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Which brand for cables

Which brand

  • Anker

    Votes: 38 45.8%

  • Belkin

    Votes: 4 4.8%

  • Apple

    Votes: 35 42.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 7.2%
  • Total voters
    83
What you don't see mentioned much is the fact that USB-3&4/Thunderbolt was developed by Apple and Intel. This USB standard is intended to replace all other cables, HDMI, Display Port, and all of the earlier USB standards. For once the EU did us a favor of mandating the USB-C cable. The USB3&4/Thunderbolt cable is compatible with the standard "C" cable.

What you have to watch out for in USB-4 and Thunderbolt cable is counterfeit cables.

 
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transmaster said:
What you don't see mentioned much is the fact that USB-3&4/Thunderbolt was developed by Apple and Intel. This USB standard is intended to replace all other cables, HDMI, Display Port, and all of the earlier USB standards. For once the EU did us a favor of mandating the USB-C cable. The USB3&4/Thunderbolt cable is compatible with the standard "C" cable.

What you have to watch out for in USB-4 and Thunderbolt cable is counterfeit cables.

Click to expand...
Standardization is only for connector type. Forget Apple, look at the mess in Android because of differences in cables from different manufacturers. My buddy has an Android phone, outside of Samsung and couple of others, data transfer rates are terrible, charging speed is lower for cheaper cables. Most of the cheaper USB cables don’t support full charging ability or data transfer.
 
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i get confused with all the different types of usb c and thunderbolt 4.. which should we be using for our modern macs?
 
Funnily the Berlin silicone usb-c cable says it can withstand 20k bends. Whilst the braided one says 10k bends. How come the silicone one is stronger?
 
I have been using monoprice for almost 15 years for all of my cabling and tv mounts and all kinds of electronic impedimenta. I have made use of their lifetime cord warranty 3 times and have never had any issue receiving a replacement! The company has expanded their offerings over the last 5 years or so. They are based out if rancho Cucamonga, CA and also offer bulk rate pricing.
 
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tstafford said:
For CarPlay - I want Apple.

In all other cases, Anker. Although I've had good success with Cable Matters for my ASDs.
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I went through years of trials and tribulations with Lightning cables. As I understand it at first Apple wanted to use the USB-C cable but with a custom chipset to keep the Apple devices that were going to use it secure. This went over like a person taking an iPhone to an Android Fan Club meeting who had been eating Kimchi. So Apple came up with a circumcised version of the "C" plug and called it Lightning. For several years afterwards Lightning cables, even from Apple, were junk. With every update of iOS you would hear sounds of enraged Baboons, and Chimpanzees when they discovered their aftermarket, often counterfeit, cables would not work anymore. I alway kept a real Apple cable with this sort of thing in mind. There was one "deal" each cable was $1.50 each, cool!!!, but you have to purchase 10 to 15 of them to get a couple that worked. Even than it was cheaper than the $20 bucks the Apple cable cost. The Apple cable back 2012 had a habit of its outer insulation rotting off. We were all praying to St Vidicon of Cathode to intercede and give us a quality Lightning cable. He did and Anker appeared. Anker was the first good lighting cable, it was better than Apple and 1/2 the price. In the beginning there was some trouble with Anker Cables not working after an iOS update. But when Apple came out with its Apple MFI Certification that ended Anker lightning and than Thunderbolt cables were all Apple certified at the beginning of the program.
 
JamesMay82 said:
i get confused with all the different types of usb c and thunderbolt 4.. which should we be using for our modern macs?
Click to expand...
Depends on your use case. I have a thunderbolt enclosure with m.2 SSD with 6000+ MB/s read write speeds. It makes sense to have thunderbolt drive enclosure with 40 Gbps to support high speed drives. When I travel I use a Costco SANdisk extreme m.2 drive which does only 1000-1200 MB/s. It wouldn’t make much sense to buy a thunderbolt enclosure/cable if the drive is slow. Do you have high res display/s or storage devices that need higher bandwidth? Connecting Mac to Mac with thunderbolt is faster than Ethernet, it’s another use case among others for using thunderbolt.
 
