I purchased two OEM Samsung Chargers and they look suspect to me -- your thoughts?

dougltc

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This is the known authentic charger that came with my S4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/twod94usjhj346l/2013-06-04 08.51.12.jpg

This is the suspect one -- notice how the silk screening is off a little? The shape of it is a little higher and a little skinnier than the other one
(look at the house logo in the lower right corner)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/orl7tkafnc144tp/2013-06-04 08.51.27.jpg

Here they are side-by-side, the one on the right is the known authentic one:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b34ldo1yzppkixb/2013-06-04 08.51.44.jpg

So should I request a refund? They were advertised as authentic, not knock-off's...

Thanks for your opinion!
 

Jennifer Stough

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Have you used the charger? Is there any noticable difference is charge times? You could try a monitor to decipher voltage. Honestly, it isn't a big enough difference to lead me to believe its fake, but I'm not experienced in knock offs, so take my word lightly.

"Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.? -courtesy of Albus Dumbledore, via my droid DNA.
 

richs10

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Download the free app "Galaxy Charging Current Lite" and see what kind of amps its putting out. I bought the Samsung Universal Multimedia dock on Amazon. I think the dock is OEM, and there was a supposed OEM Samsung 2 amp charger shipped outside the OEM dock packaging. The first few nights the phone didn't charge. I checked the wall charger with this app and it showed only 300 mah output. The printing on the charger was also a little sketchy when compared to others I had. A call to Amazon got me a ten dollar credit. This app is great.

Rich
 

paintdrinkingpete

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Unfortunately, I can't view dropbox links at work...the missing part of information from the OP however was, "where did you buy these 'OEM' chargers???"

USB charging is pretty standardized -- you don't necessarily *need* a Samsung-branded OEM charger, however I'd still advise against cheap or poorly made hardware. The one thing you need to be concerned about it voltage output (which should be 5V for almost all USB devices). I often use old HTC and BlackBerry chargers, for example , with no problem. Poorly made products could potentially provide power output other than what's listed on the label, and that's what's dangerous.

I'm pretty sure the S4 power supply is rated at 5V @ 1A
 

garublador

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I'm pretty sure the S4 power supply is rated at 5V @ 1A
It's 2.0A at 5V. I agree with the rest of what you said, but charging at 2A is pretty nice and not many chargers do that. Also, if you do measure the voltage remember that there is some margin either way so don't freak out if it isn't exactly 5V.

I'd suspect that they don't require super tight tolerances on whatever process they use to put the words on the charger, so some variance from batch to batch might happen. Where you bought it from is probably a better indication of if it's a knock off or not. My guess is that first measuring the output voltage and then either using an app to check the current or timing how long charging takes will be the only way to tell if it's the one you bought functions the same as the one that came with the phone.
 

JasW

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Odds are they're not OEM. I actually think the only place you can be guaranteed you're getting actual Samsung chargers is from Samsung itself. Amazon is a case in point. They all say OEM, but they're a fraction of the price, and half of the reviews complain about charging times being way, way too long.
 

eyecon82

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This is the known authentic charger that came with my S4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/twod94usjhj346l/2013-06-04 08.51.12.jpg

This is the suspect one -- notice how the silk screening is off a little? The shape of it is a little higher and a little skinnier than the other one
(look at the house logo in the lower right corner)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/orl7tkafnc144tp/2013-06-04 08.51.27.jpg

Here they are side-by-side, the one on the right is the known authentic one:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b34ldo1yzppkixb/2013-06-04 08.51.44.jpg

So should I request a refund? They were advertised as authentic, not knock-off's...

Thanks for your opinion!

they are definetly a knock off....id fail a claim against them......you really have to beware....there are a ton of OEM knockoffs....there's a huge market in forgery
 

JasW

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I know it's only wishful thinking, but I wish Amazon would do something about this. I just wrote to them about a charger I recently purchased. I have a similar problem with a charging dock -- while it doesn't pretend to be a Samsung dock, it actually impedes the amperage when you connect the original Samsung charger to the dock. Just like the counterfeit products do, i.e., instead of providing the 1700 - 1800 mA that the original Samsung charger does when connected directly to the phone, it knocks that down to less than 500 mA. If I wanted that kind of charging, I could just connect it to the PC.
 

dougltc

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the missing part of information from the OP however was, "where did you buy these 'OEM' chargers???"

Amazon.com ....

USB charging is pretty standardized -- you don't necessarily *need* a Samsung-branded OEM charger, however I'd still advise against cheap or poorly made hardware.

Bingo -- I agree, Samsung doesn't have the franchise on quality chargers but I figured since I paid $550 cash for this phone, I want to take extra care with it.

Do they have the clear protective plastic covering on them? I would think they are real if they do.

