These Scammy Chargers Are Back: A Deeper Dive into the QuickCharge Pro

Kind and captionsLanguage: en- These scammy chargers are back, well, really they never left. It's been a couple of years since I've talked about these and there's been some deceitful development to say the least. Oh, and the scammers value this thing at $76. God, please help us.

Hey everyone, how are you all doing? If you're new here, welcome. My name is Krazy Ken, and this is the QuickCharge Pro, which is built with groundbreaking nanotechnology and it can charge any battery to full in minutes. Clearly, the scammers were not satisfied with the last two products I debunked in this category, so they've come back for more, which means I have more BS to dissect.

So let's start with the video ads themselves. The first problem is if you charged a battery this fast, it would get extremely hot, probably start on fire. So this is fake. In fact, all these fast charging battery scenes are fake. Hey, I can draw battery graphics too. Give it a little animation and play it back on my phone as a video file to make it look like it's charging. Yeah, it's great! Adobe After Effects, and Apple Motion are wonderful tools.

Another big issue is the performance claims. The scammers say QuickCharge Pro can make your phone run faster. This is incredibly unlikely because phone operating systems have protective measures built in that prevent USB and other accessories from just hijacking the operating system. You could still probably achieve this if you jailbreak your iPhone or route your Android device, but generally speaking, these types of protection would make an accessory like this impossible, and the device would still need to be programmed in a specific way to communicate with your phone properly.

Later, I will open up one of these QuickCharge pros to see if there's any hardware inside that would be capable of this. But the scammers go further and again, they use an exhausted argument that many chargers have used in the past: planned obsolescence. Specifically, these scammers for years have been weaponizing the class action lawsuits against Apple that occurred during the Batterygate controversy.

Batterygate started in 2017 or earlier, depending on how you interpret its origins. On January 23rd, 2017, Apple issued an iOS 10.2.1 software update, which optimized iPhone power management to prevent the phone from drawing too much power from a degraded battery, which would result in abrupt shutdowns. But this attempted fix resulted in unwanted performance slumps, and Apple wasn't transparent about what was happening. They fixed these issues with iOS 11.3, which offered new battery management features and transparency, but users were already taking legal action against the big fruit.

Years later, as of January 2024, iPhone owners who were part of the 2020 class action lawsuit finally started receiving payments. The lawsuit applied to select iPhones affected at the time, and this has not been a widespread issue since, so for all intents and purposes, this issue has been solved. But the scammers don't care; they just hope that you don't know any better.

Moving on, the ad says the charger is equipped with revolutionary QC3.0 technology. Okay, so QC stands for Quick Charge. It's a fast charging standard developed by Qualcomm, and version three came out in 2015 over eight years ago. So that's not a great selling point for a new charger. In addition, QC3.0 is only compatible with select Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, which means it does not work with iPhones despite the scammers showing multiple iPhones throughout the ads.

Now, let's talk price. The ad says QuickCharge Pro is $37, and they justify this price by saying, “This product will pay for itself in no time.” But what does that even mean? They're essentially claiming that the cost of replacing your battery or extending its lifespan is worth more than the cost of buying a new charger like this. And yet, if you look at their website, there's a disclaimer stating that you'll need to replace your existing charger with a new one every 3-5 years, which means you're essentially paying for a battery replacement service.

