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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,194
30,135



anker-lightning-cable-mfi-250x330.jpg
If you unwrapped an Apple product today it likely came with one of the company's first-party Lightning cables, but having an extra on hand is always a good idea, so you can place it in other rooms in your house, in your car, or in a bag when you travel.

For that reason, now's a good time to shop for third-party Lightning cables that are cheaper than Apple's own accessory, but still Made For iPhone certified to guarantee their quality.

One of the best examples of this is well-known and reliable third-party accessory maker Anker, which has a 3ft / 0.9m Lightning Cable for just $5.99 on Amazon. Apple's comparable product, the Lightning to USB Cable, sells for $19.00 on Apple.com.

Additionally, this holiday Anker has a combo promotion with the Lightning Cable. If you purchase the $5.99 cable (or other qualifying products), you can save 10 percent on either the Anker Elite Dual Port 24W USB Travel Wall Charger ($9.53, down from $10.59) or the Anker PowerCore 26800 Portable Charger ($55.79, down from $61.99). Anker has other cables, chargers, and power banks on its Amazon storefront.

Many of Anker's accessories have been certified under Apple's MFi program, which helps consumers identify products that are assured to work well with iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Shoppers should keep an eye out for MFi certifications when shopping for products like Lightning cables, and be wary of counterfeit accessories that are somewhat common on Amazon and could potentially harm their devices.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Article Link: Unwrap a New Apple Device? Stock Up on Extra Certified Lightning Cables for as Little as $6
 

MrAverigeUser

macrumors 6502a
May 20, 2015
874
386
europe
There is more reason than price to buy never-ever original apple-Cables:

Jonathan Ive is not only manish about "thinness" of MacBooks and IOS-devices, he is also manish about "cable-thinness":

I had to replace nearly ALL original apple-charging cables of IOS-devices by now because the exterior isolation of the cables was more and more broken and fell apart. these important cables are too thin, the copper core as well as the outer isolation!

cables from Belkin, Anker or the very well done Lindy (swiss-made) are made for eternity. maybe also other third parties, but personally I have only practical experience with these three.
they are lightyears in front of apple regarding quality:
always much better and reliable also for all-day use (not only to look at them in apple-stores, but in daily use) , never more expensive, but nearly always even less costly. Same for Thunderbolt cables (just bought some from OWC, also lightyeras better and less pricy than the orignal low-quality made by apple) , adaptors, and other things.

original apple cables are nothing but garbage in comparison to many third-party cables.

BTW: same for the original 60 or 75 W chargers for Macbooks and macbook Pros:

the thin cable between the charger and the books is not at all well isolated - so one day the isolation begins to fall into little parts. also because of the too thin and not mechanically protecting isolation the too thin copper core breaks - even if the isolation is not yet gone. you can feel it because when half-broken this part becomes more and more hot as a result of multplication of electrical resistance) It is a shame that millions of users have to pollute the environment just because of well functioning chargers, which have a not-replacable, bad designed low-voltage cable part.... not regarding the financial side (apple AC/DC chargers are very expensive) and the danger by undetected short-circuit (might set something on fire)....
 
Last edited:

joueboy

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2008
1,576
1,545
There is more reason than price to buy never-ever original apple-Cables:

Jonathan Ive is not only manish about "thinness" of MacBooks and IOS-devices, he is also manish about "cable-thinness":

I had to replace nearly ALL original apple-charging cables of IOS-devices by now because the exterior isolation of the cables was more and more broken and fell apart. these important cables are too thin, the copper core as well as the outer isolation!

cables from Belkin, Anker or the very well done Lindy (swiss-made) are made for eternity. maybe also other third parties, but personally I have only practical experience with these three.
they are lightyears in front of apple regarding quality:
always much better and reliable also for all-day use (not only to look at them in apple-stores, but in daily use) , never more expensive, but nearly always even less costly. Same for Thunderbolt cables (just bought some from OWC, also lightyeras better and less pricy than the orignal low-quality made by apple) , adaptors, and other things.

original apple cables are nothing but garbage in comparison to many third-party cables.

