Power cord, OEM vs Cheapo

I just purchased a CTO Z12, awaiting on its arrival from Japan. After spending a lot of money on it I am woundering if there is any benefit to ordering OEM charger, which goes for a $100 vs a generic charger, which can go for a little as $20. Any one know if the $100 dollars is justified?

 

I have no experience with them but i old assume its bad for the system you use it for. I had one of those for a phone of mine, eventaully the batter life got shorter and shorter, So te same thing might happen. Why didnt you just order the standard charger from the manufacturer?

 

I would but since I will need 4 chargers (I leave them plugged in at the areas in my home where I use it, also one in my bag) it will get expensive if I go for all OEM.

 

Why would a generic cord be bad?

There are loads on ebay that claim to be OEM and although I dont know if they are or not, providing they meet the correct voltage then surely they would be ok.

Lets face it, these things are made in Asia and we all know that mark ups for accessories is massive often being 500%-1000%. Therefore a $100 official item may be the same as a $20 item, just without the markup.

 

Make sure the voltage is EXACTLY the same and the current is equal or greater than the existing one. There is nothing inherent in a cheapo one that would cause any damage as TheCodeBreaker is suggesting.

Gary

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with "cheapo" chargers. You can get the Sony charger on ebay for $40 though. The Sony charger is awesomely green though. Most chargers will use power whether you have the laptop hooked up or not. Good ones use 1 watt, bad ones use 5 watts. The Sony one uses 0 watts. It's really good.

 

thanks for the tip

 

I just bought one of the Sony original chargers on ebay, cost me £30 rather than the £10-12 that a generic one would have done. The genuine one is a AC19V26 whereas my Z1 came with a AC19V32 (newer model). I tested both with a watt meter (fits between device and wall socket type, not super accurate) and the V26 showed 0 or 1 watts alternately (with no laptop connected of course) and the newer V32 showed 0 watts all the time. Obviously it's going to be 0.something as it is powering the led (maybe 0.1W?). So the V26 is good and the V32 is excellent. Cosmetically the Sony genuine one has the Vaio logo moulded into it, the velcro cable tie etc.