In conclusion, these scammy chargers are back, and they're using the same old tactics to convince people to buy them. They claim it can charge any battery to full in minutes, make your phone run faster, and is equipped with revolutionary technology that no one else has thought of before. But let's be real, folks; this is all just a bunch of hooey.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- These scammy chargers are back,well, really they never left.It's been a couple of yearssince I've talked about theseand there's been somedeceitful developmentsto say the least.Oh, and the scammersvalue this thing at $76.God, please help us.(upbeat music)Hey everyone, how are you all doing?If you're new here, welcome.My name is Krazy Ken, andthis is the QuickCharge Pro,which is built withgroundbreaking nanotechnologyand it can charge anybattery to full in minutes.Clearly, the scammers were not satisfiedwith the last two productsI debunked in this category,so they've come back for more,which means I have more BS to dissect.So let's start with the video ads.I found two deliciousYouTube ads for this brand.The first one starts by showinga phone charging from zeroto 100% in only four seconds.Then the ad flashesmany tech related imagesin rapid succession,and then it says there's anew groundbreaking discoverythat's reversing planned obsolescence.Oh gosh, not the plannedobsolescence argument again,scammers,you gotta get a new shtick.And smartphone companies are tryingto make this discovery illegal oh no,and rather than spending 1200 to $1,800on a smartphone every year,this $37 device will turn your smartphoneinto a lightning fasthandheld supercomputerthat will last a lifetime.And this is all thanks tothe gadget's AI technology,which will override yourphone's operating system.Slow loading times willcompletely disappear.This new charger is equippedwith revolutionary QC3.0 technology,which is four times fasterthan traditional chargers,and it can charge a depletedbattery from one to 100%in 11 minutes,and it allows your phone'sbattery to last up to 56 hours.But how? It's simple, Fred!The charger distributes power-hungry appsinto a more energy efficient flow.Okay, just a quick side note,if you need to milk your phone's battery,you can just turn on the low power modeor whatever it's called on your phone,and that'll work just fine.You don't need some magicalthird party accessory.We continue to see thiswoman narrating on screen,which kind of surprised me,because many of the ads I've investigatedare typically just voiceover narration.And she goes on to say, her and her teamdeveloped this product.She used to work at thebiggest smartphone companyin the world when thisplanned obsolescence scandalhappened, and she hints at Apple.And she claims phone software updatesare actually downgrades,which can destroy your phone,so you're enticed to buy a new one.She was tired of this, so sheworked with some colleaguesto build a solution whichremoves planned obsolescencefrom a phone usingSmart Defrag Technology.Just plug it in and you're done.But since smartphone companiesare lobbying against them,they're not sure ifthey'll be able to restockthe device anytime soon.You know, I just realized they never oncedirectly say the brandname of this product,which is probably not the smartest idea.But anyway, we'lldissect this ad more soonand pick it apart,but first we need to look atthe second ad that I found.And if you thought the first ad was bad,(Ken laughs)buckle up.The second ad startswith a shot of an iPhonebeing plugged into multipleUSB power adapters.They call this a controversial device,but they never show it inany other parts of the ad.The narrator claims it cancharge to 100% in record timeand reverse the age ofyour phone's battery,restoring it to mint workingcondition in three weeks.The ad continues to talk abouta malicious product cyclethat slows down devices,it's called Programmed Extinction.Programmed Extinction?Is that even a thing?The ad claims thisextinction forces peopleto spend thousands of dollars every year,but fear not, MIT is here.They always seem to save the day.They discovered agroundbreaking nanotechnologythat extends the batterylife in your phone,but also charges your phone much fasterthan a regular charger.And they proceed to showfour phones charging to 100%in about four minutes, allfrom the same charging device.This fast charging tech is possible,thanks to more than a year of researchled by Professor Steve Gibbs.Steve diagnosed a major faultin traditional chargers.They use metal wires topass through electricityto your phone,and the problem with metalwires is they degrade,and this causes damageto your phone's battery.So the MIT engineers beganto manufacture a chargerthat uses carbon nanotubes.Then we meet this gentlemanwho I guess is supposed to be Steve,but with different glasses, I guess.He explains the nanoscale wiresclaiming his team is able to achievemuch smaller power consumptioncompared to metal wires.