Benson Leung, a Google engineer who worked on Pixel products, has been scouring Amazon for USB Type-C cables and reviewing them in a way that only engineers would consider. All because of the massive influx of terrible cables which “blatantly flaunt the specification”.
Leung found that many cables purporting to be USB Type-C are not suitable for charging devices like the Pixel C. Turns out that many of the cables use the wrong resistor, which could in turn cause the wrong amperage to be transmitted to the device. In the best case scenario, these cables would simply fail to charge whatever device they are plugged into; the worst case scenario is that it could do lasting damage to the device.
Most of the problems seem to come from converters that transform USB 2.0 connectors into Type-C connectors. Not all the converters are bad, and Leung has been providing his honest opinion on every product he finds.
Concerned Pixel owners can perform their own checks on USB Type-C cables, and Leung has provided instructions on how to accomplish this. With any luck he will also explain how to inspect the cables on other devices, especially since there are many Android devices that are also adopting the standard.
