What is a good iPhone cable recommendation?
Quote: “Apple original data cable is too expensive to buy, any price of data cable, what is a good brand recommendation?”
This has to first define the criteria for good use, to my personal experience with data cables, good use includes the following criteria.
I – Material: not easy to break
Data cables are used many times a day, the number of bends will be a lot, so a good data cable must be able to withstand thousands of bends.
Data cable materials are mainly divided into these materials, PVC (Polyvinyl chloride), TPE, nylon braided.
PVC(Polyvinyl chloride)
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a polymer made by polymerizing vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) with initiators such as peroxides and azo compounds, or by a free radical polymerization reaction mechanism under the action of light or heat.
The low cost of PVC and its relatively good insulation and heat resistance are the reasons why PVC was initially used for data cables. In 2017, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer published a preliminary list of carcinogens for reference, and PVC is in the list of carcinogenic substances in category 3.
TPE
TPE, also known as synthetic rubber, has the excellent performance of traditional cross-linked vulcanized rubber in terms of high elasticity, aging resistance, and oil resistance, and also has the characteristics of easy processing of ordinary plastic and wide processing methods.
- TPE material processing performance is excellent, with the deployment of a variety of colors, the most common on the market is white or light gray.
- TPE made of data cable feel smooth and non-sticky, can achieve a frosted or delicate effect of the data cable surface.
- Through the deployment of TPE formula, you can enhance the aging resistance of the wire, anti-yellowing UV performance, extending the life of the product.
- TPE raw materials are safe and non-toxic, will not cause irritation to human skin, does not contain toxic plasticizers, the best choice to replace PVC wire.
- TPE data line performance is stable, halogen-free flame retardant V0 level, play a big role in the safety and environmental performance.
Its advantages are environmentally friendly, non-toxic, comfortable to the touch, beautiful appearance that can be reused very environmentally friendly. The disadvantage is that it is very easy to break, which I believe that people who have used have feelings, the joints are very easy to break.
Nylon Braid
A nylon braided outer jacket has good abrasion resistance, is not easy to knot in the process of use, and has a very comfortable frosted feeling when touched by hand. Now many Lightning cable with braided wire is also very popular, this wire is not easy to break, with super anti-tangle function, resistance to external pulling, longer life. And it is important that it is not as easy to get dirty as the TPE material wire.
II Cables Must be MFI certified
What is MFi Certification?
MFi is a kind of recognition of the use of external accessories produced by Apple’s authorized accessory manufacturers. After Apple’s certification, the Apple MFi Authorized Logo appears on the front of the package, and these logos designed by Apple have very strict rules and extremely demanding requirements when used, and the certification rate is only 2%. To be able to apply for and successfully obtain MFi authorization has also become a symbol of the technical and quality strength of Apple’s accessory manufacturers and design companies.
The following is the certification process for MFi manufacturers.
Stage 1: Applicants submit application information from the website
1-1: Gathering company information
1-2: Apply for an account
1-3: MFI System Audit
1-4: Pass the audit and become an MFi member
Stage 2: Applicants submit product certification plans, product development, and product self-testing
2-1: Submit a product plan
2-2: Purchase MFI certified samples and develop products
2-3: ATS self-test, submit self-test report
2-4: Send a sample for testing
Stage 3: Test audit, mass production
3-1: Apple Designated Lab Test Audit
3-2: Packaging Certification and Audit
3-3: Certified for bulk chip purchase and production
Being able to apply for MFi certification means that the company’s products are officially recognized by Apple, which means a quality assurance of the products and also a larger consumer market.
If you buy an unqualified data cable, not carefully selected, there may be incompatible systems, can not charge or synchronize the phone, some will charge more slowly, more serious may be charging heat danger, or even damage the phone.
Why buy MFi certified cables?
Apple does it all for its own ecology and for the safety of Apple products themselves. MFi-certified cables have an Apple Certified chip hidden inside, with metal protection on the chip.
The certified chip is paired with the iPhone’s internal power management chip to form the iPhone charging solution. If any of these three components are not certified and controlled by Apple, the iOS device will not be charged according to Apple’s charging solution.
Here is Apple’s official MFi query site, you can go to the official website to check the corresponding companies.
Why is the original Apple iPhone data cable not durable?
An important reason why the iPhone data cable is not durable lies in its material, which is a halogen-free TPE wire, very light and soft, not resistant to dirt, and not durable. This is mainly because Apple for environmental considerations is easier to degrade than PVC plastic material.
How about the correct use of the data cable?
1) The correct way to plug and unplug
In the cable usage process, many people do not pay attention to the way of usage, during plug and unplug process for the cables, they often pull and tug the part of the cable body with a lot of strength, which is very easy to burst the cable outer jacket and occur breakage problem.
So when we use the data cable, we have to develop good habits of use, try to avoid pulling and tugging the cable body part of the data cable, but pull the plug location. (green circled part means the right location for plug and unplug, while red circled part is the wrong location)
2) Buy a wire winder
Some users may also not be so meticulous, noticing the location of these plug and play, then you can buy a wire winder, a variety of cute, handsome styles are available, and only a few dollars.
3) Other ways to protect the data cable
Or in the connector part of the data cable set a section of the heat-shrinkable tube, wrap a section of electrical tape or add a spring or something else.
III Check whether the interface connection of the data cable is tight
When buying a data cable, we can try it out to see if the plug works well. If it is very hard to insert into the iPhone, it is very bad for the iPhone plug over time and can easily damage the slot. A good cable is very easy to the plugin, not loose, and not tight.
IV Summary for the other advices
Here is a list of some of the options, someone needs to consider if you want to purchase a cable.
The model below iPhone 8, buy the cables with MFi certification, ordinary lighting interface data cable, that is, Apple interface data cable on OK;
iphone8 and above models, support PD fast charging, iPhone support fast charging is USB PD protocol, must use Type-C interface, so it is recommended to use Type-C to lighting interface data cable, with support PD charging plug.
Check with Goowell for more Lightning cables as we are an MFi certified maufacturer.
