I no longer absolutely trust Benson reviews on Amazon

[JasW]

One lousy USB-A to USB-C cable is all it took: the this one, which Benson reviewed with five stars as being USB-C spec compliant.

I had originally bought this cable solely for legacy purposes, mainly to charge my Pixel C tablet in a family "device place" where we have a ten port USB-A charger plugged into the wall.

I had a store credit in the Verizon store (I'm not on Verizon FWIW) because I had bought an overpriced Spigen slim armor case the day my Pixel XL arrived, and the case I wanted/had already ordered still had not arrived. I figured I'd use the store credit for an extra charger. They had a 15W charger with both USB-C and and USB-A ports. I had some money left over on the store credit so I figured I'd get a cable as well.

The USB-C to C cables they had were only 3 feet, but they did have a 4 foot USB-A to USB-C. The store rep said it would work for fast charging. I was doubtful, but I tested both the charger and the cable in the store, and sure enough, my Pixel XL said "rapidly charging." (I forget the exact amperage I tested it at; I believe it was 1600-1700mA.)

Four feet was still a little short for my purposes, so I figured I'd use the charger with the Benson-approved 6 foot cable. I plugged it in and was disappointed to see my Pixel XL only say "charging." I tried the 4 foot cable I'd bought again, and the Pixel XL now displayed "rapidly charging." I tested the amperage on both, and the Benson-approved cable was well below the mystery USB-A to USB-C from the Verizon store (again, I don't recall the precise numbers).

So I don't know if this is a case of a mfr with poor quality control or what. Or maybe a cable can be USB-C spec compliant and still not rapid charge? That seems doubtful. In any event, let this serve as a teachable lesson: for whatever reasons, Benson reviews should not be taken as gospel.

 

[hallux]

A USB-A to USB-C cable should never report "charging rapidly". If it does, it was built with the wrong resistor. This was the entire reason Benson was DOING the reviews. The Nexus 6P/5x and now the Pixel utilize the USB PD spec to charge and report the charge speed. This spec is not available with USB-A charging as it is a USB-C spec.

 

[JasW]

A USB-A to USB-C cable should never report "charging rapidly". If it does, it was built with the wrong resistor. This was the entire reason Benson was DOING the reviews. The Nexus 6P/5x and now the Pixel utilize the USB PD spec to charge and report the charge speed. This spec is not available with USB-A charging as it is a USB-C spec.

That was my understanding and expectation -- that I wouldn't get "rapid charging" with a USB-A to C cable. And I especially do not trust carrier store reps to even tell me the correct time of day (this one also told me he had rapid charging using a car charger with a USB-A port and a USB-A to C cable, which I didn't believe at all.) But if the USB-A to C cable I bought from the Verizon store was built with the wrong resistor, why is the downside to this being able to charge more rapidly? And where is the harm? I mean, current is still current no matter how you slice it.

 

[hallux]

Because you risk fire by the phone trying to draw too much from the charger. I'm not saying it's happened, I don't know that it has. I'm saying that there's a possibility because the phone is going to try to draw more power through the charger than the charger is rated to provide. The phone is going to keep asking for more, up to the highest charge rate it's rated for.

If there wasn't a risk, Benson wouldn't have gone on the crusade he did. In fact - he blew out the board in his testing device as a result of a particularly bad cable.

 

[JasW]

Because you risk fire by the phone trying to draw too much from the charger. I'm not saying it's happened, I don't know that it has. I'm saying that there's a possibility because the phone is going to try to draw more power through the charger than the charger is rated to provide. The phone is going to keep asking for more, up to the highest charge rate it's rated for.

If there wasn't a risk, Benson wouldn't have gone on the crusade he did. In fact - he blew out the board in his testing device as a result of a particularly bad cable.

I risk fire where, though? The charging block is 15W, and has a USB-C port in addition to the USB-A port I used with the 4 foot Verizon cable. If I use it (and I have) with a Benson-approved USB-C to C cable, the charging block rapid charges just as well (maybe better, I haven't tested the amperage being delivered). So the block can't be delivering more power than its rated to provide. It's a 15W charger that is supposed to rapid charge with a USB-C to USB-C connection. For some reason, it also rapid charged with this USB-A to C cable (made by the same company).

