A Look Inside Apple's $130 USB-C Cable

Apple's new Thunderbolt 4 USB-C cable costs a staggering $130, more than ten times the price of a generic USB-C cable. But what's the difference between Thunderbolt and USB-C? Adam is joined by electrical engineer Zach Radding to examine Lumafield's CT scans of Apple's cable as well as three non-Thunderbolt USB-C cables to understand the engineering and components that make up these cables.

Shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Additional media courtesy Lumafield
Music by Jinglepunks

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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

Thanks for watching!

#adamsavage #apple #usb

[RubberDuckDebugger]

Instead of comparing Apple's cable to USB 2 cables, it would be more interesting to compare Apple's Thunderbolt 4 cables to an equally capable $60 Thunderbolt 4 cable (Cable Matters, Anker, OWC, Plugable, or Belkin for example) to see how similar or different the Apple cable is for twice the price.

[drmatt]

The scans are fantastic in their detail, and provide great non destructive information. However, these are not interchangeable cables and the non- Apple ones were never intended to be "imitations". They may have the same end connector, USB-C, but they conform to very different specifications. The Apple cable they is to Thunderbolt 4 specification, where as the others are to other USB specifications. This makes it seem that Apple is doing crazy engineering in comparison. It would be better to compare a different brand of Thunderbolt 4 cable to it. Then compare Apples $19 dollar USB C phone cable to the other USB cables for fairness. (Edit- added a combined response to a few comments below as a reply to this one) (Edit 25/10/23 @2006 UTC Not sure if the tested pinned comment has been edited to show that this is series sponsored by Lumafield or am I just misinterpreting/ misremembering it. If it is Lumafield then Apple got an advert out of it for free. Still doesn't change although the science was cool this video was poorly received by a fair few of us due to the way it was framed/described/thumbnailed and the way the cables were described as imitators or alternatives)

[Nightelvee]

While I appreciate the time and effort that went into the production of the CT scans, this feels like an Apple advertisment all over the place.
I would've LOVED to see a fair comparison between the $130 TB4 Apple cable, a mid-range competitor and a budget TB4 cable. Then make a comparison with a full blown 20Gbps USB4-Cable. Just because the cables have the same end termination (in this case USB-C as a standard for both USB AND Thunderbolt 3+4), doesn't mean that they're produced to the same spec.

[ShhTime]

I love how they compared apples tb4 cable to other cables capable of tb4 signals... wait they didn't

[SMAAAASH]

It would be interesting to compare thunderbolt to thunderbolt according to price point

[Call_Me_David]

Comparing a basic USB-C cable to a ANY Thunderbolt cable, not just Apple's, is going to be a drastic difference.

[tarickw]

important thing to note, you are comparing a thunderbolt 4 cable against a usb cable. These have totally different requirements. The comparison is unfair and should've been between expensive/cheap thunderbolt cables

[tihzho]

So aside from being an Apple ad, where is the testing comparing the REAL WORLD performance between cables?

[JasonJanelle]

I'm disappointed that they didnt work their way through the market instead of looking at the most expensive cable and the the cheapest. As with most things there is usually a good quality product that is below the cost of the premium.

[Jazz]

I've gotta say it is good to have a critical viewing audience. It makes me happy inside that so many of Adam's viewers recognize that this is really a lopsided comparison and are calling that out. I mean, I get the point of "hey, look at how these cables are wildly different", but I think the title and the premise of how the video was handled do a disservice to that point. Hopefully Adam listens to the feedback from his viewers and takes this into account for the next go-round.

[Luke]

Would have been nice to see a comparison between Apple’s £150 thunderbolt 4 compared to Anker’s £25 version, to see the real difference in QC & the apple tax on top ?

It’s also Pointless comparing 40gb thunderbolt with a cheapo usb-c! Consumer advise needs to be better !

[pepperfish_]

Jokes on you, that chip is probably just there to make sure you are plugging an Apple cable into your phone.

[HarryCriswell]

Yes, definitely felt you should have compared to other thunderbolt cables like maybe Anker's cables which are good and much less than the Apple cable

[NuBmCWeAkSaUCe]

I would have liked to see an actual thunderbolt cable compared to the Apple cable. These cables are probably used to charge a phone and that’s it.

[RogerODell]

USB-C and Thunderbolt are two different types even though they share the same male standard. Try comparing to a real off-brand thunderbolt cable. Thunderbolt is designed to carry more than a standard USB-C, which is why the look different on the inside. With that being said, I would never pay 130 for any cable.

[tjerry]

so BASICALLY this is a FREE apple advert ?

[Spiralem]

Comparing Thunderbolt 4 against a USB Type C isn't really fair... even though they are of the same connector.

[kobester]

Very interesting, love the non destructive look but would love to see the $130 Apple Thunderbolt 4 cable against an $30 Anker Thunderbolt 4 cable.

[zombie-twiglet]

You'd think people capable of designing tech like this would know the difference between a USB2 cable and a Thunderbolt cable.

[makingretro]

Apple Thunderbolt cable vs. USB-C cables with unspecified abilities, okay. Next video: compare a car to a bicycle?