BTW: same for the original 60 or 75 W chargers for Macbooks and macbook Pros:

the thin cable between the charger and the books is not at all well isolated - so one day the isolation begins to fall into little parts. also because of the too thin and not mechanically protecting isolation the too thin copper core breaks - even if the isolation is not yet gone. you can feel it because when half-broken this part becomes more and more hot as a result of multplication of electrical resistance) It is a shame that millions of users have to pollute the environment just because of well functioning chargers, which have a not-replacable, bad designed low-voltage cable part.... not regarding the financial side (apple AC/DC chargers are very expensive) and the danger by undetected short-circuit (might set something on fire)....
I couldn’t agree more and no more surprised anything Apple nowadays is designed to fail sooner than expected, or intentionally force to fail as planned including all their iDevices. Lightning cable is the most obvious where Apple made it breaks easily close to the connector. Some people defending Apple right here in this forum when I complained about couple years ago. Apple did improve their cable lately but still not as good as the original 30 pin, I still have in my garage intact from iPhone 3G. Since then every original cable I had has to be replaced. I don’t think Apple will change its design soon to make their product really durable. They just love milking that accessory business nowadays. That’s Tim Cook pet project that brings smile to the pocket of the board.
 

blake2

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2013
61
40
Pittsburgh PA
Another vote for teh Anker. What I like best from their long list of accessories is the iPhone battery case series. Theirs has the best balance of power and size. And maybe the USB hub.
 

BigJayhawk

macrumors regular
Jan 8, 2003
227
152
New Jersey
QUALITY is not my experience with Anker. Very long-time MacRumors reader and I clicked one of those “Anker battery” links. Both batteries died in very short order. Very bad purchase.
 

d5aqoëp

macrumors 68000
Feb 9, 2016
1,652
2,605
I am using Anker Powerline mfi cables since 2 years and I haven’t yet got malfunction. No cable fraying nor any error messages like Unsupported Accessory.

The newly launched model Powerline II looks good.

I always prefer Powerline cable vs regular one in this sponsored article. Must be clearance sale.
 

SamIchi

macrumors 68030
Aug 1, 2004
2,716
137
"Macrumors, "may" receive a small payment.....pretty sure you WILL... no may about it.

That being said, agree with above. Anker makes good stuff.

It's been a while since I've read about Amazon affiliates, but I believe Amazon links are active for 24hrs. So if you click on the link, and buy something within 24 hrs on amazon, they'll get a cut. If not, and it sits in your basket, and you buy in a couple days, they don't get anything. So "may" is truthful. They would also get paid if you buy anything, doens't have to be the Anker cable.

Yes Anker has good stuff, always hear good things about their customer service also.
 

john123

macrumors 68030
Jul 20, 2001
2,569
1,522
I will never use a 3rd party Apple replica they don’t work overtime
Sorry, but this is a gross and thus incorrect oversimplification. There are lots of trashy cables out there that don't work, or work for a while but then die. Anker stuff isn't among them. In my experience, Anker's are as reliable or more so than the Apple cables.

I wish the warranty were longer; over time, any cable can experience strain and stop working. But for what you pay, the Anker stuff is a very good value.
 

Ted13

macrumors 6502a
Dec 29, 2003
669
353
NYC
Not a single USB-C to Lightning Cable unfortunately - would have bought several right away: with a USB-C charger they can do high speed charging for iPad Pros, iPhones 8 & X as well as connect all iPhones & iPads directly to new MacBooks.

For USB-C to Lightning it seems that we are stuck on Apple only - are there any other good quality 2m USB-C to Lightning cables?

It is a shame because Ankers 30W USB-C charger is great, but you need to buy an Apple cable to go with it.
 
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tooloud10

macrumors 6502
Aug 14, 2012
466
766
I couldn’t agree more and no more surprised anything Apple nowadays is designed to fail sooner than expected, or intentionally force to fail as planned including all their iDevices. Lightning cable is the most obvious where Apple made it breaks easily close to the connector.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how poorly people treat their stuff because the number of broken Apple device complaints I see are ridiculous compared to my experiences. I truly don't see that iOS devices/cables are made much differently than the competition, and in the case of the phones themselves are probably built better. The original Lightning cable I got with my iPhone 5 is starting to get a little damaged at the Lightning end, but that's a 5+ year old cable and I can live with that.

