-USB3 "chain" which will slow to USB2 speeds... and so on.

It is also worth noting that charging through a USB3 cable and charger will be faster. USB2 can only draw up to 500mA of power, where a USB3 setup can pull up to 900mA - however, this slower charge will not hurt your battery at all! Further to this, going the other way and offering a USB2 phone a usb3 charger will be safe as only 500mA of the possible 900mA would be "asked for" by the phone.

For a full USB2 & 3 comparison, take a look at: This page

Hope this helps.

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Here is an article describing it all http://www.usr.com/en/education/usb-30-peripherals/

Quote from the site

USB 2.0 cables can be used with 3.0 ports but the transfer rate will fall back to 2.0

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  • While true, this does not answer the question asked. The OP isn't interested in transfer rates but rather, plugging a USB3 cable into a USB2 charger. Jun 2, 2014 at 14:48

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