Recently, a charging cable has been released catered toward Sony products. The Chikou charging cable was originally thought of my most to be an official Sony product, brandishing a very similar design to their architecture and color schemes as we’ve seen Sony produce for years. Later on, Sony Taiwan released a statement to IT Home claiming that it was not an officially branded product.
Confusion was still wide-spread as Japanese branches of Sony were claiming through online portals that the Chikou charging cable was a Sony Mobile Authorized product and the production line quality was closely monitored by their servicing staff.
The cable was released with some impressive features, well as impressive as you can get for a cable. Featuring fire retardant materials and a magnetic connection to the phone to hold it in place, this cable can actually only be used with Sony products. It’s designed to clamp only to Sony products bodies, being measured and designed in this fashion.
We’re unable to come to a final answer as to if this is an official Sony product or not, but it heeds as a warning to those looking to buy any ‘official’ product. With so many knock-0ff and dodgy brands around these days, it’s hard to know if what you’re getting is actually genuine, or a cheap replica – or if there’s a third party company producing items (like in this case), is it actually approved by your products company?
If you’re looking for the always-safe option, go ahead and purchase directly only from your smartphone companies website. But, as with all ‘officially licensed’ products – expect to be paying a 200% premium.
Image courtesy of Chiphell
You gotta be nuts to purchase a Sony licenced cable from them, they should be supplied with each device. I don’t know why you’d want a magnetically attaching cable when You can just use the USB port, it make as much sense as wireless charging which makes no sense at all.
The Sony is waterproof. The USB socket is under a flap which you have to open and move out the way every time you charge it. Do this everyday for sometime and it’s likely to either break off or at least lose it’s tightness and stop keeping water out. The magnetic charging dock overcomes this issue, particularly when using in a car with a cradle.