Just seems like half the world has a broken screen on their iPhone and that it's not the first incident, and I wonder what they're doing to these things.
 
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SamIchi

macrumors 68030
Aug 1, 2004
2,716
137
Sometimes I'm amazed at how poorly people treat their stuff because the number of broken Apple device complaints I see are ridiculous compared to my experiences. I truly don't see that iOS devices/cables are made much differently than the competition, and in the case of the phones themselves are probably built better. The original Lightning cable I got with my iPhone 5 is starting to get a little damaged at the Lightning end, but that's a 5+ year old cable and I can live with that.

Just seems like half the world has a broken screen on their iPhone and that it's not the first incident, and I wonder what they're doing to these things.

I agree, but when you think about it, I think we are probably in the minority, or they are the vocal minority. Most just don't care, and don't think about it, they just handle it more "roughly" from my perspective. I've had the white headphones easily over the span of my 2yr upgrade plans, as well as the cables, never had a problem since the 4S. You can't accommodate all user conditions.
 

Abs_p

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2011
897
422
I will never use a 3rd party Apple replica they don’t work overtime

How is this a replica? It's a MFi product from a company that has VERY good reputation. They will send you a free replacement if the cable fails in 18 months. It's as good as it gets.
[doublepost=1514225755][/doublepost]
QUALITY is not my experience with Anker. Very long-time MacRumors reader and I clicked one of those “Anker battery” links. Both batteries died in very short order. Very bad purchase.

Contact them? They will always replace your product for free if it's within 18 months.
 
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Strelok

macrumors 65816
Jun 6, 2017
1,471
1,721
United States
Sometimes I'm amazed at how poorly people treat their stuff because the number of broken Apple device complaints I see are ridiculous compared to my experiences. I truly don't see that iOS devices/cables are made much differently than the competition, and in the case of the phones themselves are probably built better. The original Lightning cable I got with my iPhone 5 is starting to get a little damaged at the Lightning end, but that's a 5+ year old cable and I can live with that.

Just seems like half the world has a broken screen on their iPhone and that it's not the first incident, and I wonder what they're doing to these things.

I think I've had 1 Apple cable "fail" on me. It still actually worked, but I wasn't comfortable using it since some of the inside cables were exposed. I've only had 1 cable ever officially fail on me, and that was the Galaxy S6 cable. It could have actually burned my house down since a pretty large brown spot started developing at the top portion of the cable(see attached pic). I did buy some Anker braided cables since I wanted a longer length though.
 

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MrCrowbar

macrumors 68020
Jan 12, 2006
2,232
519
I've had one original Macbook charger starting a fire in the middle of the cable (the thin part), midway between the brick and the Magsafe plug. I actually took great care of that charger, Apple refused warranty... The original iPhone USB cables can't really handle daily use, after a while, they only work when you wiggle them a certain way. Don't get me started on the iPhone wired headphones...

Been using the Anker chargers and the cloth wrapped cables exclusively. The big chargers are crazy fast, the cables have never broken and I really really love the cloth wrapping.
 

riverfreak

macrumors 68000
Jan 10, 2005
1,828
2,287
Thonglor, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
Not a single USB-C to Lightning Cable unfortunately - would have bought several right away: with a USB-C charger they can do high speed charging for iPad Pros, iPhones 8 & X as well as connect all iPhones & iPads directly to new MacBooks.

For USB-C to Lightning it seems that we are stuck on Apple only - are there any other good quality 2m USB-C to Lightning cables?

It is a shame because Ankers 30W USB-C charger is great, but you need to buy an Apple cable to go with it.

I am desperately waiting for Anker to release a powerline braided style USB-C to lightning cable. My travel bag right now is a mess of white cables that look indistinguishable except for the connectors at the end. So desperately want to reduce this complexity at least a little bit.
 
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