Chargers for $2.00, Skins for $1.00, who are these guys?

[hal1]

Chargers for $2.00? Skins for $1.00? Cases for under $4.00? Even shipping is less that a buck.

Has anyone used these guys? Seem to be a mail order company of some sort.

I just ordered the Halo screen protectors as they seem to be similar to the standard VZ ones.

TDC Direct

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU1555486 45

 

[PaulQ]

I usually trust Amazon reviews when there are more than 20. That's the case here. Pieces of thin plastic are cheap so the low cost is possible. I would love to hear what you think when you get one installed.

As for those chargers... I just don't feel comfortable with electrical phone items that cost $3.

...Sent from my Tab

 

[Simon_y7]

I agree about cheap chargers. I've had a couple and their plugs went bad very fast. Not worth the money. One can often find genuine, brand name, inexpensive chargers on eBay.

 

[hal1]

I usually trust Amazon reviews when there are more than 20. That's the case here. Pieces of thin plastic are cheap so the low cost is possible. I would love to hear what you think when you get one installed.
...Sent from my Tab

Got the screen guards (3 for about 6 bucks with shipping). Got them 2 days after I ordered them.

The cutout for the indicator lights at the top are a bit large. Otherwise, nothing noticeably different than the stock VZ ones. Same 3 piece application - the protector is sandwiched between two protective covers.

Seems to work fine. I personally like the feel of the wet type applications - ghost armot/Zagg/ BSE, but this one works fine. If you're use to the non adhesive types like the stock press on ones, you really can't go wrong with these.

 

[dpham00]

I usually trust Amazon reviews when there are more than 20. That's the case here. Pieces of thin plastic are cheap so the low cost is possible. I would love to hear what you think when you get one installed.

As for those chargers... I just don't feel comfortable with electrical phone items that cost $3.

...Sent from my Tab

I bought some oem palm 5v /1a chargers directly from Verizon Wireless for $3.xx a while back. They have worked fine.

 

[tbd1]

Also got the screen guards in a couple days, no problem with the vendor.

 

[jsmuli2]

Got the screen guards (3 for about 6 bucks with shipping). Got them 2 days after I ordered them.

The cutout for the indicator lights at the top are a bit large.

That's for the front-facing camera, not indicator light.

 

[jsmuli2]

I'd also like to add that these prices are what we SHOULD see. Screen protectors and Micro-USB chargers are incredibly cheap to manufacture. I bought a bunch of chargers at $0.10 a piece. There shouldn't be a $20 pricetag on any of these types of accessories.

Heck, even most of the cases shouldn't cost more than $5.

 

[truenoob]

I bought the screen protector (anti-glare) and like an earlier poster said, the cutouts on the top of the screen are big. Really not sure why they are as big as they are. Really unacceptable (to me). Still haven't put it on and not sure I will.

 

[tbd1]

Didn't even notice the cut out till it was mentioned here, no big deal to me as I don't use that 1/16" area of the screen. What I did do though is throw away the last Seido protector as it came with a dimple in both of them, and the installed one always had bubbles around the edge, no problem with these. And at half the price.

 

[lathe man]

Perhaps the cases and screen protectors are OK, but not the cheap electronics.
I bought a $1.50 charger on ebay. It looks beautiful. From the outside, you'd swear that it is a genuine HTC. And came with a cable.
I took it to my lab to measure. Short summary - Don't use it!
My original HTC charger puts out 5.1V open circuit, and drops down to 4.9V at 1A (max rated load).
The cheap charger puts out 5.3V open circuit and drops to 3.3V at 350mA, even though the marking says 5V/1A.
The 5.3V output may not damage the phone, but there is real risk. That is out-of-spec high.
The low output at low current means that it won't charge the phone correctly. Again, it may work, but it might leave the battery weakly charged or cause the charging circuit in the phone to malfunction.

To add to the insult, the cable that came with it works for charging, but doesn't work for data. When I hook the cable to my phone/PC, it says something about a defective USB drive. When I switch to the factory cable, I can charge the phone and read data normally.
My background is electronics. I understand what is going on in the charger. They started with an existing design, then switched each part to a less expensive part until they had an adapter that still seemed to sort-of work, but cost less to make.
As for the cable, I don't know how they screwed that up, but they did.

 

[dpham00]

usb spec is 5v +/- 5%, so 5.3 is just outside that range, but most likely won't do any damage, but 3.3v is way too low.