[fruitloaf]

My OEM Blackberry Car Charger for my Tour is rated 12v 500 ma it hardly added anything to the battery in 30 min

500ma is the limiting factor here you want 1.5A (1500ma) or higher to get a decent charging speed. Also I presume its 12V input not output as that would most likely have fried your PB.

[southlander]

Anything would beat the little POS charger that came with the unit. Car charging would be way faster as the unit would be able to draw all the amps it needed.

I use my Kindle charger. It is faster than the stock charger that came with the PlayBook.

[schiri]

FYI: N. American car chargers will work in Europe too. Actually I think they're standard worldwide.

[peter9477]

For the record, there's no way what the OP described could really happen, as in charging from an actual 53% level to 98%. I'm not saying he didn't observe just those numbers (I'm totally sure what he observed is possible on some PlayBooks, as this whole area is still a bit flaky on them), but it's not possible for a normal PlayBook with a reasonably accurate "percent remaining" readout to even accept enough charge in 20 minutes to charge that much.

For one thing, the device limits the charging current when above 60%, such that even with the rapid charger it would take 1.5h to charge between those levels. (Above about 75% the current's limited to the point where the rapid charger and the regular wall charger look the same, and by 90% they both look about the same as the car charger.)

For another thing, the capacity between 53% and 98% is about 7.75Wh, and charging that much in 20 minutes would require forcing about 23W into the battery on a continuous basis -- a feat which none of the chargers could achieve and certainly the battery would be damaged by doing that.

So, basically, all I'm saying is don't expect to get the same results. :-)

[Donnee]

car batteries are pretty special, their burst current (when starting the car) can be anything from 300-1000amps, problem is the wires in the car would melt long before you ever got that kind of oomph to the 12v sockets

the playbook also has built in "self defence" as others mentioned and will only draw what it thinks it needs at any one time, even if you could get the juice to its socket

i suspect what may have happened in this case is the battery meter was "frozen" on 53% then refreshed itself when you plugged it in

sparked a good bit of healthy debate if nothing else though, nice to see a post that didnt need someone to put out the flames for once

[shootsscores]

ok, ok, ok... I'll play the part of the troll.

The PB is unsuited for enterprise because its battery meter isn't calibrated right out of the box.

[anon(4018671)]

Batteries have an "internal resistance" that increases over its life. charge - recharge cycles add resistance in the battery because the process is not 100% efficient. and its worse for digital devices. so the more you use it the faster the device's battery will loose its punch. one thing to watch for is the temperature of the PB while being charged, like an ac/dc converter it should stay cool. if its warm-hot that's bad...

[whackamac]

Just hook it to a straight 20A line. It should charge in about 30 seconds and melt in 17.

[fruitloaf]

Just hook it to a straight 20A line. It should charge in about 30 seconds and melt in 17.

That's not true pretty much for the same reason as when you open your tap the whole reservoir doesn't come gushing out. I would be very happy connecting my PB to a 5v 100A charger..