I have an old laptop that I occasionally use in nice weather as a portable DVD player, and also to read ebooks or downloaded fanfics on a larger screen than my phone. I often get the latter onto the laptop by hooking my Galaxy S105G up to the USB 2.0 ports.
Somebody was telling me it was a bad idea to let the phone charge with USB 2.0 because it doesn't provide enough power for modern smart phones, and also not to use the 10-15 year old 1amp chargers I have from my flip phone days that only "slow charge". They said it would degrade my battery faster.
Is this true? Will it degrade my battery faster?'
What about just having the phone connected long enough to move any new files onto the laptop? Will that cause any harm, even if it just means degrading the battery faster?
As for upgrading the laptop, I haven't had a need for a laptop of my own since I was in college. I have a much more modern desktop, but whenever I've needed a laptop whatever company I'm working for provided one and actually prohibited bringing outside systems in.
@SlickRCBD It doesn't matter if the USB port is rated USB 1, 2 or whatever. Many laptops, especially older laptops provide only the bare minimum current via their USB ports.
It won't hurt your phone to charge via that port but it really isn't that useful.
I realize this is the Samsung forums, but my first smart phone was an HTC One X+.
When I plugged that HTC One X+ it into a USB 1.1 port on my old Windows 98SE/Windows XP duel-boot system, it started beeping and a dialog box popped up that warned me that the port doesn't provide enough current and could potentially damage the battery.
I don't get any warning with the USB 2.0 port on my modern day S105G, but somebody was telling me using the older chargers (a couple I have predate even the HTC One X+ and were used with flip phones. One cheap charger for the car subject to Chicago suburb's temperature extremes, one cheap charger for work that might get lost or stolen) or the older USB 2 ports will wear out the battery quicker.
I assume you mean that it doesn't mater if it is USB 2 or not, but I'm not sure what to make about the warning I got on my first smart phone over a decade ago. However, from it I'm not so confident about using USB1 ports. I haven't tried with any smart phones since then, and that was long ago.
The crowds on the drone forums have contacted manufacturers because it was rumored for a long time that charging at 0.5C (C is the mAh rating of the battery) would prolong life. Response was that it doesn't hurt or help. Might end up with a very slightly lower charge when you use a lower power source because of how the circuitry determines full charge. They're usually using LiPo instead of lithium ion but they behave pretty much the same way (well, Lithium ion doesn't require you to charge it in a fireproof bag in case it decides to self destruct).
The only thing I've had screw up lithium ion batteries for phones was leaving them sitting in the phone for years unused... Eventually they drain fully and if they sit like that for too long the chemistry gets messed up and they can only be recovered to charging range by dangerous methods and not used for anything important. Leaving them sitting around fully charged for long periods at high temps is equally bad. Samsung's 85% charge feature is related to some of the tables here:
Which indicates by giving up 15% charge each time your can get twice the usable number of charge / discharge cycles. Sadly these phones eat battery so fast in the first place i often need that extra 15%