They did and I still think they're fake

they are definetly a knock off....id fail a claim against them......you really have to beware....there are a ton of OEM knockoffs....there's a huge market in forgery

You say they're fake as if it's obvious. Not disputing or arguing. Care to share you rationale for coming to what you seem to feel is an obvious conclusion? Wanting to learn what to look for... And yes, I know that forgery/counterfeit items are proliferating

I know it's only wishful thinking, but I wish Amazon would do something about this.

While not perfect, Amazon is much more attuned to weeding out the fakes than eBay or other sellers. I know becuase I'm an Amazon seller and I know what their seller enforcement policies look like. Once kicked off of Amazon, it's near impossible to get back on.

I bought a pair of sunglasses last year and thought that they were fake. I sent pictures and info to the manufacturer and complained to both Amazon and the seller. The seller bent over backwards to get me to retract my negative comment. They refunded my money and sent me another pair that they bought directly from the Mfg to replace the fake ones.

They earned 5-stars for customer service but the fact that the first ones were counterfeit was my complaint, so I left the 1-star rating.
 

Golfdriver97

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I would argue that this soon after the release of the S4, the only seller to have a properly constructed charger would be Samsung. I myself am considering getting a second charger and cable for my S3, and have been thinking heavily on getting them directly from Samsung.
 

mmf115

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I bought that same charger off the ShopAndroid store a couple of weeks. While it looks exactly like the charger that came with my S4, the printing is slightly different from the one that came with my S4. Both say 2 amps though.

I did not notice any difference in charge times so far.
 

JasW

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While not perfect, Amazon is much more attuned to weeding out the fakes than eBay or other sellers. I know becuase I'm an Amazon seller and I know what their seller enforcement policies look like. Once kicked off of Amazon, it's near impossible to get back on.

I bought a pair of sunglasses last year and thought that they were fake. I sent pictures and info to the manufacturer and complained to both Amazon and the seller. The seller bent over backwards to get me to retract my negative comment. They refunded my money and sent me another pair that they bought directly from the Mfg to replace the fake ones.

They earned 5-stars for customer service but the fact that the first ones were counterfeit was my complaint, so I left the 1-star rating.

Amazon promptly refunded my money for the charger this morning. Props to them.
 

JasW

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I bought that same charger off the ShopAndroid store a couple of weeks. While it looks exactly like the charger that came with my S4, the printing is slightly different from the one that came with my S4. Both say 2 amps though.

I did not notice any difference in charge times so far.

I'm just as hesitant about ShopAndroid as I am about Amazon. Seems like the same knock offs. I tried the Galaxy Charging Current app referenced upthread, and it really is very useful -- much more so than guessing from charging time. One glance and you'll know. So I won't be all that hesitant to try from Amazon anymore -- I'll just immediately test it out with the charging current app, and if it's NFG (or putting out 500mA), it's immediately going back.
 

StuartV

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You say they're fake as if it's obvious. Not disputing or arguing. Care to share you rationale for coming to what you seem to feel is an obvious conclusion? Wanting to learn what to look for... And yes, I know that forgery/counterfeit items are proliferating

I'd like to know as well. Just because the silk screened printing is slightly different does not seem like a valid rationale.

You have to expect that Samsung has more than one plant making these things. They probably have one plant making them that supplies them directly to Samsung, where they are bundled into the package with the phone. They could easily have a completely different factory somewhere else making additional ones that are (obviously) packaged differently because they are sold individually, instead of being put in a box with the phone.

So, if they were made into two different plants, they could still both be actual Samsung pieces and yet still have the printing done slightly differently.

All that said, I looked on Samsung.com last night and they don't even have a 2A "travel charger" available for the S4. They have a black one, that is otherwise identical, that is listed as an accessory for the Note 2, but not for the S4, and that one is on back order. And they have a 1A and a 700mA. So, it is hard to believe the aftermarket sellers would have a Samsung item that even Samsung doesn't appear to have.
 

StuartV

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I'd really like to hear back from the OP on the actual measured charging rate of his known good charger compared to his just-purchased charger(s).

Personally, I don't really care if it's actual OEM or not, as long as it performs the same. And I would really like to get another 1 or 2 chargers for my S4 that will supply 2A.
 

s44

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These are real.

And I agree that Amazon letting sellers pile on to a listing, while not enabling seller-specific reviews to show up, is shady.
 

dougltc

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I'd really like to hear back from the OP on the actual measured charging rate of his known good charger compared to his just-purchased charger(s).

Personally, I don't really care if it's actual OEM or not, as long as it performs the same. And I would really like to get another 1 or 2 chargers for my S4 that will supply 2A.

I will report back after testing... haven't had a chance yet.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Android Central Forums
 

StuartV

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I will report back after testing... haven't had a chance yet.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Android Central Forums

In case you don't know about it, there's a free app in the Play store called Galaxy Charging Current.

It will tell you how much current each charger is supplying. With my phone and stock charger, GCC shows 1900mA coming in.
 

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