- Nanotubes are hyper powerfuland can charge any device tofull battery within minutes.- Then the MITteam released a test batchof 200 QuickCharge Pros.Hey, thanks for finally sayingthe name of the product.The results were staggering.- My phone charged in just 15 minutesfrom zero to a hundred.- I love New Tech so muchthat I actually make aliving reviewing products.- After the success,MIT ramped up production, but oh no!Big Tech got wind of it.Multiple big tech companiespooled their resourcesand attempted to patentthe carbon nanotubesso they could stop theQuickCharge Pro manufacturing.And the case is still ongoing.Manufacturing is haltedand might not continue.So tap the link belowto get your own charger.There are many falseclaims with these ads,so let's have some funand break them down.The first problem is if youcharged a battery this fast,it would get extremely hot,probably start on fire.So this is fake.In fact, all these fast chargingbattery scenes are fake.Hey, I can draw battery graphic too.Give it a little animationand play it back on myphone as a video fileto make it look like it's charging.Yeah, it's great! Adobe After Effects,and Apple Motion are wonderful tools.Anyway, another big issueis the performance claims.The scammers say QuickCharge Procan make your phone run faster.This is incredibly unlikelybecause phone operating systemshave protective measuresbuilt in that prevent USBand other accessories from just hijackingthe operating system.You could still probably achieve thisif you jailbreak your iPhoneor route your Android device,but generally speaking,these types of protectionswould make an accessorylike this impossible,and the device would stillneed to be programmedin a specific way to communicatewith your phone properly.Later, I will open up oneof these QuickCharge prosto see if there's any hardware insidethat would be capable of this.But the scammers go further,and again, they use an exhausted argumentthat many chargers have used in the past.Planned obsolescence.Specifically, these scammersfor years have been weaponizingthe class action lawsuits against Applethat occurred during theBatterygate controversy.Here's what actually happened.Batterygate started in 2017or earlier, depending on howyou interpret its origins.On January 23rd, 2017,Apple issued an iOS10.2.1 software update,which optimized iPhone power managementto prevent the phone fromdrawing too much powerfrom a degraded battery,which would result in abrupt shutdowns.But this attempted fixresulted in unwanted performance slumps,and Apple wasn't transparentabout what was happening.They fixed these issues with iOS 11.3,which offered new batterymanagement featuresand transparency, but userswere already taking legal actionagainst the big fruit.Years later, as of January, 2024,iPhone owners who were part ofthe 2020 class action lawsuitfinally started receiving payments.The lawsuit applied to selectiPhones affected at the time,and this has not been awidespread issue since,so for all intents and purposes,this issue has been solved.But the scammers don't care,they just hope that youdon't know any better.Moving on, the ad saysthe charger is equippedwith revolutionary QC3.0 technology.Okay, so QC stands for Quick Charge.It is a fast charging standarddeveloped by Qualcomm,and version three came outin 2015 over eight years ago.So that's not a great sellingpoint for a new charger.In addition, QC 3.0 is only compatiblewith select QualcommSnapdragon processors,which means it does not work with iPhonedespite the scammersshowing multiple iPhonesthroughout the ads.Now, let's talk price.The ad says QuickCharge Pro is $37,and they justify this price by saying,\"Hey, if you buy this,you don't have to spend $1200 to $1,800on a new phone every year.\"This is very misleadingbecause most people don't spendthat much on a phone anyway.According to SellCell, theglobal average replacement cyclefor a smartphone is 3.6 years.And I also ran my own pollon Twitter and YouTube.Out of 995 Twitter votes,39% of people said theyupgrade every four plus years.And on YouTube out ofapproximately 9,300 votes,48% voted every four plus years too.So it's very unlikely thatpeople are buying new phonesas frequently as this ad makes it seem.And even when they dofinally pull the triggerand buy a new phone, they'renot spending a ton of money.And according to a US phone arena survey,only 17% of their respondentssaid they spend morethan a thousand dollars on a new phone.So I think it's pretty clearthis ad likes to exaggerateand bend the truth too much.Yeah, it's rough.Before I continue tearingthese fake chargers apart,metaphorically and physically,I'd like to recommend actualgood chargers from Ugreen.The Ugreen Nexode Pro65 Watt mini packs 65W,and three ports into a tiny design.It features two USB-C ports and one USB-A.And just to emphasize howsmall this thing really is,here is my 67-watt Apple power adapter.You can see it's a fraction of the size,yet it offers similarwattage and triple the ports.You can charge an M2MacBook Air from zero to 51%in