USB-C cable makers and sellers are everywhere on Amazon, selling thousands of cables a day for a relatively new form of connectivity. USB-C as a technology is perfectly fine, it works very well moving power and data extremely fast between devices and many companies are expected to switch making it a standard. But while the technology works very well, some companies have chosen to ignore proper specs when building their USB-C cable. Google engineer Benson Leung has been the spearhead and driving force behind exposing poorly made USB-C cables. Leung is an authority on USB-C and started testing cables he purchased on Amazon. What he found was disturbing to him and many in the tech community.
Many of the cables he tested were not passing his barrage of tests which means they could potentially damage whatever device they were plugged into. Things came to a head when Leung was testing a USB-C cable on his Chromebook Pixel, the cable fried his computer, rendering it useless. Since then Leung’s USB-C testing has become very much public knowledge and thousands read his Amazon reviews daily. Leung’s reviews have also finally attracted the attention of Amazon itself who have made changes to their prohibited listings in the electronics section. Leung posted about the new policy on his Google+ page yesterday.
Amazon.com has just made a change to their “Prohibited listings” for Electronics.
They’ve added the following line :
Any USB-C™ (or USB Type-C™) cable or adapter product that is not compliant with standard specifications issued by “USB Implementers Forum Inc.”What does this mean? It means that cable manufacturers who sell poorly made or intentionally deceptive USB TypeC cables and adapters are banned from Amazon, officially.
Really great news, but we all have to continue to be vigilant and call out any bad products we find on Amazon and other stores (both online and brick and mortar) as we find them.
The new policy will hopefully keep bad USB-C cables off Amazon but as Leung points out, better to be vigilant and continue to make sure the cables are meeting correct specs. You can check out Leung’s USB-C cable review collection on his Google+ page to see his official reviews. That guide alone should save you the headache of worrying about whether or not you’re getting a bad cable.
[button link=”https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/79eHPvsfwMt” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Benson Leung on Google+[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
