If the $15-$20 savings on each charger has added up to enough to buy a smartphone or two, you've bought WAY many more chargers that I have. It sounds like the FEW $30 chargers I've bought cost less overall than your repeatedly buying the $5-$10 variety.
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Wow, you're really stretching here. Are you a sales person for the cellphone manufacturers by chance?
I carry multiple phones, and I travel often for work. So I have a set of chargers at home which stay at home, I have a set of chargers in my car that stays in my car, and I have a set of chargers in my luggage that stay in my luggage when I travel.
I never have to ever worry / forget chargers where ever I am. By buying the cheap generic chargers, which work wonderful, I have saved a ton of money, not to mention I have not invested $30 X many obsolete proprietary chargers on old phones that I no longer use.
You guys are so funny, really stretching for a reason to justify why EVERYONE should waste their $30 to buy over-priced OEM chargers.
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I imagine that here in the US the warranty would be voided as well, IF the manufacturer could show that you were using an "unauthorized" charger. That's a BIG IF though.
I'd like to see someone bring up some fine print from some contract that states using a non-OEM charger will void the warranty. That could be grounds for a FTC investigation into monopolistic practices of cell phone makers.
Imagine if you bought an after-market battery for your car, and your auto-maker voids your car warranty because you use an after-market battery. That would not fare well in the US, and nor would using an after-market generic charger for the phones.
...The mere existence of specifications does not mean that manufacturers follow them. Cheap components can lead to potentially damaging power fluctuations. I trust name brand manufacturers to follow the specs and use quality components more so than I do off-brand manufacturers. That trust may be misplaced, but it's there none the less.
That said, I don't personally know anyone who's device was damaged by an off-brand charger.
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BINGO!! Nor have I, and I have been around a very very long time on many cellphone forums, from Treo forums, Blackberry forums, various Carrier forums, Howard Forums, and I have yet to hear of one such incident that can be proved to be related to an after-market charger.
Again, this topic has been endlessly debated on virtually every forum I've visited. Every board there's someone who thinks that the cellphone gadgets are so poorly made and so sensitive that only the OEM chargers are going to prevent damage. This horse has been beaten to death millions of times over. No one has ever proven that spending 3-4 times the money for an OEM charger has ever done anything substantial other than lighten the buyer's wallet.