Does USB cable quality matter?

Is there any difference in an official cable from a good brand and a cheap $1 cable from the local cheap Chinese shop?

I compare three micro usb cables against each other. One of them came with a $2 powerbank, the other came with my high quality VOXLINK powerbank and the other came from a Flir thermal camera.

When compared using my portapow USB watt meter, you can see that the cheap cable charges my powerbank at only 2.7 watts while the other two higher quality cables charge the power bank at over 13 watts. That's a significant difference and will result in many hours being saved when charging a large powerbank or a phone with a sizable battery.

Of course charging a battery faster will reduce it's life. So for some people, a slower overnight charge might be preferred over a high current charge that completes in a significantly shorter time.

[UnboxingSve]

good to have device like that to measure and be sure on the quality of cable

[chidoku]

Thanks for this video. Have had issues finding this info so I could show it to my friends who think they know stuff and claim the cable doesn't matter.
One of them has even gone to school to become an electrician, which is sad :P

[terrytytula]

This isn't exactly ground breaking, yes, the heavier the gauge of the wire the more current it can handle.
What would have made this video useful, would have been to show how other than price, some way
to determine good from bad. Maybe test a bunch of brands and list the good ones so people could
make an informed decision prior to purchase. That would be useful.

[pritpalsingh]

Thanks, it's a very helpful to understand why with good charger speed of charging is slow. Its a cable which also matter.

[annelisabethcom]

Both the cable and the charger matters. He used that Aukey charger for a reason. Older phone chargers might deliver as little as 0.5 Ah. Newer ones usually deliver about 1 Ah. Multi USB chargers with auto detection might deliver up to about 2.4 Ah and those with a quick charge standard might deliver more and more volts. And those with USB C output might deliver more still.

[puck]

Well interesting would be the reason. Is it because the usb-cable really is so thin and has so much resistence? we could easily meassure this. I dont think so.
Or is it because your device needs data-transfer for some reasons to activate full charge speed (quite some devices refuce to charge for bad usb ports at full rate) and the small cable just is a charge-only cable?

[jaybenton]

I like the fin and the fick cable. Fumbs up.

[robertknight]

I have discovered at least with my Android phone, if I'm using Android auto a very cheap cable will constantly disconnect the GPS. This could be specific to Subaru as I have not tried that cable in any other car with Android auto.

[sohampal]

Can you tell me the name of gadget which are you using for measuring the power of usb cables ?

[WoLeiDunTechnology]

We produce data cable. Actually what he said is right. The thickness doesn't means quality but usually if quality high it shoud be thicker. Chinese factories produce high quality data cable and cheap quality one at the clients request. If you don't know how to judge which one is good quality, you can buy expensive one, becuase tipicaly price help you judge quality.

[firstlast]

What do you think the difference is actually down to. The purity of the copper? The quality of the solder?

[anag]

Thanks! So how does one figure out a good quality cable? Is using a reader/tester the only way?

[francopieruccinifaria]

Hi. Thanks for the vídeo. What kind (brand, thickness, etc) of shielded wire do you recomemd to make diy usb cable with high drain current (2amps And above)? Really apreciate your opinion. Thank You!

[siscopiso]

Does this apply to transmission of data as well? as in better cable could transmit data faster than a crappy cable?

[phototristan]

What's the make/model of that meter?

[HEMIproject]

Why was there a sneaky transition when you switched cords? Is that when you swapped the power supplies to get a different output? Smells fishy to me

[abhijitv]

Brilliant video thanks foe the explanation!!

[jeffbriggs]

all i care is do cheap cables damage the phone or battery?

[DESOUL]

It matters however the thickness doesn't always display correct conduction.
I have two cables with type C. One that came in the box with my Xiaomi Mi Max 2 and the other that i purchased additional a year later. The one i bought later from the Xiaomi Store was more thin however upon charging my phone with them, both cables display the exactly same time to fully charge my phone.
All in all, in my case thickness of the cable doesn't matter as both cables are Xiaomi originals and they have the same wires inside, both quick charge 3.0 supportive cables.

[ricardoballantyne]

Hi Gdnight my name is ricardo is it possible if u can put links in your description for d items that u are using in your video what is d thickness of d cable that u using so i can get one for my phone or tablet so it will be able to charge faster thank u stay safe be safe out there 🙏🏼