There is something I have learned the FiiO BTR15 does not like the USB-4 cable. It pairs with it but does not charge the device. No big deal I just change the cable out for a USB 3.1. I am going to have to start getting the USB-4, and thunderbolt cables in a set color, probably white that is what the Apple cable come in. Most of the USB 3.1's are red so that is what they will be. Only my iPhone 14 Pro Max is lightning now. With the iPad Pro's USB-4 you learn just how badly Apple crippled the iPads, and iPhones with the lightning I/O.
 
I have a pretty large Anker selection, but their pricing has been steadily rising. I have recently gotten into UGREEN and I like them a lot. I used to use Aukey, but they are no longer on Amazon.
 
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avheatherim said:
I have a pretty large Anker selection, but their pricing has been steadily rising. I have recently gotten into UGREEN and I like them a lot. I used to use Aukey, but they are no longer on Amazon.
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I have some UGreen cables as well and the are of good quality and they work well. One thing I have learned over the years is I alway have at least one Apple cable in lightning, and now USB4 Thunderbolt in the cable stash just incase. The Thunderbolt cable that came with the OWC lightning hub, was junk, I replaced it with a Apple cable.
 
Adam Warlock said:
I've had consistently good results with UGREEN and Fasgear cables.
Click to expand...

UGREEN really seems to have stepped up from when I first encountered them. They were basically a no-name brand when I first bought a UGREEN item.

When it comes to cables, though, it’s usually Anker for me. I’ve never felt the need to pay out for Apple’s cables, and Anker has a wide range of lengths, connectors, and colors, and their braided cables don’t have any of the stiffness I’ve seen in a lot of other cables.
 
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transmaster said:
I went through years of trials and tribulations with Lightning cables. As I understand it at first Apple wanted to use the USB-C cable but with a custom chipset to keep the Apple devices that were going to use it secure. This went over like a person taking an iPhone to an Android Fan Club meeting who had been eating Kimchi. So Apple came up with a circumcised version of the "C" plug and called it Lightning. For several years afterwards Lightning cables, even from Apple, were junk. With every update of iOS you would hear sounds of enraged Baboons, and Chimpanzees when they discovered their aftermarket, often counterfeit, cables would not work anymore. I alway kept a real Apple cable with this sort of thing in mind. There was one "deal" each cable was $1.50 each, cool!!!, but you have to purchase 10 to 15 of them to get a couple that worked. Even than it was cheaper than the $20 bucks the Apple cable cost. The Apple cable back 2012 had a habit of its outer insulation rotting off. We were all praying to St Vidicon of Cathode to intercede and give us a quality Lightning cable. He did and Anker appeared. Anker was the first good lighting cable, it was better than Apple and 1/2 the price. In the beginning there was some trouble with Anker Cables not working after an iOS update. But when Apple came out with its Apple MFI Certification that ended Anker lightning and than Thunderbolt cables were all Apple certified at the beginning of the program.
Click to expand...

Lightning is older than USB-C, last I checked. Lightning was launched with the iPhone 5 back in 2012. I believe Apple’s first USB-C product was the Retina MacBook launched in 2015. It’s possible that Lightning played a role in USB-C’s development on Apple’s part, but I doubt this narrative that USB-C was developed first and was delayed in favor of Lightning (especially on account of the desire to enforce accessory lockout/cable licensing). You may be conflating Thunderbolt 1/2 and Thunderbolt 3/4, Thunderbolt 1/2 used the Mini DisplayPort connector and Thunderbolt 1 was introduced in 2011 (and the Mini DisplayPort connector itself was first used by Apple in 2008). It was Thunderbolt 3 that dropped the Mini DisplayPort connector in favor of the USB-C connector.
 
The Wiki on this: Design for the USB-C connector was initially developed in 2012 by Apple Inc, and Intel. Type-C Specification 1.0 was published by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) on August 11, 2014. In July 2016, it was adopted by the IEC as "IEC 62680-1-3".

