4 ms·

It's not locking out other chargers, just the fast charging feature. Poorly implemented fast charging can ruin your phone's battery quicker than most anything

It's not locking out other chargers, just the fast charging feature. Poorly implemented fast charging can ruin your phone's battery quicker than most anything else, so really the issue here is would you rather have google try and help protect your hardware or are you ok with taking the risk that all of the cheap chinese chargers you come across aren't going to damage your phone.

kevin_b_er 8y ago
So if all "other chargers" for the wired version could only charge at 500mA, due to DRM, this would also be acceptable? This is straight out of the Apple playbook of vendor lock-in and overpriced accessories.
drakenot 8y ago
I believe Apple does something similar. There were only a few whitelisted Qi chargers which the iPhone X would negotiate with for fast(er) charging at launch. You couldn't take any old higher wattage Qi charger and get the increased charging rate.
Aaargh20318 8y ago
> Poorly implemented fast charging can ruin your phone's battery quicker than most anything else But isn't the charger basically just a power supply for the phone ? i.e. the actual charging is done by the phone itself, not the charger.
- tehbeard 8y ago
  "Smoothness" and stability of the incoming current is probably a factor.
  - bfdm 8y ago
    OK, so build detection of that into the phone and disable charging if the source is unsuitable. Apply to all charge bases evenly. I have no problem with this. The problem is in saying you can only use theirs, even if you have another perfectly spec-compliant source.
- lostmyoldone 8y ago
  In any cae, the charger definitely should only be a PSU. Current, voltage, and temperature during charging should be completely managed by the phone hardware. Otherwise a defective charger can easily destroy the battery, and potentially also your house. If I'd hazard a guess - assuming it's not only greed - they are either offloading part of that work to the charger for a smaller bill of materials for the phone, or the charger is part of the thermal design. The higher current for fast charging might generate more heat than the body of the phone can get rid of on its own, and the stand could be engineered to cool down the phone. Almost all cordless power tool chargers have some kind of fan that connects to battery pack cooling ducts to prevent it from overheating during changing.
  - gargravarr 8y ago
    I'd say the heat generation is the biggest factor in fast charging wearing out the battery - lithium batteries do not like heat, and base Qi generates quite a lot of it (have a Qi charger for my Galaxy S5). Can only imagine the fun you run into trying to pump more current through them without melting the phone. Google may well be doing this because they can't guarantee cooling on the third-party stands, and would have to throttle the charge rate when the phone started to overheat. Guess they might be pre-empting it.
- pkaye 8y ago
  Quick charging works a little differently. The charger does some handshaking with the phone and switches to a mode which violates USB voltage/power specs. I think there are multiple implementations of this by different manufacturers. Maybe the USB committee can get everyone to agree to a standard.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Nasrudith 8y ago
Ideally and honestly it would be based off of sheer technical quality instead of any partnership - although incentives are aligned against it I wonder if it would be possible to have proper hardware autovetting intergrated - that could work even better than mere trust potentially. Admittedly probably not economical to do so.
calgoo 8y ago
Then give me a warning: "This is an unauthorized charger. For the security of the phone, we have lowered the power usage. You can disable this in options -> Powermode, however Google is not responsible for any issues this might cause", add some lawyer speak and done. Edit: Spelling
- ken 8y ago
  People don't read warnings, especially "lawyer speak". We knew that 25 years ago, and we've definitively proved it on the web this year. This would be the modern tech equivalent of keeping your fingers crossed.
seanp2k2 8y ago
Can the phone not monitor incoming current voltage look for things like AC on the charging signal, and disconnect the charging port if it detects those things? I know that it could, but it seems that instead of actually measuring, they’re assuming that all non-certified chargers are bad.
gambiting 8y ago
Tbf, OnePlus is doing exactly the same with their Dash Charging standard - even though the Snapdragon CPUs they use are compatible with the QuickCharge standard, OnePlus decided not to pay the fee to Qualcomm for its use and implemented their own standard instead - which of course only works with their own chargers and cables(!).

kevin_b_er 8y ago

So if all "other chargers" for the wired version could only charge at 500mA, due to DRM, this would also be acceptable? This is straight out of the Apple playbook of vendor lock-in and overpriced accessories.

drakenot 8y ago

I believe Apple does something similar. There were only a few whitelisted Qi chargers which the iPhone X would negotiate with for fast(er) charging at launch. You couldn't take any old higher wattage Qi charger and get the increased charging rate.

Aaargh20318 8y ago

> Poorly implemented fast charging can ruin your phone's battery quicker than most anything else But isn't the charger basically just a power supply for the phone ? i.e. the actual charging is done by the phone itself, not the charger.

tehbeard 8y ago
"Smoothness" and stability of the incoming current is probably a factor.
- bfdm 8y ago
  OK, so build detection of that into the phone and disable charging if the source is unsuitable. Apply to all charge bases evenly. I have no problem with this. The problem is in saying you can only use theirs, even if you have another perfectly spec-compliant source.
lostmyoldone 8y ago
In any cae, the charger definitely should only be a PSU. Current, voltage, and temperature during charging should be completely managed by the phone hardware. Otherwise a defective charger can easily destroy the battery, and potentially also your house. If I'd hazard a guess - assuming it's not only greed - they are either offloading part of that work to the charger for a smaller bill of materials for the phone, or the charger is part of the thermal design. The higher current for fast charging might generate more heat than the body of the phone can get rid of on its own, and the stand could be engineered to cool down the phone. Almost all cordless power tool chargers have some kind of fan that connects to battery pack cooling ducts to prevent it from overheating during changing.
- gargravarr 8y ago
  I'd say the heat generation is the biggest factor in fast charging wearing out the battery - lithium batteries do not like heat, and base Qi generates quite a lot of it (have a Qi charger for my Galaxy S5). Can only imagine the fun you run into trying to pump more current through them without melting the phone. Google may well be doing this because they can't guarantee cooling on the third-party stands, and would have to throttle the charge rate when the phone started to overheat. Guess they might be pre-empting it.
pkaye 8y ago
Quick charging works a little differently. The charger does some handshaking with the phone and switches to a mode which violates USB voltage/power specs. I think there are multiple implementations of this by different manufacturers. Maybe the USB committee can get everyone to agree to a standard.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Nasrudith 8y ago

Ideally and honestly it would be based off of sheer technical quality instead of any partnership - although incentives are aligned against it I wonder if it would be possible to have proper hardware autovetting intergrated - that could work even better than mere trust potentially. Admittedly probably not economical to do so.

calgoo 8y ago

Then give me a warning: "This is an unauthorized charger. For the security of the phone, we have lowered the power usage. You can disable this in options -> Powermode, however Google is not responsible for any issues this might cause", add some lawyer speak and done. Edit: Spelling

ken 8y ago
People don't read warnings, especially "lawyer speak". We knew that 25 years ago, and we've definitively proved it on the web this year. This would be the modern tech equivalent of keeping your fingers crossed.

seanp2k2 8y ago

Can the phone not monitor incoming current voltage look for things like AC on the charging signal, and disconnect the charging port if it detects those things? I know that it could, but it seems that instead of actually measuring, they’re assuming that all non-certified chargers are bad.

gambiting 8y ago

Tbf, OnePlus is doing exactly the same with their Dash Charging standard - even though the Snapdragon CPUs they use are compatible with the QuickCharge standard, OnePlus decided not to pay the fee to Qualcomm for its use and implemented their own standard instead - which of course only works with their own chargers and cables(!).