cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20241961
Can picking the wrong charger damage your expensive new smartphone purchase? Here’s the facts you need to know.
Answer is absolutely. If they don’t follow USB-PD protocol correctly they can damage the battery or the charging circuitry in the device. If they are made with poor quality parts they can also die prematurely and cause voltage spikes when they do which can again, damage the battery and charging circuitry.
Some people may argue that you should never buy any other charger besides the one that the manufacturer supplies with the device. This is not a good argument though because most of the time the charger that the manufacturer supplied is an off the shelf charger itself, just rebranded to their own brand name. Most of the time it’s a reputable brand which is why these tend to be more reliable. So basically sticking with a reputable brand is about the same level of safety if not more safe than the one that came with it.
Note that a reputable brand is not those ones that you buy at a gas station or street shop, or the ones that you buy dirt cheap on Amazon. Those are examples of chargers you probably want to avoid.
Also while we’re on the subject of chargers this same concept does apply to docking stations for laptops, phones, and PC gaming handhelds, because these docks also have USB-PD chips in them as well, and the shitty clone versions can easily malfunction and damage your laptop, phone, or gaming handheld. The solution is the same as with the chargers, try to only use docking stations from reputable well-known brands.
