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This is the exact sort of situation that supports the ever increasing importance of brands. This is obviously a cheap chinese product, and therefore there are

This is the exact sort of situation that supports the ever increasing importance of brands. This is obviously a cheap chinese product, and therefore there are low expectations of quality in the result. The same is still true but in a less obvious way even from more reputable channels like buying a USB charger from a shop in an airport there are so many ways that the implementation can be subtly not what you want and not give you the right charging speed with ONE of your phones. You can't read reviews of every product and even if you could, they're not going exhaustively test every last technical aspect of something. My solution to this particular issue is that I buy all of my USB chargers from Anker (direct, not via Amazon). I know I'm getting a product from a company that has thought about it and tested it thoroughly, so my chances are much better. And the same is true with other products.

zrail 5y ago
Same, although I haven't yet tried to purchase direct from Anker. I think I tried once and it just sent me back to Amazon.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
microtonal 5y ago
This is the exact sort of situation that supports the ever increasing importance of brands. There are many brands that still profit off their good name, but by now are just selling generic Chinese designs with fancier enclosures. E.g. my wife bought a Satechi USB-C On-the-Go adapter. One of its stated features is that it supports 4k@60Hz. Except that it didn't work. We tried different 4k screen models from different manufacturers and two different MacBooks and a Windows PC. All of which work fine with a USB-C DP alt-mode cable and a Lenovo USB-C Dock [1]. We contacted their support and they recommend that we do a firmware update. They send you a completely undocumented Realtek firmware updater (Windows-only) that doesn't work. I was surprised by all of this, because Satechi used to be a reputable brand for Mac adapters. So, I investigated the adapter a bit more and the MAC address stood out. The MAC address was registered to Part II Research, which doesn't really seem to exist anymore. However, looking at their website through archive.org showed that they were a division of the Chinese brand Power 7 Technology. After browsing their website, I found an adapter that was more or less identical to the Satechi USB-C On-the-Go. The same port layout, the same touted features, but with a different enclosure: https://www.power7tech.com/page/305 https://www.power7tech.com/page/305 Power 7 makes reference designs and sells them to manufactures that rebrand them. This explains why Satechi couldn't provide proper support and couldn't even provide a working firmware updater. They didn't design the device or the firmware. Needless to say, we returned the adapter. When I was researching this, I found a nice blog post that opens up several adapters from reputed brands (Satechi, Icy Box, Anker) and finds that they are just rebranded generic designs of typically pretty miserable quality: https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.html https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.h... After several bad experiences with adapters and docks that do USB over USB-C, I try to buy Thunderbolt accessories when possible. You see some of the same crap (Realtek RTL8153), but on average the quality seems to be better. [1] The 4k@60Hz support, the Lenovo Dock has other issues.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  I'd be interested in what is inside the hood of my Belkin USB-C adapter (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B08X5168HM/ https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B08X5168HM/). It works flawlessly, with the only downside being that it forcibly removes 15 watts from the Power Delivery budget which is enough for my s/o's Acer Switch X notebook but not for my 2019 16-inch MBP.
- paulmd 5y ago
  EVGA made a line of capture devices that I suspect were made by either this brand or another similar OEM selling generic designs. They got nailed for advertising a lot of specs that were basically completely fake (the device could not do some of the modes at all, not just fake internal resolution but couldn't even output them) and then went through a couple rapid iterations of similar specs that were just fake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsICWRnj-60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsICWRnj-60 EposVox has been doing a whole series. The whole market seems to be really shady and hit-or-miss if you don't go with a name-brand like elgato or blackmagic. Huge number of sellers are just slapping their brand on an OEM design and the OEM doesn't seem to mind lying about what their design will do, and then the OEM is caught in the middle of angry customers and an OEM who just flagrantly doesn't care. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnM6cip2lk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnM6cip2lk
loudmax 5y ago
Anker is a Chinese company incidentally. People often disparage "cheap Chinese" knock-offs, but the salient feature here is cheapness and dodgy branding, not the fact that they're made in China. Geopolitics aside, the Chinese are absolutely capable of building good stuff, as demonstrated by brands like Anker.
- ziml77 5y ago
  It's not that China universally produces garbage. It's that they can get away with producing garbage and even straight up knockoffs. Additionally they already have the equipment there to manufacture this stuff. That leads to most of those terrible items coming from Chinese companies. That's why Chinese, cheap garbage, and false marketing are associated with China. If they don't want that to be the case, someone would need to crack down on the lies and knockoffs.
  - mitchdoogle 5y ago
    A lot of good quality stuff comes from China as well, including many luxury brands. Why do they only get the reputation for the bad stuff?
    - KerrAvon 5y ago
      China has no well known flagship brand demonstrating that level of quality. Japan had Sony. South Korea has LG. What equivalent brand comes from China that US consumers know?
      - pxx 5y ago
        Aren't we literally in a thread that's discussing Anker and the quality of their products??
      - conorgdaly 5y ago
        DJI. Head and shoulders above the competition. Although China also has most of the crappy knock-off drone brands that don't get the fundamentals right. As commenter further up said: " If they don't want that to be the case, someone would need to crack down on the lies and knockoffs." Even though China can and has done good manufacturing and engineering, I think of crappy knockoffs when I think of Chinese engineering. Not so much for the Germans or the Swiss. Given how much power the CCP has, they could rectify this in no time. Much like a corporation, they seem to be focused on short term gains (lots of tiny profits coming from knockoffs and frankly dangerous products which don't comply with laws of buyer's country) rather than medium/long term reputation. To add to that, the forced data sharing and backdoors CCP forces companies to install just means they're eroding international trust in Chinese companies at the expense of long term reputation. I feel bad for any actual Chinese engineering companies because they will have that reputation no matter what as long as they are China HQ'd.
radicality 5y ago
Have you had any knockoffs of Anker when purchasing via Amazon? I ask as I do a bunch of my shopping on Amazon (trying to cut down because of the fakes/inventory commingling) and recently bought some Anker stuff - as far as I can tell it looks legit. I usually make sure the product is sold by Amazon, or some trusted brand (here, sold by AnkerDirect and shipped by Amazon). Have you had bad experiences and hence recommend always ordering direct from manufacturer?
- rkangel 5y ago
  I think I've been relatively lucky - I've had one cheap product that wasn't quite what it should have been, but nothing from Anker. My policy is to avoid ordering from Amazon if at all possible. This is both because of the risk of counterfeits, but also for the 'vote with your wallet' approach that I don't agree with a lot of what they do.
Gigachad 5y ago
The value of Apple products when it comes to dongles and cables is pretty clear to me. While most people laugh at that $100 usb C hub thing, I haven’t been able to find a single alternative that is as good and significantly cheaper. Most products with the same ports cost almost as much and were constant sources of issues when we used them at work while the Apple one just always works in every case. I got one of the basic usb 3.0 A to C cables on eBay and while it generally works, I was only able to get 300mbps over it while the apple one did the full gbit I was testing. These specs are never written anywhere. You only know when you test it out. And I find the Apple one just passes all tests while 3rd party brands are a roll of the dice.
- goosedragons 5y ago
  The specs are often buried in the description on places like Amazon where you get this junk. I don't think the Apple ones are trouble free either. They don't even list what wattage the USB C power port on their dongles takes on the store page [0]. Just a completely separate support page for some reason [1]. [0] https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1L2AM/A/usb-c-vga-multiport-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1L2AM/A/usb-c-vga-multi... [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207807 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207807
  - Gigachad 5y ago
    My guess is as part of the Apple "Just works" philosophy, they just make sure the wattage is high enough to power everything they list on the compatible section and then they can exclude the spec since the user need not ever worry about it.
    - goosedragons 5y ago
      They don't actually. The 15"/16" MBP are listed as compatible but need 87/97W at full tilt but the most the VGA adapter will do is 60W. They do have that on the separate support page but not on the store page.