just 30 minutes,or you can charge three devices at once.And it's all thanks to the Airpyra techand GaNInfinity chips.But I'm not done yet,Ugreen also makes docks.The Ugreen Revodok Pro plugsinto a single USB-C porton your laptop, and suddenlyyou transform that portinto a 10-in-1 dockingstation with two HDMI portswith multi-monitor support.Up to 4K at 60 hertz for two displaysand up to 8K at 30 hertz for one,a five-gigabit-per-second,USB-C port, a USB-A 3.0 port,two USB-A 2.0 ports and gigabit ethernet.You also get two card readersfor full-size and microSD,and you can charge yourlaptop with the USB-Cpass through up to 85 watts.So go ahead and get your ownUgreen chargers and dockswith the link in the description below.So now back to the bad chargers.I tell you I can nitpickthis QuickCharge Pro adall freaking day, butthere's bigger fish to fry.So let's take a look at ad number two.The second ad talks more specificallyabout reversing the ageof your phone's battery,restoring it to mint workingcondition in three weeks.This is impossible becausethe damage a batterynaturally receives throughaging is chemical related.Let's face it, batteries are time bombs.Okay, not that violent,but batteries undergo recurringelectrochemical reactions.These oxidation-reductionreactions or redox reactionsoccur every time electrons flowfrom the battery's anode to the cathode,which discharges the batteryand powers your device,and vice versa while charging.So it's only a matter of timebefore the anode wears outand batteries lose capacity,or even worse, get puffy from gas buildup.Mm-mm, gotta love those spicy pillows.And that's just from regular use.If your phone batteryexperiences excess heator it gets punctured or there's an impactthat could shorten the life even further,and no phone charger is gonnamagically fix these issues.And really, phones aresmart enough to optimizeyour charging to maintainthe battery health.You don't need an externalaccessory to achieve that.For example, your phone's,hardware, and softwarewill allow your battery tocharge at a higher wattageuntil a certain point,but then it will slow thecharging with a lower wattagefor the remaining percentage.Moving on in this scene,the ad shows four phonescharging really fastoff one charger.Let's ignore theoverheating problem for now.This is still impossiblebecause the QuickCharge Prodirectly on the productsays it will only outputat 18 watts maximum,that's the Quick Charge 3.0 limit.Now let's talk aboutMIT and this Steve guy.No, no, not that Steveguy, this Steve guy.First off, you spelled professorwrong in the lower third,yet you spelled it correctlyin the baked in captions.You can borrow my Franklinspelling ace if you need it.So Steve and the narratortalk about carbon nanotubes.These are a real thing andthey can be good conductors,but they're not used in allelectrical applications.But Steve and the narratorinsist carbon nanotubesare in the QuickCharge Pro.But the way they word it,it makes it seem like they'retalking about the cablesthat connect your phoneto the charging brick.I think there might be alanguage barrier issue hereor something, but whenthe advertisers say wires,I think they actually mean the traceson the physical printed circuit board,but those are typicallycopper, we'll find out soon.And even if this thing had nanotubes in itand everything was more efficient,it doesn't matter a ton to the phonebecause QC 3.0's 18-watt limitisn't going to magically increasejust because the brick itselfis a little more efficient.Also, I had Pixel Peeper 3000to a quick analysis ofthe scene, and bingo!Steve Gibbs is from thisstock footage on iStockand apparently it was filmed in Russia.So what's up with this patent claimwhere big tech companiespooled their resourcesto try and stop the QuickChargePro from being manufactured?Well, the narrator saidthis case is still ongoing.I usually keep a pretty good fingeron the tech community pulse,and I've never heard of this story,but certainly there's gottabe a news article about it,right?I googled a few keywordsand found absolutely nothingthat backed this claim up.These fake back stories arebeing used to invoke scarcity,threatening the buyer with a low supply.The advertisers areforcing a sense of urgencyupon the buyer so they canmake that sale really quickly.However, in reality, thereis no supply shortage.Ultimately, my B.S. meteris like fully overloadedwith these ads, but asyou can maybe guess,this scam doesn't end with the video ads.So let's take a lookat their web presence.Oh, a CloudFlare screen, oh joy!It looks like the host is down.I don't know why this happenedbecause when I startedinvestigating these guystwo months ago, thislanding page was active,but thankfully I've crackedthe code on time travel,so we can take a look at this website.Hey, Old Man Ken, you almost ready?- Almost, I just have to attach the powerfor the time machine.- Plug it in man, let's get going.- Yeah, I don't reallythink this extension cordis rated for 13 jigawatts.- Just do it!