“Even though most Lightning cables look the same, their insides can vary dramatically,” Nick Guy reports for Wirecutter.
“The guts affect everything from long-term durability to charging speed,” Guy reports. “After measuring the charging speed of almost 50 cables and then sending the top 11 to our electrical engineer for teardown analysis, the $9, three-foot long Anker Lightning to USB Cable is the one we’d buy.”
Guy reports, “The Anker stands out among the competition thanks to solid build quality inside and out, a Lightning-connector plug that works with almost any case, and a price tag that’s less than half of what you’ll pay for one of Apple’s cables.”
Check out the tests and other good Lightning cable options in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Interestingly, the Apple MFi Certified Anker cables are the exact same make of Lightning to USB cables we use when we’re not using Apple’s. We also use the shorter Anker 12-inch Lightning to USB cables (US$7.99) in conjunction with Anker 36W 4-Port USB Wall Chargers ($19.99) when on the road. These are smart chargers that provide the fastest possible charge for iPads and iPhones no matter which of the four ports you use. Each wall outlet spouts 4 Lightning cables for your iPhones and iPads. It’s perfect. No iPhone or iPad goes uncharged!
I’ll take 10 of them
I’ve been using this:
http://www.fusechicken.com/products/bobine
and LOVING it…..i swear, i have received the most comments on this cable than any other gadget i’ve ever bought lol
Reminded me of my USB adjustable keyboard light. Same idea with a LED light on the end.
This was way before backlit keyboards.
Cool iPhone holder.
Will it work when the iPhone has a thin TPU case on it?
I am also a bit concerned about putting too much wear into a lightning connector. While it feels nicer than a 30-pin connector, neither one feels secure enough to use as a primary support for the phone. I much prefer a dock that solidly holds the device and then allows plenty of play at the connector interface.
For a while we attempted to use our legacy 30-pin accessories with Lightning adapters, but Apple seems to have designed all of their adapters intentionally to NOT work with any cases, even Apple cases. Pretty annoying design oversight for a company that used to care about user experience.
That looks cool!
What about the 10 foot Lightning cables?
Too bad it’s not 9.99
I’m buying 0.99USD cables, they will work up to 6 months before Apple finds out and disables them.
It’s too bad crappy cables have had such a drastic impact on quality 3rd party cables. Many customers insist on Apple branded cables because they have been burned in the past by junk.
It’s nice to see that somebody took the time to do some testing and add credibility to a 3rd party cables. Too bad Monoprice wasn’t tested.
I exclusively use Apple’s. The thought of using a third-party charger just as disgusting to me as using an Android phone.
This looks like a great product. There is actually an updated version on Amazon. It has a foldable plug and is 5 bucks more.