zrail 5y ago

Same, although I haven't yet tried to purchase direct from Anker. I think I tried once and it just sent me back to Amazon.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

microtonal 5y ago

This is the exact sort of situation that supports the ever increasing importance of brands. There are many brands that still profit off their good name, but by now are just selling generic Chinese designs with fancier enclosures. E.g. my wife bought a Satechi USB-C On-the-Go adapter. One of its stated features is that it supports 4k@60Hz. Except that it didn't work. We tried different 4k screen models from different manufacturers and two different MacBooks and a Windows PC. All of which work fine with a USB-C DP alt-mode cable and a Lenovo USB-C Dock [1]. We contacted their support and they recommend that we do a firmware update. They send you a completely undocumented Realtek firmware updater (Windows-only) that doesn't work. I was surprised by all of this, because Satechi used to be a reputable brand for Mac adapters. So, I investigated the adapter a bit more and the MAC address stood out. The MAC address was registered to Part II Research, which doesn't really seem to exist anymore. However, looking at their website through archive.org showed that they were a division of the Chinese brand Power 7 Technology. After browsing their website, I found an adapter that was more or less identical to the Satechi USB-C On-the-Go. The same port layout, the same touted features, but with a different enclosure: https://www.power7tech.com/page/305 https://www.power7tech.com/page/305 Power 7 makes reference designs and sells them to manufactures that rebrand them. This explains why Satechi couldn't provide proper support and couldn't even provide a working firmware updater. They didn't design the device or the firmware. Needless to say, we returned the adapter. When I was researching this, I found a nice blog post that opens up several adapters from reputed brands (Satechi, Icy Box, Anker) and finds that they are just rebranded generic designs of typically pretty miserable quality: https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.html https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.h... After several bad experiences with adapters and docks that do USB over USB-C, I try to buy Thunderbolt accessories when possible. You see some of the same crap (Realtek RTL8153), but on average the quality seems to be better. [1] The 4k@60Hz support, the Lenovo Dock has other issues.

