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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

The Samsung charger compares favorably to Apple's at about 1/3 the price. It seems any "name brand" company is going to at least comply with UL rules. The no-name brands are completely unsafe, and Apple's charger may provide better touchscreen performance (for $20 more). Apple's prongs are also more overengineered than Samsung's. (Wait, not overengineered... who doesn't superglue their iPhone charger to the wall?)

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> Samsung charger compares favorably to Apple's at about 1/3 the price

From this article:

“When I opened the charger up, I expected to find a standard design, but I've compared the charger to the Samsung charger and several other high-quality industry designs,[17] and Apple goes beyond these designs in several ways.”

But what he doesn't say is that Apple's charger is safer than the standard design. The best we can say for Apple is that it has cleaner power which is helpful for the touchscreen circuitry. That's why I say Samsung's charger compares favorably: it charges the device and it meets UL standards.

You said that it compares favourably and then noted that it's 1/3 the price. To my eyes that reads, "the Samsung charger is a better value", and I think that that's what you meant too, until Terreta corrected you.

I still think it's a better value. Actually, I just use a nearby computer because those are free and can charge many devices at once.

apple $20, 0.5Amp

samsung $8, 0.5Amp

HP, $15, 2Amp, plus interchangeable plugs for several countries in 1.4x size of apple's

Google, no option to buy extra power cords for nexus one, but who would? it's 1Amp and cheap components. with the cable permanently attached.

This tear down is the < 1" cube. You sure HP's is 1/4 the size?

And when I add a generic 2 prong Euro adapter, Apple's is still the smallest brand name charger I've seen.

Finally, the iPhone 4 charger torn down here is labeled 1A, not 0.5A, and certainly charges iPhone 4 in a fraction of the time of lesser chargers.

I'm amazed how much less time it takes to fully recharge from 10% - 100% the iPhone 4s versus the Samsung (Google) Galaxy Nexus. Granted, thats not just the charger.

Read again. "1.4 the size" is 40% larger, not one fourth the size.

The Nexus One (european) charger that I have here is by Phihong and at least has CE and PCT labels on it, so it is not downright awful.

CE stamp is self certifying. Any manufacturer can self declare they are in compliance and affix the label, it doesn't mean any third party testing was done at all. UL on the other hand requires third party testing but isn't a mandated government label, it is just a quasi requirement as virtually all fire inspectors in the US accept it as a safety standard.

Apple's is actually 1A (5W at 5V http://goo.gl/Fw4FB), as is Samsung's as listed on the linked Amazon page.

I stand corrected. it's 1A when used with the proprietary cable.

when used with a regular miniUSB cable , i only get 0.5A.

or the one i have from a 3Gs box is only 0.5A.

Anecdote: My 2008 charger had its "hot" prong break off. It was in a dorm, so I couldn't turn off the breaker to pull the prong out, so as far as I know that prong is still there ready to zap the shit out of some unsuspecting college freshman...

Most people would open a service request to get that thing pulled out rather than leave 120V exposed for whomever happens to be near that outlet next.

(I would have just pulled it out with insulated pliers, though.)

Absolutely, I definitely should have filed a request. I just remembered about that now in the context of this story. :( Hopefully it was found during summer room inspections.

the problem i ever had with the short outlet plugs in the US is the cable falling on it's own.

can't fathom it being stuck there in any circumstance.

fathom, unless you're seeing ghosts.

thanks, dyslexic and cellphone prediction. Not a good combination

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