- Okay, oh gosh.(dramatic orchestral music)AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!- That didn't sound good,I'm sure he will be okay.He's got a pacemaker.Alright, let's time travel.Mm, I can feel it, I can feelit forcing through veins,let's do this.(electric whooshing)I think it worked, not much changes here.I think we're two months in the past.Yeah, we're two months in the past.This is the landing page from the linkin the first YouTube ad's description.Thanks to space timetravel, we can now see it.The top of the page says zeroto 100% in only 15 minutes.The website reiterateson some of the ad claims.For example, this device canreverse the aging processof your battery and heal past damage.The fake reviews backthis up, Gary Woodward,if that's your real name, says,\"The QuickCharge Proreverse the battery damageon his iPhone 11 and itcharges to 100% in 15 minutes.\"Gerardo says, \"When my watchor phone starts getting low,I just plug it into my computer.\"Wait, you plug it into your computer.Why not the QuickCharge Pro?What are you reviewing here?So that was the landing pageI discovered, pretty simple,but despite it being offline today,the main QuickChargePro.com homepageis still accessible.The homepage brings youto a country selector.And when you choose United States,it brings you to an entirelynew domain, QuickChargePro.io,and the site looks very Razer-y.Weirdly enough, if youchoose another countrylike Venezuela or France,it brings you to a completelydifferent looking webpage.And this is where things get interesting.Suddenly the bogus claims are gone.Well mostly, they still callit a revolutionary charger,which it isn't.But the 15-minute charging claimsand battery-healing claims are gone.Instead, the charge time claimis now 70% in 35 minutes.So it seems like whateverteam is behind thisdecided to be more honest andthey corrected their mistakes,and I applaud you for that.Thank you for the honesty.I still think it's crazy you'reselling this thing for $38.I mean, I'm okay with payingmore money for a good charger,but you know, it has to be good.This thing looks really cheap,but hey, prove me wrong.Only one way to find out, Iwent ahead and bought one.I time traveled back tothe original landing pageand clicked the 50% off button.The purchase page sneakilydefaults your selectionto two units valued at a ridiculous $152.In my case, I actually want to get to,because I have a feeling one of themmight get a little bit damagedwhen I try to open it upand see what magic is on the inside.I press the complete button,and ding, the purchase was complete.Oh look, a post transactionupsell and another,and another, wait!This might be the special cable we need,you know, with the carbon nanotubes.Oh no, it's just copper.So while we wait for theQuickCharge Pros to arrive,we need to talk about something importantthat has come up multiple times in my pastscam busting investigations.It's called dropshipping.In a nutshell, dropshippingis a fulfillment methodin which a brand ships an itemdirectly from thesupplier to the customer.Typically, this brand isoperated by a single person,and these individuals neverkeep inventory of the product.So if this business owner/operatorisn't keeping inventoryor physically shipping the product,what is their actual job?Their job is to provide a storefrontand marketing campaign to get peoplethrough the sales funneland buy a product.This is a legit selling method,and there are people who play fair.The barrier to entry is really low,which can overall be good,but it allows bad playersto enter the ring.And unfortunately, this leads to scamsand counterfeit goods,fake AirPods are a big one.On the plus side drop shipping can be goodfor people who want to run a business,because it's got lower overheadthan a full-blown operation.But there's downsides to this,shipping times can be long,the individual or businessbehind the drop shipping operationcan't perform quality controlbecause they neveractually see the product,which means they also can'tprovide proper customer servicein some cases.And the products are usually very genericbecause they typically can't be customizedto a brand's image.However, some suppliersoffer custom packagingat additional costs.So that's drop shippingand this whole QuickCharge Prooperation just reeks of it.But good news, the chargers are here now,let's take a look.Yeah, it's pretty much what Ithought, it feels super cheap.It looks really cheap too.And there's already abunch of scratches on it,like I haven't even done anything with itand it already looks scratched to heck!And on the back here, hmm, BK,not Burger King,unfortunately, model BK-376.That must be the actual nameof this Power QuickCharge 3.0.Even though the adscall it QuickCharge Pro,it looks like the realname is Power QuickCharge,'cause again, this issome dropshipping product,a generic product that anyone can buyand resell under whatevername they choose.And if we look this model up,we can find out that it isavailable on Amazon for $9from the generic