Where's the fire, then?

 

[Impulses]

One lousy USB-A to USB-C cable is all it took: the this one, which Benson reviewed with five stars as being USB-C spec compliant.

I had originally bought this cable solely for legacy purposes, mainly to charge my Pixel C tablet in a family "device place" where we have a ten port USB-A charger plugged into the wall.

I had a store credit in the Verizon store (I'm not on Verizon FWIW) because I had bought an overpriced Spigen slim armor case the day my Pixel XL arrived, and the case I wanted/had already ordered still had not arrived. I figured I'd use the store credit for an extra charger. They had a 15W charger with both USB-C and and USB-A ports. I had some money left over on the store credit so I figured I'd get a cable as well.

The USB-C to C cables they had were only 3 feet, but they did have a 4 foot USB-A to USB-C. The store rep said it would work for fast charging. I was doubtful, but I tested both the charger and the cable in the store, and sure enough, my Pixel XL said "rapidly charging." (I forget the exact amperage I tested it at; I believe it was 1600-1700mA.)

Four feet was still a little short for my purposes, so I figured I'd use the charger with the Benson-approved 6 foot cable. I plugged it in and was disappointed to see my Pixel XL only say "charging." I tried the 4 foot cable I'd bought again, and the Pixel XL now displayed "rapidly charging." I tested the amperage on both, and the Benson-approved cable was well below the mystery USB-A to USB-C from the Verizon store (again, I don't recall the precise numbers).

So I don't know if this is a case of a mfr with poor quality control or what. Or maybe a cable can be USB-C spec compliant and still not rapid charge? That seems doubtful. In any event, let this serve as a teachable lesson: for whatever reasons, Benson reviews should not be taken as gospel.

Benson's review is fine, he's only testing the cable to be safe and of semi decent quality, Nathan K's evaluations sometimes go a little deeper than that FWIW. Regardless, there's a few misconceptions in your post along with a few ambiguous facts.

For starters, no A to C cable will let you charge faster than 7.5-12W, a charger with a Type C port and a C to C cable will do 15-18W with your Pixel XL which is faster still. The rapid charging message on the lock screen is almost meaningless, it shows up at anything over 10W (if not 7.5W).

Basically the only time you won't see that message is with pretty old 1A chargers, PC USB ports (often just 0.5A), or with a poorer charger that lacks voltage compensation and/or a longer cable.

Whether the phone goes up to something like 10-12W on an older A charger or defaults to 7.5W will depend largely on the charger, Pixel phones will actually respond to Apple-like signaling and pick up on 2.4A (12W) on chargers made to work with iDevices.

A few more facts the may very well color your tests... The phones only charge rapidly under 50%, once past that they slow way down even with a Type C fully PD compliant charger, so keep that in mind. Over 90% they slow way way down. Lastly, a Type C + A charger spec'd for 15W seems odd, is that 15W total (not nearly enough) or just on the Type C port?

I wouldn't be so quick to blame solely the cable here, tho yes, this is more complicated than it should and the lack of consumer friendly accessories doesn't help matters.

 

[Impulses]

I risk fire where, though? The charging block is 15W, and has a USB-C port in addition to the USB-A port I used with the 4 foot Verizon cable. If I use it (and I have) with a Benson-approved USB-C to C cable, the charging block rapid charges just as well (maybe better, I haven't tested the amperage being delivered). So the block can't be delivering more power than its rated to provide. It's a 15W charger that is supposed to rapid charge with a USB-C to USB-C connection. For some reason, it also rapid charged with this USB-A to C cable (made by the same company).

Where's the fire, then?

Type A to C cables WITH the proper resistor will still show 'charging rapidly', doesn't mean they're charging at the absolute fastest speed (see post above for why/how). Type A to C cables without the resistor can very well allow the phone to ask more of the charger than it's capable of, which would most often result in a dead charger but could also damage the phone.

Without having the cables in question on hand it's impossible to know what the mystery VZW cable is doing... A C + A charger rated for 15W total is very suspect tho, and there's literally dozens of chargers out there (from larger brands either) with completely bogus ratings that don't pass muster, which is in effect worse than using an old bog standard 2-2.4A charger.

