Now more and more devices begin to use the USB-C standard interface, and the market for USB-C data cables has also begun to boom.  Sinodec Industrial Co., LTD. Has been providing high-quality USB data cables, as well as wholesale and custom USB cables. However, the quality of USB-C data cables on the market is really good, although some of them  The price is very attractive, but these data lines are often substandard.  Recently, a Google engineer Benson Leung from the Chromebook Pixel team conducted a series of tests on these cheap USB-C data cables.  He found that many data cables were actually not compatible with his Chromebook Pixel notebook.

An important feature of USB-C is that it can provide up to 3A of charging current, which is the standard that most cheap USB-C cannot reach.  It is worrying that if the charging current does not meet the standard, it is very dangerous for the hardware, because some traditional devices may not be able to adjust it to the appropriate current for charging.

For example, when the USB-C data cable is connected to the device through a USB 2.0 to USB-C adapter, the data cable should provide a 56kΩ pull-up resistor, so that the device correctly recognizes that the connected charging device is a traditional device  To adjust the charging current to 1.5A or 2.4A that the device can accept.  However, if a non-standard USB-C cable is used for charging, the lack of a resistor may cause a current that exceeds the load of the device, and the device cannot reduce the current to an acceptable range, which will cause damage to the device  And even cause greater security risks.

However, Leung found that some of the USB-C data cables sold on Amazon use cheap 10kΩ resistors, and even more exorbitant that there are no resistors at all, so he can't charge his Pixel normally.  He then published a test report on the USB-C data cable on sale, which also helped other users to better use the Pixel notebook.

If you are concerned about this, the best option is to buy a USB-C data cable from a reputable big brand.  It is also a good choice to buy the original data cable from the mobile phone manufacturer, but it will be slightly more expensive.