I took apart this cheap 600W charger to test its claims. What I found inside was not right

12 hours ago 4

It's casual to silkscreen 600W connected the product, but tin the merchandise unrecorded up to the hype?

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I trial dozens of chargers each year. Some are excellent, portion others autumn short. Here connected ZDNET, I lone diagnostic the pick of the harvest -- the champion of the best. However, I occasionally person requests from readers asking for my thoughts oregon opinions connected circumstantial products.

Lately, 1 merchandise that's been generating a batch of buzz is this 600W GaN charger.

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So, I bought a mates for testing. At $99, they're not precisely cheap, but compared to the Ugreen Nexode 300W unit, which costs $140, they seemed similar a bargain. After all, this is an 8-port, 600W charger versus a 5-port, 300W unit.

8 ports -- has to beryllium cool, right? Wrong!

Red flags

The archetypal reddish emblem for maine was the no-name marque -- a generic sanction I'd ne'er heard of before. Why does this institution person 600W chargers connected the market, portion the large names -- Anker, Ugreen, Belkin, Baseus, and others -- don't? I've heard of and dealt with these companies extensively, and they've built reputations for prime and reliability.

But things went downhill the infinitesimal I plugged it in.

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The archetypal contented I noticed was that the charger was erratic. I could get 140W retired of 1 of the USB-C ports, but the different 140W larboard wasn't cooperating and seemed to beryllium stuck astatine astir 65W. To marque matters worse, 1 of the 100W ports appeared to beryllium wholly dead.

Another large occupation was that plugging oregon unplugging devices would often origin the charger to malfunction. More often than not, it would participate a authorities wherever it stopped moving entirely, requiring maine to unplug the powerfulness cablegram to "reboot" it and get it functioning again.

Not good.

The charger needs a reboot -- again!

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

No substance what I tried, I couldn't get this charger anyplace adjacent its claimed 600W powerfulness rating. To marque matters worse, it was erratic and temperamental.

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So, I decided to unfastened it up and instrumentality a look inside.

Ballast perhaps?

The archetypal happening that greeted maine was a lump of... something. At archetypal glance, it looked similar a thermal compound, but it smelled and felt much similar a model glazing compound, leaving down an oily residue. It was besides amazingly heavy, astir arsenic if it had been added to springiness the charger immoderate artificial heft. Without it, the remains of the charger felt incredibly light.

Definitely not what I'd expect from a 600W charger.

Serious information hazard

A speedy introspection of the circuitry revealed that this is simply a sub-par portion of equipment. Without getting excessively technical, the separation betwixt the mains voltage and the low-voltage sections of the charger is inadequate.

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This mediocre plan means that a malfunction could perchance effect successful the charger outputting mains voltage -- a superior information hazard. Additionally, the transformers and voltage regulators utilized don't look to beryllium susceptible of delivering the advertised 600W.

This is NOT what a prime merchandise looks like.

Another interest was however easy the lawsuit popped open, exposing the interior components. If this charger fell disconnected a table portion plugged in, the broadside screen could detach, exposing the high-voltage components. This creates a unsafe concern wherever idiosyncratic could accidentally travel into interaction with the mains voltage portion retrieving the charger.

The bottommost line

This charger doesn't marque the cut. It doesn't adjacent travel close.

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This is precisely wherefore I extensively trial everything -- from powerfulness banks and chargers to powerfulness stations. Manufacturers tin easy marque bold claims connected spec sheets, packaging, oregon adjacent the merchandise itself, but creating a instrumentality that really delivers connected those promises is simply a acold greater challenge.

Need a almighty charger? Go for thing similar the Ugreen Nexode 300W oregon Anker Prime 250W. These are prime products that present the goods from companies with a way grounds of delivering the goods.

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