Samsung’s new Power Sharing Cable will let your devices charge each other

By Malarie Gokey September 23, 2014

samsung micro usb power sharing cable — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Anyone who’s ever owned a smartphone or a smartwatch has run out of battery at one point or another. You could of course, carry your charger around with you, but what happens if you bring three devices with you every day? There’s now a solution. Samsung has created an ingenious charging cable that lets your devices charge each other.

The Power Sharing Cable has a Micro USB at each end, so you can connect your smartphone to your tablet or smartwatch and charge whichever device needs a little more juice. The cable will never completely drain your device’s battery either, but will only transfer the amount you need.

Luckily, it’s easy to set up power sharing and control how much power you transfer. Once you’ve got the cable, all you have to do is download the Power Sharing app from Samsung Apps or the Google Play store and choose how much power you want to transfer. Then, you plug one end of the cable into the device you want to charge and the other end into the gadget you want to take the power from.

Samsung says the cable can only draw power from the following Galaxy devices, so you’re somewhat limited. Only the Galaxy S5, Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Galaxy Tab S 8.4, Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy Avant, and Galaxy Note 4 can serve as power hubs at the moment. You can charge any Micro USB device, including smartwatches, though. The Power Sharing Cable should be particularly helpful to those who own a smartwatch, since wearables are notorious for short battery life. However, if your smartwatch requires a special charging cradle, you’re out of luck.

The Power Sharing Cable is available for purchase on Samsung’s website for $20.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…

Mobile

Samsung brings the Galaxy S23’s new software to older phones

Samsung this week announced that it will be rolling out its latest One UI 5.1 software to current Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S22, Galaxy Z Fold 4, and Galaxy Z Flip 4 lineups. The company debuted the Android 13-powered One UI 5.1 update on the Galaxy S23 Ultra this month, and it's bringing those extra features to general users.

“One UI 5.1 is the up-to-date example of Samsung’s commitment to providing Galaxy users with the latest innovations as soon as possible,” Samsung's Janghyun Yoon said in a blog post. “Over the past several weeks, we have worked closely with our service providers and carrier partners to bring One UI 5.1 to current Galaxy smartphones and tablets around the world within a few short weeks of the Galaxy S23 series announcement.”

Mobile

How to set up your new Samsung Galaxy phone like a pro

Galaxy S22 Ultra with S22 Plus and S22.

You’ve unwrapped a lovely new Samsung phone and are keen to get into setting it up. I don’t blame you, Samsung has made some superb phones over the past year, and I've been lucky enough to use many of them. That means I've set up a lot of Samsung phones, and to help get you started with your phone as quickly as possible, here are all the settings I change and configure when I do.

The good thing is, the advice applies to almost all Samsung phones released recently, as the settings are part of Samsung’s One UI Android software installed on all its devices. So it doesn’t matter if you have a Galaxy A53 5G, a Galaxy S22 Ultra, or even a Galaxy Z Fold 4; almost all the advice will help you get the best from your new phone straight away.
Charge your Samsung phone the right way

Mobile

With swappable battery packs, this power station lets you take your juice to go

The Runhood Rallye 600 power station set on a table outdoors having a battery pack removed.

Runhood has announced a new kind of modular power station called the Rallye 600. This 600-watt station boasts the usual assortment of outputs, like two QuickCharge 3.0 USB-A slots, two 100W USB-C slots, two 800W AC plugs, and a 12-volt car outlet.

The real kicker is that the two 324-watt-hour battery packs themselves can be popped out the back of the housing so you can take them with you on the go. You need to swap a cap onto the end that was making contact with the power station, but that module has four USB plugs to handle whatever needs charging. An AC module is available as well.