Again, without more proper analysis it's impossible to tell what's going on but your observations are inconclusive at best (no offense).

I've actually only seen one Type A+C charger reviewed that's worth a damn (a clunky Monoprice), along with a couple 5 ports (like the Anker), lost track of the number of reviews for dual port A+C AC chargers that are improperly spec'd or just very poorly built. It's actually easier to find a decent dual port car charger than an AC one...

Nevermind dual Type C, only decent one there is Google's and it has some downsides (not

 

[Impulses]

Ugh, tapped post too soon but editing on mobile is a hassle, just gonna finish here:

(not PD, more of a dumb albeit safe charger, but capped at 11W or so with two devices connected, and 15W with one)

 

[Almeuit]

As said above Benson is testing the cable to ensure it identifies properly and charges at a safe rate -- Not that it will guarantee fast charging on any device. Especially since that was written in February and the Pixel wasn't even out then so there was no guarantee it would fast charge a Pixel.

 

[Impulses]

As said above Benson is testing the cable to ensure it identifies properly and charges at a safe rate -- Not that it will guarantee fast charging on any device. Especially since that was written in February and the Pixel wasn't even out then so there was no guarantee it would fast charge a Pixel.

Yeah, and the Pixels actually supporting 10W-12W charging over Type A is in effect a bit of a hack. According to the spec they shouldn't (but it's done in a relatively safe way), by the letter of the spec they should only reach 7.5W that way (BC1.2 signaling, or 1.5A IIRC) which would essentially be what a cable would be built to handle (particularly a longer run).

Whether you'd actually get there is another matter, and depends on the charger as much as the cable and even the cable length of identical cables... And all of that still has nothing to do with the rapid charging message which is in effect pretty ambiguous. I'm still not entirely sure if it shows up over 7.5W or 10W-ish but it's kind of a meaningless metric.

I wish Google would only display that message at 15W+, might lead to less confusion.

One last thing to keep in mind (for the OP), if you're using an app to see the amps drawn keep in mind that's not refreshed instantly/constantly and that any number of random events (background process, auto brightness, a screen swipe) will make it shift so you gotta let it sit for a bit to get a somewhat accurate measure... Oh and again, sub 50% is a different story from >50%.

If the phone heats up to a certain point it'll also slow down charging regardless of method, charger, or cable...

 

[JasW]

Benson's review is fine, he's only testing the cable to be safe and of semi decent quality, Nathan K's evaluations sometimes go a little deeper than that FWIW. Regardless, there's a few misconceptions in your post along with a few ambiguous facts.

For starters, no A to C cable will let you charge faster than 7.5-12W, a charger with a Type C port and a C to C cable will do 15-18W with your Pixel XL which is faster still. The rapid charging message on the lock screen is almost meaningless, it shows up at anything over 10W (if not 7.5W).

Basically the only time you won't see that message is with pretty old 1A chargers, PC USB ports (often just 0.5A), or with a poorer charger that lacks voltage compensation and/or a longer cable.

Whether the phone goes up to something like 10-12W on an older A charger or defaults to 7.5W will depend largely on the charger, Pixel phones will actually respond to Apple-like signaling and pick up on 2.4A (12W) on chargers made to work with iDevices.

A few more facts the may very well color your tests... The phones only charge rapidly under 50%, once past that they slow way down even with a Type C fully PD compliant charger, so keep that in mind. Over 90% they slow way way down. Lastly, a Type C + A charger spec'd for 15W seems odd, is that 15W total (not nearly enough) or just on the Type C port?

I wouldn't be so quick to blame solely the cable here, tho yes, this is more complicated than it should and the lack of consumer friendly accessories doesn't help matters.

Actually, there are three messages that can appear when charging the Pixel XL -- "charging rapidly, "charging," or "charging slowly." The "charging slowly" message appears when plugged into the PC's USB port (or with the old flip phone chargers). Plain old "charging" appears when using the formerly standard 2.0/2.1 amp chargers everyone was using immediately prior to USB-C. So ... no, "charging rapidly" doesn't appear in most scenarios.

I was getting a "charging rapidly" message with both the Verizon store cable and the Benson-approved C to C cable when the battery was above 75% (but not with the Benson-approved A to C).

