XYZ Filament refill?

I want to get my first refill for my Da Vinci 1A, and I am willing to get the XYZ ABS filament, but Amazon reviews are terrible: is the refill chip working?
I heard that XYZ was dropping all this proprietary filament cartridge thing: can I get ANY filament (same specs) and load it into the cartridge or the chip is still active?

I have latest XYZ software and firmware, everything out of the box, most likely I will not hack / flash the printer but will keep it OTB status.

Thank you

regards

Gio