store,that sounds lovely.Yeah, definitely not worth $76.And this new egg listingshows a total outputof 48 watts, so that's good to know.Now we have a number, andthe side of this thing saysfive volts, three amps max,which means not countingthe Quick Charge port,A port can deliver 15 watts of power.The charger also supportsnine volt, two amp,and 12 volt, 1.5 amp,which both equal 18 watts,which is the max wattageof Quick Charge 3.0.So there is no way you'recharging a phone to 100%in 11 or 15 minutes.15 to 18 watts is just not enough power.And even if this chargerdid have enough powerto deliver to your phone,your phone would still haveto be able to accept it,different phones have different limits.And really, USB-A, whichis what these ports are,they're not made todeliver a lot of power.USB-C on the other handis particularly USB-C PD,Power Delivery, which candeliver up to 240 watts of power.But this magical chargerisn't using that standardnor anything similar to it.But we're merely looking at the outside.Now let's take a look at the insideto see what's truly going on.And since these products aren'tbeing manufactured anymoreor so, I'm told, we can'trisk damaging this unit,so we need to approach this disassemblywith delicacy and grace.(CHARGER SMASH!!!)Yeah, this thing wascompletely sealed in plastic,so I had to take amore... smashy approach.This is why I bought two, right?So yeah, there's the insides.We see various components,different types of capacitorsand resistors and some LEDs.We also have an inductorand a transformer.These are typical componentsyou need in a phone chargeror a power adapter dependingon who you're talking to.Nothing special so far.There's additional integratedcircuits on this board.And between Quantum Infinity,Branchus Creations, and I,we were able to identify these componentslike this bridge rectifierand this DC-DC converter,but no matter how hard we searched,we couldn't find a component indicativeof any sort of magicaloperating system overridingor battery healing capabilities.To hypothetically achievethis, you would need an SoCor some sort of processor todo the computational tasks.But those chips require many more pinsor balls if you're using a BGAthan what we see on this board.So it's highly improbable,this board is doingany sort of magical smartphone overriding,and I think it's just coolto now finally see that with our own eyes.But we like to have fun here, right?So let's have some fun and pretendthis thing can actuallycommunicate with your phoneand attempt to heal the battery.Will you actually noticebattery health improvements?No, because again, batteryaging is a chemical problemand no phone charger isever going to solve that.But I know of one thing we can solve,the carbon nano tube mystery.So let's take a look at those traces.Yep, just look at thatcolor, that is copper.What a crock of sh-So now that we have acomprehensive understandingof how the scam is structured,and we know what's insidethe QuickCharge Pro,there's only one thing left to do,let's take it for a test pin.Since the ad shows a lot of older iPhones,I'm going to use my iPhone7 for part of the testing.I will also use my HTC 10because this phone is QuickCharge 3.0 compatible.I plugged in my iPhone 7and started the stopwatch.As I approached the 15-minutemark, I was drawing 7.5 watts,which checks out becauseiPhone 7 can acceptabout 10 watts max.The test has been going for 15 minutes,so this is the big moment of truth.What is the percentage at?18%. Not surprised.The iPhone 7 took two hours, two minutes,and 35 seconds to reach 100%.So that's way far off fromthe four to 15-minute claimsin the ads and on the older landing page.Now let's try the HTC 10,almost immediately when I plugged it in,it started drawing a higher 17.2 watts.So it looks like QuickCharge 3.0 is working,at least the 18 Watts specification is.And the lock screen is indicatingwe're charging rapidly.We hit 22% battery at the 15 minute mark.We'll check back in at the 35 minute markto see if we hit 70%like the website says.In the meantime, quick side note,I was surprised that theQuickCharge Pro is actually quiet.It's nowhere near as bad asthe multi volts coil whine.(electricity buzzing)Okay, we're at 35 minutes and we hit 50%,which I believe is acceptablebecause the HTC product pageclaims up to 50% in 30 minutes.This difference is likelydue to the HTC 10's design.It's probably not the charger's fault.We hit 100% charge in1 hour and 35 minutes.Again, nowhere near the crazy claims,but in reality, that'sa decent charge timefor a 2016 phone.I think I've made plenty of argumentsas to why the QuickCharge Pro is fake.Don't waste your timewith this cheap crap.Get a better charger if you need one,and hopefully these scammerswill finally shut the duck upabout these groundbreaking chargers.Thanks for watching, andsubscribe and stay tunedfor my next episode where Italk about the $100 Laptop.Ooh, it's green!Catch the crazy and pass it on.(upbeat music)(Old Man Ken coughing)- Martha.(alarm blaring)\n"