I'm pretty sure this charger is 15W total. I stupidly threw away the packaging, thinking I'm not going to return this (and for what, another store credit?)

I'll note that, using a Benson-approved A to C adapter dongle, I just now plugged into a charger in my office that I had formerly routinely used with the Note 2 and Note 4, and which always charged at a solid 1.8A.The Pixel XL says simply "charging," and I'm getting a max of 1310mA with it according to Ampere. I believe anything more than that--or maybe more than 1.5A, dunno-- would show "charging.rapidly." What I don't completely get is why that (i.e., anything above 1.5A being drawn by the Pixel) would be "charging rapidly," when the same charger used to charge my older phones at 1.8A and that wasn't considered fast charging. I assume it has to do with how the PD spec handles amperage etc.

 

[JasW]

Type A to C cables WITH the proper resistor will still show 'charging rapidly', doesn't mean they're charging at the absolute fastest speed (see post above for why/how). Type A to C cables without the resistor can very well allow the phone to ask more of the charger than it's capable of, which would most often result in a dead charger but could also damage the phone.

Without having the cables in question on hand it's impossible to know what the mystery VZW cable is doing... A C + A charger rated for 15W total is very suspect tho, and there's literally dozens of chargers out there (from larger brands either) with completely bogus ratings that don't pass muster, which is in effect worse than using an old bog standard 2-2.4A charger.

Again, without more proper analysis it's impossible to tell what's going on but your observations are inconclusive at best (no offense).

I've actually only seen one Type A+C charger reviewed that's worth a damn (a clunky Monoprice), along with a couple 5 ports (like the Anker), lost track of the number of reviews for dual port A+C AC chargers that are improperly spec'd or just very poorly built. It's actually easier to find a decent dual port car charger than an AC one...

Nevermind dual Type C, only decent one there is Google's and it has some downsides (not

Well, the vast majority of Pixel owners don't (and shouldn't have to) know any of this. Verizon, the exclusive carrier for the Pixel, is selling these chargers and cables in their stores. If there were a danger of consequential damages from their use, particularly to the phone, one would think Verizon wouldn't sell them. I guess "one would be wrong," who knows.

This is all a total PITA.

 

[Golfdriver97]

The Power delivery standard on the Pixel has something to do with the rapid charging. I don't know how it works, exactly, but I have a USB C port on my PC. It charges the Nexus 5X rapidly. The cable is from the Google Store. Same cable, same USB C port, and I get a charging slowly/charging on my lock screen of the Pixel. Once I started using the provided cable and power brick, did I get the rapid charging message.

As I recall, even a USB 3.0 port will only give a Charging message at best.

 

[Impulses]

Well, the vast majority of Pixel owners don't (and shouldn't have to) know any of this. Verizon, the exclusive carrier for the Pixel, is selling these chargers and cables in their stores. If there were a danger of consequential damages from their use, particularly to the phone, one would think Verizon wouldn't sell them. I guess "one would be wrong," who knows.

This is all a total PITA.

Yup, it is, I agree with your overall sentiment. It's bound to happen with new standards tho, but it's being made messier than it has to be by A) accessory makers cutting corners and B) proprietary specs (like QC) competing for the limelight. Both things are stunting PD/Type C adoption.

FWIW Verizon seems to do a reasonable job of picking out what accessories to sell, the Verizon branded ones in particular seem to be sub contracted to or designed by people who know what they're doing... Tho I'm mostly familiar with their recent single port/cable AC & car chargers.

Hopefully in a year's time this will all be less of a hassle... Regardless, none of that changes the fact that your statement about Benson's review isn't very accurate. There's just more layers to this than there should be, and it's not any one party's fault nor can anyone fix it overnight.

The cables and accessories Google sells directly are all up to spec and work as they should, at least today (past Nexus Type C chargers were another story, again, no one has handled the transition perfectly). Cake

 

[Impulses]

Cable length (or gage) potentially impacting charge rate isn't particular to Type C or PD btw (tho Type C & USB 3.0/3.1 cables can be much more complex, and thus more expensive)... It was a thing even with good old micro USB, tho charge rates were slower overall and people didn't care as much. Hence the need for a new standard that sets some bare minimum requirements for the things the market now demands, not to mention compatibility AND safe backwards compatibility.