Cheap Chargers vs the official charger

[dannyro77]

I bought a relatively cheap type C charger for my Pixel on Amazon, because it was about $20 cheaper than buying another standard charger from Google. Someone told me that those cheaper chargers can actually damage your phone or battery - is there any merit to this, or would most of you feel comfortable using the cheaper cable?

 

[georgiabrooksy]

Most would feel comfortable because they don't immediately damage your phone, it works it's charm slowly. Better to use standard chargers. These alternative chargers may charge your phone quick but that'd be least favorable for your new phone. And these chargers also have only little life, they become slow after sometime (in my experience).

 

[Impulses]

Most would feel comfortable because they don't immediately damage your phone, it works it's charm slowly. Better to use standard chargers. These alternative chargers may charge your phone quick but that'd be least favorable for your new phone. And these chargers also have only little life, they become slow after sometime (in my experience).

Several of them can totally zap a phone and either kill it or at the least damage the port in no time flat. There's a ton of repurposed crap based on older 2.4A Apple designs (or worse) being shoehorned unto cheap Type C gear, I wouldn't risk it to be honest.

If your phone asks for 5V at 3A (or in the case of the XL 9V at 2A which is even newer) and the charger simply can't supply it, well, it's not a good recipe. Why risk a $650-870 phone over $5-20 on a charger?

The 18W Google spare charger isn't even unfairly priced considering it comes with a really good 6ft cable, you won't do much better unless you totally wanna roll the dice on something that hasn't been well vetted, and in this case random Amazon reviews aren't much help.

 

[hal1]

If your phone asks for 5V at 3A (or in the case of the XL 9V at 2A which is even newer) and the charger simply can't supply it, well, it's not a good recipe.

I thought that this problem dissappears with a Bensen approved cable with the 56k ohm resistor? In other words, old charger okay when used with an appropriate cable?

 

[Impulses]

I thought that this problem dissappears with a Bensen approved cable with the 56k ohm resistor? In other words, old charger okay when used with an appropriate cable?

Old chargers are fine, and probably safer than a lot of new Type C chargers (ironically)... Albeit slower, with a Type A charger you'll end up charging at anywhere between 7.5W and 12W, depending on how it's wired. The Pixel can go up to 15W and the XL to 18W.

What I was talking about in that post, and what I interpreted this thread to be about, is some of the new (cheap) Type C chargers. They promise to be faster (as they should be! if properly made) but in reality aren't, and many end up being downright dangerous.

In a lot of cases they're stuffing designs from older Type A chargers into a new case and just slapping a Type C port on it, and the result is wildly out of spec. Type C cables aren't meant to prevent this because they're made for much faster charging rates and for properly spec'd chargers (under a whole new standard).

This is precisely why the USB-IF chose to do things this way rather than shoehorning something like Qualcomm QC into old chargers and using A to C cables. Manufacturers (large and small) still found a way to undermine that and put out a lot of NEW but crap Type C gear.

 

[Impulses]

Just in case I wasn't totally clear, yes old charger with in-spec cable = totally safe, and possibly even no slower than a cheap Type C charger that's not up to par, which would definitely not be safe... A good Type C USB PD charger = fastest.

So far it seems we've seen more out of spec chargers than decent ones tho, sadly, specially if talking about AC chargers. There's about half a dozen decent aftermarket car chargers but maybe 2-3 decent 3rd party AC chargers.

Unless you want a 5 port or something like that I'd just buy Google's and be done with it, the prices are reasonable if you take into account the long bundled cables.

 

[georgiabrooksy]

What I was talking about in that post, and what I interpreted this thread to be about, is some of the new (cheap) Type C chargers. They promise to be faster (as they should be! if properly made) but in reality aren't, and many end up being downright dangerous.

Agreed! Do not waste your money on cheap alternatives. It will seriously effect the life of your device.