As someone who has bought a slew of knock off cables over the last 3 years, I can say without a doubt that cheap cables are truly cheap in quality as well as price.
I do not have a single knock off cable that lives up to the quality of one that's even slightly more expensive.
I have a graveyard of cheap and broken generic cables. They break earlier and more consistently at the bend points, they consistently charge more slowly and with more strange errors when combined with equal quality power bricks.
There have been umpteen tests showing how inconsistent the power readings are on knockoff apple PSUs
But the most frustrating issue is an inability to properly connect and stay connected. I bought some slightly higher quality generic cables, but experienced many issues where they would not stay charging in the devices requiring me to unplug/plug them back in to restart the charging process. Plus, there is ZERO smoothness when plugging the lightning connector in.
Of the 4 various knock off cables that I've had for the last few months:
2 lose charge at some point 60% of the time
All of them are much weaker and less sturdy around the USB/lightning ends
All of them have difficulty when inserting them. The smooth click in and out with a MFI cable doesn't exist on the cheap cables.
None of the 30 pin to lightning adapters can pass audio, and are very poor in quality.
Are apples cables overpriced? Sure. But are the cables from Monoprice? No. I believe with the steps they have to go through and the quality and warranty they provide, the extra cost over a $6 focalprice cable is WELL worth the money. And don't even think about bringing up cable costs around or under a few dollars. There's no way those use even low end components, let alone the thicker wiring and higher quality chips in the system.
I've yet to have any serious issues, but I've spent more replacing the cheap quality cables time and time and time again than if I'd just out down the money on proper MFI registered products.
Now off I go to snag some GOOD cables that don't cost a fortune.
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Right, cause cales just "stop working"...
Even if it lasts say six months, I can buy cables for YEARS before I reach what apple charges for ONE cable.. It's always been a blatant rip-off, and everyone knows it.
Yes. They do. Often. I had a big pile of "X" cables that stopped working.
And using cheap wall plugs can end up causing weird responses when trying to operate an iPhone while they're plugged in.
Say a generic cable costs $6. I have yet to have one that lasts more than 6 months with how often they're used. Many of them die within the first few months due to the poor quality connectors and wiring throughout. So say the first lasts you 3 months, the 2nd 6 and the 3rd 4... 13 months and you've spent $18, not including the insane wait times if you didn't order then all at once. Versus spending what, $19 from apple? Or $13 from monoprice.
Now that monoprice is here with $13 cables, it makes no sense buying cheap, non warrantied cables from the discount sellers out there. One cable, fill warranty wins out in the end. Here if it dies, you have a trusted and excellent quality seller to follow up with. I've used monoprice for cheap cables now going on 7 years, and I'll trust them for years going forward.
