OnePlus has received some criticism lately, especially when it concerns their “2016 Flagship Killer” the OnePlus 2, which many said was killed by this year’s flagships. To add to their woes, their USB Type-C cables are now coming under fire for not being spec compliant.
Who, you might ask, is attacking OnePlus? Well, some call him the Caped Cable Crusader, others call him the USB Vigilante, but his almost 7,000 followers on Google+ should know him better as Benson Leung.
Google employee by day, Amazon cable critic by night, Benson cautioned users who purchased the OnePlus USB Type-C cable against using it with their Chromebook Pixel or the new Nexus devices. This was because Benson found that OnePlus’ cable used a 3A identifier resistor instead of the “Default USB Power” resistor, and as a result could cause damage to those devices.
He also found that OnePlus’ USB Type-C adapter was also using the wrong identifier resistor, raising concern regarding the actual quality of OnePlus’ accessories.
Benson wasn’t deliberately picking on OnePlus though as he had already launched a campaign to test USB Type-C cables off Amazon to see if they met the minimum standards or if they were merely rip-offs.
His process consisted of ordering USB Type-C cables from various manufacturers on the site and then testing them, subsequently posting reviews on their respective product pages on Amazon. While some did not follow the Release 1.1 USB Type-C specifications, the more common problem it seemed was that many of the cables were using incorrect resistors.
While many of the problematic cables were from third party manufacturers, OnePlus’ failure was certainly not expected since their motto was to “Never Settle”. Perhaps they were trying to create cables that only rewarded the faithful. In any case, OnePlus owners don’t have to worry as long as they don’t stick their cables into a device that doesn’t bear the OnePlus logo.
