Quiz: What's The Best Charging Cable For The iPhone 12?

A iPhone charging cable is just a cable right? Apparently not. I spent $200 dollars on 8 different cables, charged them a bunch of times, bent them at least 25000 times and tore them apart to figure out that the best cables for the iPhone 12 will either be the ESR braided charging cable or the Apple 2M Lightning to USB-C cable.

Here's something neat: The build quality of the 2 meter cable from Apple is not the same as the cable included with the iPhone.

Here's the Top 3. Using my affiliate links helps keep this channel unbiased and free of sponsored content.

In this video:

0:00 Intro
1:04 Lol.
1:56 MFI Certified?
3:09 Bend Tests
6:59 Charge Tests
9:25 Tear Downs
12:59 Final Rankings

#ReviewereNotInfluencer #UnSponseredContent #RealUsage #RealReviews

Here's how the other cables stacked up:

4. Anker Powerline II
5. CHOETECH Nylon Braided
6. Anker Powerline III
7. Apple 1m Cable

We had another cable from a company called Lisen but we bought the wrong head so we didn't included it in the rankings. We did put it through the bend test and it performed like all the other braided cables did.

So the first thing we looked at was the quality of the lightning cable heads. The biggest tell between MFI certified and non-MFI cables is the quality of the leads in the cable head. MFI cables will look clean, smooth and symmetrical, non MFI cables will look very rough.

You guys remember Arthur right? The little machine I built to test how much power the Magic Keyboard on the iPad drew? Well, Arthur has a son whose name is Arthuros who has batted around cables for at least 6 weeks straight now..

Every cable was definitely looser around the pivot point on the cable and the only definite conclusion that I’ve come to is that braided cables are going to be a little tougher from my perspective.

The non-braided cables tend to lose bits and pieces of the cable over time. The worst offenders were the products from Anker.

That’s the primary reason why I think braided cables are better than non-traded cables, they seem to hold together a bit better. And based on what I found out in the tear downs, should last a bit longer.

Alright, lets talk about charge rates. For this video, we measure the time it took to charge an iPhone XS from 20-90%. We choose that range because that’s out of low power mode and not into trickle charging. Why the iPhone XS? Because it was the only iPhone we had free when we started this video two months ago.

Each charge test was done with the an 18W charger, plugged into the same power bar and same outlet.

Out of the remaining 6 cables, the fastest cable before the bend test was the ESR Cable followed by the 2m Apple Cable. The 2nd slowest cable was the Amazon Basics cable and pulling up the rear was the Anker Powerline III.

In second place was the Apple 2M cable 57 minutes 4 seconds and the CHOETECH with 58 minutes and 9 seconds.

Now we did the same charge tests AFTER we bent each cable and here are the results. There was only one cable that wasn’t slower. So if you’re still charging your iPhone with a REALLY old cable like this one, maybe it’s time to get a new one.

Now the last thing I did for this video was to compare the two Apple cables. The diameter difference between the two Apple cables just seemed odd, coupled with the drastic difference in charge times, I just had to know.

At first, I thought it might be the jacket that was the difference but both cables had a jacket that was about 0.5mm thick. Then I realized it was everything else. The 2m Apple cable has more of the braided shielding, more filler and the foil shield was applied on better. I could actually rip the foil shield off with my fingers whereas it basically flaked off with the 1m cable.

The wires on the inside of the cable also had a bit more insulation to them.

So why would Apple do this? I have no idea. Why did they put a sub-par cable with their iPhones? Apple made a big fuss about reducing waste by leaving out the chargers and headphones so it doesn’t make sense.
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[MobileReviewsEh]

Just to clarify, the 1m cable I used in this video came with my iPhone 12. It's a USB-C to Lightning cable, not a USB-A.

[pasttimer]

I like your dog and the way he looks at you is so sweet.

[masuki]

1:30 I love how you saying that you don’t take sponsors has extended into a whole ad about how you’re not like other Youtubers

[polterghosty]

Thank you for the sponsorship plug. I literally had to do a double-take!

[DS-nulz]

Can't really take other reviewers seriously anymore when some of their stuff is loaded with sponsored ads. Such a breath of fresh air not only from the unbiased point of view but your content is just loaded with so much quality and information backed by actual tests and humor. There aren't any stupid 2 minute rants in the middle of a video started with "sponsored by so and so this website is so good yadda yadda" while I'm here trying to skip to the end of the ads.

[MacA]

Discovered your chanel looking for a good case brand, turns out you're probably the best accessories focused chanel on the whole platform!

Love your honesty and thorough testing!

[Julioo]

That’s awesome, man, thank you for the shout out! I’ve never had that before. Was a cool feeling haha. But I’m glad to support you, dude! You go above and beyond to test these products and not sell out to the big companies. Thank you for everything you do.
Also, the “ad” in this video was hilarious 🤣🤣

[unicorn]

Monty is so sweet. I love the way he looks at you and “listens” to your reviews. What a good boy. Lol.

[sanjithechef]

The Canadian Amazon reviewer we needed

[graham]

You are THE BEST reviewer I have ever seen!! One of the couple youtubers I have notifications turned on!!

[Nightmaredeathdealer]

The fact that you tell us right up front, in the beginning, before anything else is extremely underrated.

[TheJman]

10/10 best sponsor shoutout I’ve seen, totally buying all the things 👌

[ricardomagath]

You’re an amazing reviewer and you have your mechanical tools for testing endurance as well. I did notice that apple cables which are sold seperately have a thicker cable bodies just by looking at it externally, it’s great to go through the internals and actually see the difference 👍🏻👍🏻

[legendseeker]

You're an awesome reviewer, you seem really down to earth and genuine, and like you mention, there's no vibe that youre trying to sell us anything. I subscribed to your channel like 3 minutes in, just awesome job overall

[hippychick]

This has truly become one of my favorite tech channels also I love Monty so much

[KuliJens]

Apple Executives: We'll just change the cables internally. Nobody is going to notice and over millions of units we'll save millions of dollars!
Monty: You've activated my trap card

[CaseyHardman]

Was going to request this on the last video, but glad I didn't have to!

[shadow.banned]

I'm surprised I've never heard of ESR. I've been buying Anker all this time.
And how the heck was the Powerline II faster than III!? Weird.

[FoxxFire]

Oh my goodness Aaron, you've really stepped your videos up another level with these tests. This is really impressive. I hope viewers appreciate this work and your channel starts really taking off. We're lucky to have you on youtube my friend.

[BradleyVanTreese]

Way to go, Monty!! Nice job upping your owners’ game! Every time i watch another video on this channel, it’s more in-depth, sophisticated and thorough than the last. Clearly, this is due to Monty’s exceptional leadership, initiative, and drive! I love that dog.