mschuster91 5y ago
I'd be interested in what is inside the hood of my Belkin USB-C adapter (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B08X5168HM/ https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B08X5168HM/). It works flawlessly, with the only downside being that it forcibly removes 15 watts from the Power Delivery budget which is enough for my s/o's Acer Switch X notebook but not for my 2019 16-inch MBP.
paulmd 5y ago
EVGA made a line of capture devices that I suspect were made by either this brand or another similar OEM selling generic designs. They got nailed for advertising a lot of specs that were basically completely fake (the device could not do some of the modes at all, not just fake internal resolution but couldn't even output them) and then went through a couple rapid iterations of similar specs that were just fake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsICWRnj-60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsICWRnj-60 EposVox has been doing a whole series. The whole market seems to be really shady and hit-or-miss if you don't go with a name-brand like elgato or blackmagic. Huge number of sellers are just slapping their brand on an OEM design and the OEM doesn't seem to mind lying about what their design will do, and then the OEM is caught in the middle of angry customers and an OEM who just flagrantly doesn't care. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnM6cip2lk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnM6cip2lk

loudmax 5y ago

Anker is a Chinese company incidentally. People often disparage "cheap Chinese" knock-offs, but the salient feature here is cheapness and dodgy branding, not the fact that they're made in China. Geopolitics aside, the Chinese are absolutely capable of building good stuff, as demonstrated by brands like Anker.

ziml77 5y ago
It's not that China universally produces garbage. It's that they can get away with producing garbage and even straight up knockoffs. Additionally they already have the equipment there to manufacture this stuff. That leads to most of those terrible items coming from Chinese companies. That's why Chinese, cheap garbage, and false marketing are associated with China. If they don't want that to be the case, someone would need to crack down on the lies and knockoffs.
- mitchdoogle 5y ago
  A lot of good quality stuff comes from China as well, including many luxury brands. Why do they only get the reputation for the bad stuff?
  - KerrAvon 5y ago
    China has no well known flagship brand demonstrating that level of quality. Japan had Sony. South Korea has LG. What equivalent brand comes from China that US consumers know?
    - pxx 5y ago
      Aren't we literally in a thread that's discussing Anker and the quality of their products??
    - conorgdaly 5y ago
      DJI. Head and shoulders above the competition. Although China also has most of the crappy knock-off drone brands that don't get the fundamentals right. As commenter further up said: " If they don't want that to be the case, someone would need to crack down on the lies and knockoffs." Even though China can and has done good manufacturing and engineering, I think of crappy knockoffs when I think of Chinese engineering. Not so much for the Germans or the Swiss. Given how much power the CCP has, they could rectify this in no time. Much like a corporation, they seem to be focused on short term gains (lots of tiny profits coming from knockoffs and frankly dangerous products which don't comply with laws of buyer's country) rather than medium/long term reputation. To add to that, the forced data sharing and backdoors CCP forces companies to install just means they're eroding international trust in Chinese companies at the expense of long term reputation. I feel bad for any actual Chinese engineering companies because they will have that reputation no matter what as long as they are China HQ'd.

radicality 5y ago

Have you had any knockoffs of Anker when purchasing via Amazon? I ask as I do a bunch of my shopping on Amazon (trying to cut down because of the fakes/inventory commingling) and recently bought some Anker stuff - as far as I can tell it looks legit. I usually make sure the product is sold by Amazon, or some trusted brand (here, sold by AnkerDirect and shipped by Amazon). Have you had bad experiences and hence recommend always ordering direct from manufacturer?

rkangel 5y ago
I think I've been relatively lucky - I've had one cheap product that wasn't quite what it should have been, but nothing from Anker. My policy is to avoid ordering from Amazon if at all possible. This is both because of the risk of counterfeits, but also for the 'vote with your wallet' approach that I don't agree with a lot of what they do.

Gigachad 5y ago

The value of Apple products when it comes to dongles and cables is pretty clear to me. While most people laugh at that $100 usb C hub thing, I haven’t been able to find a single alternative that is as good and significantly cheaper. Most products with the same ports cost almost as much and were constant sources of issues when we used them at work while the Apple one just always works in every case. I got one of the basic usb 3.0 A to C cables on eBay and while it generally works, I was only able to get 300mbps over it while the apple one did the full gbit I was testing. These specs are never written anywhere. You only know when you test it out. And I find the Apple one just passes all tests while 3rd party brands are a roll of the dice.

goosedragons 5y ago
The specs are often buried in the description on places like Amazon where you get this junk. I don't think the Apple ones are trouble free either. They don't even list what wattage the USB C power port on their dongles takes on the store page [0]. Just a completely separate support page for some reason [1]. [0] https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1L2AM/A/usb-c-vga-multiport-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1L2AM/A/usb-c-vga-multi... [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207807 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207807
- Gigachad 5y ago
  My guess is as part of the Apple "Just works" philosophy, they just make sure the wattage is high enough to power everything they list on the compatible section and then they can exclude the spec since the user need not ever worry about it.
  - goosedragons 5y ago
    They don't actually. The 15"/16" MBP are listed as compatible but need 87/97W at full tilt but the most the VGA adapter will do is 60W. They do have that on the separate support page but not on the store page.