Need help charging my mobile phone

June 8, 2008 9:23 PM

I have a Motorola V188 mobile phone from the U.S. I'm in the Netherlands with no charger, and I really need to charge the phone ASAP. How?

I was thinking about trying to find a place to buy a new battery, instead of trying to find a way to charge the current one. But I don't know if that's a good idea (or if finding the right battery is harder than I imagine).

My service provider is T-Mobile, if that helps at all.

posted by korres to technology (9 comments total)

If you are staying in a hotel, ask housekeeping or the front desk if they have any chargers in their lost & found. A Westin in LA brought out a box of left behind and unclaimed chargers and let me take my pick.
posted by acorncup at 9:31 PM on June 8, 2008

What prevents you from simply buying a charger? Surely, whatever place has cell phone batteries would also sell cell phone chargers. I fail to see how buying a battery would be a good strategy, since a) it gives you only one charge vs as many as you want, b) is probably more expensive and c) probably needs to be charged before use anyway.
posted by themel at 9:35 PM on June 8, 2008

With the right USB type A cable, you could charge your phone from a computer's USB port. Many mobile phone and electronics stores stock such things, as they are cheap ($7 in the U.S.) and not country specific.
posted by paulsc at 9:42 PM on June 8, 2008

What prevents you from simply buying a charger?

I have concerns about the effect of a different voltage and frequency on my phone.
posted by korres at 12:00 AM on June 9, 2008

With the right USB type A cable, you could charge your phone from a computer's USB port.

I had a type A cable handy and have plugged the phone in, but it doesn't indicate that it's charging. It seems that maybe that doesn't work with my model.
posted by korres at 12:26 AM on June 9, 2008

I have concerns about the effect of a different voltage and frequency on my phone.

That should give you pause about using your own charger (and even then, it's probably fine - most chargers are universal input as it's cheaper to just make one model). Any charger you buy locally will work locally. The output charging voltage is going to be DC and the correct voltage level.
posted by leakymem at 12:51 AM on June 9, 2008

here are the specs for the charger that came with the phone. it's rated to take up to the voltage that comes out of the wall in the netherlands. if you can find one and a suitable netherlands -> north american adapter to make the prongs fit in the wall, you're golden.

however as leakymem says, i think the best thing to do is find a local cell phone shop and see if you can get a charger for any one of those phones. or even a charger with the same plug and the same output voltage.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 12:57 AM on June 9, 2008

What area are you in? In any of the medium-sized-to-larger towns, something like The Phone House *might* be able to help you out. Just call them and ask, maybe they will refer you to somewhere else.

Basically, what sgt. sandwich says: just get a charger with the same plug and the same DC voltage. I did this for my camera when I forgot to bring the charger to the US; I just got a charger for an HP notebook or something from Circuit City. It worked just dandy, and I returned it at the end of my stay and even got my money back (yes, I'm cheap like that).

There's no danger to your phone. All that matters is the output voltage (as stated above), and not its frequency (as it is DC). Also, a lot of devices that do not come with a proprietary power supply are something like 100-240 V these days anyway, but that's a different can of worms.

On the off chance that you find yourself scouring eBay.nl or Marktplaats.nl or whatever, you might want to include "lader" or "oplader" in your searches (both mean "charger").
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:06 AM on June 9, 2008

Yeah your phone should be fine. I travel to both the UK and Europe every couple of months. I used to have a charger for a previous phone which allowed me to switch prongs and there was never any problem. Indeed I have this for my MacBook power supply, so if you just get a charger in the NL you should be fine.
posted by ob at 10:05 AM on June 9, 2008