The reign of the Lightning cable is over, and the USB-C era has begun — leaving us wondering what sets one charger apart from another. We do a teardown of Apple's Thunderbolt 4 and its competitors.
To me it is, could just be the guy who wrote it really likes Apple though. Who actually thought the 3 dollar cables were the same as the 140 dollar cable?
If he really likes Apple products because they are supposedly superior, why not show that by comparing them to actual Apple competitor products instead of dollar store stuff?
I generally never believe a product is worth what apple is charging.
However, I also expect that the spin and salesmanship required to sell a five dollar cable as a 140 dollar cable is beyond even what Apple is willing to do. So I agree 100% it would have been much more interesting to see it compared against say a 40-80 dollar cable.
Yeah but honestly, it’s only the very worst cable that the Apple one truly looks good in comparison to. For the other ones, it’s better, yeah. Sure. 5-10 bucks better. Not 110+ better.
I have a USB-C cable that was around the $40 mark, and it has bulky and robust connectors that likely house some electronics in them. I originally bought it to my mom as a charger/data cable, but she didn’t like it, so I use it to occasionally connect my phone to my monitor. It transfers USB and 2.5K video signal without an issue with superfast charging as a bonus, and also braided. Not sure if it would fare at TB4 speeds.
I completely agree. I wish we could see Anker and Belkin and how they compare. Maybe they’re not quite as good but still well made and a better deal? Or maybe apple really is that much better and worth the price point. Even without them, this article does fall flat at the end. There isn’t a good conclusion or summary of their findings. Rather they just kind of end the article by saying “wow look at all the engineering that goes into cables!!”… Um… Ok? But what cable do you think is best for the price point? Would you steer away from any of them? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They compared the $130 TB4 Apple cable to $5 junk cables, but I wish they included some $40-80 competitors in the comparison. How does Anker fare?
Yeah, it’s the kind of article you write when you want to be sure Apple comes out looking good.
Ah…so it’s a commercial disguised as an article.
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To me it is, could just be the guy who wrote it really likes Apple though. Who actually thought the 3 dollar cables were the same as the 140 dollar cable?
If he really likes Apple products because they are supposedly superior, why not show that by comparing them to actual Apple competitor products instead of dollar store stuff?
I know a shocking number of people who think they’re just as good, and they can’t be convinced otherwise!
I generally never believe a product is worth what apple is charging.
However, I also expect that the spin and salesmanship required to sell a five dollar cable as a 140 dollar cable is beyond even what Apple is willing to do. So I agree 100% it would have been much more interesting to see it compared against say a 40-80 dollar cable.
Yeah but honestly, it’s only the very worst cable that the Apple one truly looks good in comparison to. For the other ones, it’s better, yeah. Sure. 5-10 bucks better. Not 110+ better.
All of the others were just USB 2.0. Comparing them to a TB4 cable is kind of hilarious.
Anecdotally, I personally love Anker stuff and exclusively buy cables and chargers from them.
I have a USB-C cable that was around the $40 mark, and it has bulky and robust connectors that likely house some electronics in them. I originally bought it to my mom as a charger/data cable, but she didn’t like it, so I use it to occasionally connect my phone to my monitor. It transfers USB and 2.5K video signal without an issue with superfast charging as a bonus, and also braided. Not sure if it would fare at TB4 speeds.
Kind of curious about the Cablematters TB4 cable also as it seems to be of comparable quality to the Apple cable.
I completely agree. I wish we could see Anker and Belkin and how they compare. Maybe they’re not quite as good but still well made and a better deal? Or maybe apple really is that much better and worth the price point. Even without them, this article does fall flat at the end. There isn’t a good conclusion or summary of their findings. Rather they just kind of end the article by saying “wow look at all the engineering that goes into cables!!”… Um… Ok? But what cable do you think is best for the price point? Would you steer away from any of them? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