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OnePlus 3’s Dash Charge only works with the official charger

The OnePlus 3 Dash Charge feature won’t work unless you’re using the bundled charger, it has emerged.

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has confirmed that the OnePlus 3’s quick-charging technology, dubbed ‘Dash Charge’, only functions correctly if you’re using a OnePlus charger. If you try using a different charger, the fast-charging won’t work, as reported by Android Authority.

That’s because the phone uses proprietary charging technology built by Chinese firm Oppo, the company that effectively spawned OnePlus. The technology is called VOOC, and is being licensed by OnePlus under the name ‘Dash Charge’.

oneplus 3

“The Dash Charge cable is thicker to physically push through more amps. You need both adapter and cable to achieve Dash Charge speeds,” explains Pei.

When you plug your charger and cable to the OnePlus 3, the phone checks to see if you’re using the correct type of cable – a proprietary Dash Charge connection. If you’re not using the bundled cable, the phone switches down to regular charging speeds. Dash Charge supposedly lets users charge up their OnePlus 3 to 63% battery capacity in just 30 minutes – that’s about 7 hours of video playback, according to OnePlus. But without the bundled charger, you’ll just get normal, meandering speeds.

Worse still, if you lose or break the charge or cable, you’ll be forced to pay out for OnePlus-branded kit. That’ll set you back £15.99 for the Dash Charge Power Adapter and/or £12.99 for the Dash Charge Type-C Cable.

oneplus 3

OnePlus announced the OnePlus 3 earlier this week during a live-streamed virtual reality event. Here are the phone’s specs:

  • 5.5-inch screen
  • 1,920 x 1,080 pixel display (401ppi)
  • Dimensions: 152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4mm
  • Weight: 158 grams
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor
  • Adreno 530 GPU
  • 6GB RAM
  • 64GB storage (32GB variant may be offered in some markets)
  • 16MP main camera
  • 8MP selfie camera
  • USB-C port (Dash Charge 5V/4A)
  • 3,000mAh battery
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • NFC
  • Dual-SIM
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Oxygen OS (Android 6.0.1)

Related: OnePlus 3 vs Galaxy S7

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What do you think of the OnePlus 3? Let us know in the comments.

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