I refreshed my memory. The Lightning was exclusively developed by Apple, where as the "C" connector was a joint project of Apple and Intel. Both were developed about the same time, in 2012. As I recall from the time Apple wanted more security built into the cable but the USB-IF would not go for this. There was also the slow pace the USB-IF took in deciding on new USB standards. Apple had to dump the 30 pin connector it was getting in the way of future designs. With the USB-4, and Thunderbolt 3/4 Apple got what they wanted in the beginning.

I realized my iPod Touch 2G uses the old 30 pin cable. I don't use this old iPod anymore but I did not have a cable for it so I just purchased one.
 
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transmaster said:
The Wiki on this: Design for the USB-C connector was initially developed in 2012 by Apple Inc, and Intel. Type-C Specification 1.0 was published by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) on August 11, 2014. In July 2016, it was adopted by the IEC as "IEC 62680-1-3".

I refreshed my memory. The Lightning was exclusively developed by Apple, where as the "C" connector was a joint project of Apple and Intel. Both were developed about the same time, in 2012. As I recall from the time Apple wanted more security built into the cable but the USB-IF would not go for this. There was also the slow pace the USB-IF took in deciding on new USB standards. Apple had to dump the 30 pin connector it was getting in the way of future designs. With the USB-4, and Thunderbolt 3/4 Apple got what they wanted in the beginning.

I realized my iPod Touch 2G uses the old 30 pin cable. I don't use this old iPod anymore but I did not have a cable for it so I just purchased one.
Click to expand...
Thunderbolt seems to have been a joint Apple-Intel project, as well. I suppose that means that USB-C was probably derived from Apple’s and Intel’s work on LightPeak/Thunderbolt, go figure! (So Thunderbolt 3 using it is just Thunderbolt coming full circle.) I do know that they used the Mini DisplayPort connector because the USB IF wouldn’t let them use the USB-A connector.
 
At the beginning Apple made the lightning standard available to anyone who wanted to use it. The Android world basically told Apple to stick it were the sun don't shine. So instead the other than Apple world had to content with this.

Screenshot 2024-05-30 at 16.30.55.png
 
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avheatherim said:
I have a pretty large Anker selection, but their pricing has been steadily rising. I have recently gotten into UGREEN and I like them a lot. I used to use Aukey, but they are no longer on Amazon.
Click to expand...
Bought a few longer UGREEN USB-C cords and 2 of their USB-C Fast Chargers, from Amazon too recently. This far they seems to be good for a less prize then many others.
Not sure about how fast the charging really is on those when using all ports, but I did't boght it for any speed, but more for dropping to have a lot of both c and a single conectors everywhere.
So much peripherals uses various USB contacts today.
For Mac's I go with more quality and Apple cords, but for temporary use of the MBA at places and otherwise I'm pleased with these cords, this far.
 
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Lioness~ said:
Bought a few longer UGREEN USB-C cords and 2 of their USB-C Fast Chargers, from Amazon too recently. This far they seems to be good for a less prize then many others.
Not sure about how fast the charging really is on those when using all ports, but I did't boght it for any speed, but more for dropping to have a lot of both c and a single conectors everywhere.
So much peripherals uses various USB contacts today.
For Mac's I go with more quality and Apple cords, but for temporary use of the MBA at places and otherwise I'm pleased with these cords, this far.
Click to expand...
Yeah, for something like a MacBook Pro, I’d probably use the Apple power supply and the included USB-C cable. USB-C was supposed to fix this situation, but, when it comes to high powered devices, you still just can’t really trust anything other than the vendor supplied power supply and cable (though at least the cutoff is around 60W these days instead of a paltry 2W!).
 
if you're going to use them laying down (or on the couch) a 90 degree cable can last a lot longer, so one that goes to the left or right under your phone, instead of straight out the bottom,

With the cable coming straight out of the bottom of your phone, when you rest the cable on something, it will bend the cable right were it goes into the connector, which is usually the first part of failure.
 
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