Earlier this month, we covered the exploits of Benson Leung – an engineer at Google who has been reviewing new USB Type-C cables on Amazon to find out which manufacturers are reliable.
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Leung discourages people from buying the USB Type-C Adapter and Cable for the Chromebook Pixel or the Nexus 6P and 5X phones because the adapter doesn’t charge correctly, and doesn’t follow the recommended specification for power delivery identification.
“Oneplus needs to get the message that their accessories are out of spec…” he said. The Google+ post has attracted quite the buzz with questions pouring in from well, everywhere. This could lead to a high chance that the cable will damage a user’s charger brick, PC USB port, hub and even phones. The answer was yes it could damage the phone you’re charging. According to him, the cable does not conform to the standard Type-C specifications, particularly the 3A identifier resistor, which is responsible for letting the devices know the type of cable it’s connected.
Many phone-makers and computer manufacturers are steadily adapting the USB Type-C standard on their respective devices, which is slowly forcing users to transition in the process. The demand for USB Type-C connectors increased when Google launched the Nexus 5X, which doesn’t ship with a Type-C-to-Type-A connector. “Having a weaker than 3A charger is actually a risk factor because the device being charged will always try to charge at 3A and if the older adapter can’t handle 3A, that is when it might be damaged”, he responded. “None of the ones presently available are spec compliant, but several vendors have been in touch with me to fix their broken cables and adapters”, he added. OnePlus 2 owners are fine to use the company’s cable for now since the smartphone doesn’t support fast charging. But, the same can not be said about every electrical accessory. It should not be used with any device that supports quick charging functionality as these batteries are designed to draw progressively less current as they near full charge, creating the trickle effect after very rapidly charging to around 80%.
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So if you did buy the adapter from OnePlus, does it mean you have to be concerned?
