Power consumption of audio over OTG cable I recently found that if I connect a USB pair of speaker/microphone using OTG cable to a phone, it becomes the audio device by default, and I can actually play audio over that. It happens that the USB headset has much better quality than the earplug ones that I connect over audio connector.

My question is, if I use this OTG-USB-Headset trick, will it drains the battery faster than just having my earplugs connected on the audio connector?
What you have tried now is known for long as you can see from Google search - connecting usb headset to usb on the go


USB on the go wiki (see Protocols section) talks of ADP and SRP protocols relevant to your usage, to conserve on the mobile battery power - translated what it means is that power is drawn from the mobile battery and not from the USB headset, even if it has battery source



  .... will I drain my battery faster than just having my earplugs connected on the audio connector ?


Depends on the power rating of your USB headset- if it is more than the earplugs provided by the phone (common case), then yes it will drain faster

Additional Information


See avs forum for more insight for audio use case
Maxim integrated application notes for electrical details