If you carry more than one smartphone, or if you have a Wi-Fi hotspot or tablet or smartwatch as well as your main mobile device, chances are you’ve had one run out of power before the other. Any modern smartphone, like Samsung’s Galaxy S5 or the new Note 4, has a large enough battery to share some juice — if you have the right cable.
In the US, Samsung has launched a Power Sharing Cable — a micro USB to micro USB cable, one and a half metres in length, that can share power from one device to another. Little arrows on each micro USB connector tell you which way power will flow, and Samsung has an accompanying app that can switch on the flow of current, although some devices will share power with or without a piece of software telling it to do so.
If you have two smartphones, or a smartphone and a tablet, or a tablet and a hotspot, a power sharing cable like this might come in handy. According to Samsung, only its own devices — the Galaxy S 5, Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Galaxy Tab S 8.4, Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy Avant, and Galaxy Note 4 — are officially supported for sharing power, but there are other devices out there, like the Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced, that can share power with other devices over micro USB. Your mileage may vary.
At the moment, Samsung’s power sharing cable isn’t officially available in Australia. Australian stockists that I’ve found — or at least companies that will ship to you in Australia — include Expansys, which has the cable in both black and white for $25.99, and MobileZap, with black and white for $13.99. Exeltek has the white cable for $19.99. Found any others, or anywhere cheaper? Let us know in the comments.
Got too many battery-powered mobile devices and not enough power points? Samsung’s multi-headed USB to micro USB cable should come in handy. (And that one is available in Australia.) [Samsung US]