ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley Hughes does not like Apple’s charging cables. At all.
I’m not sure what it is about Apple cables, but the brilliant white rubber coating the company uses just doesn’t seem to be all that robust. After about six months of use — you know, the regular stuff like plugging and unplugging it — the outer starts to get soggy and discolored, and then over time becomes more and more fragile, until one day it starts peeling off, and then it is game over for the cable (unless you want to go through the pantomime of patching it, which buys you a little time). While I’ve long given up on using Apple cables for my iPhone and iPad — and even for my Apple Watch — I had hoped that the USB-C-to-USB-C charging cable for my MacBook Pro would be OK. I mean, how badly can you mess up a USB-C-to-USB-C cable? Pretty bad, if you’re Apple it seems.
Check It Out: Charging Cables Are Still Apple’s Worst Product
The Apple cables are better than any other I’ve ever used. Total nonsensical article.
I too, have had many, many years of service out of Apple’s charging cables. I might even have my original iPhone 3G cable here, a little worse for wear, but used in emergencies.
I have no doubt that if said purported “journalist” had returned a six-month-old cable to Apple it would have been replaced. But I do believe anyone who breaks one of these cables must be at least removing it by pulling on the cable, not the plug and other common-sense-defying behaviours. The photo in the scratchings bears these symptoms. USB-C cables are extremely robust, but I bet there’s someone out there capable of shorting and cooking their cable and apparently naively, if not proudly, documenting their ignorance online for all to see.
Charlotte:
I concur with @RogerWilson; Kingsley-Hughes’ assertion, in my and my family’s experience, is not substantiated.
True, we have had the odd replacement, but only after, in general, years of abuse. I travel the world and subject my kit to extremes of conditions and lots of wear and tear, and my cables have generally held up for the duration of the device with which they shipped. I should imagine that much depends on one’s cable management practices in terms of life expectancy, but that’s true of anything.
In fairness, I have not attempted to use my cables for tying luggage to moving vehicles, spelunking, rock climbing or garrotting the odd foe, so perhaps I need to expand my use case, but mine tend to last for years.
Methinks Mr. Kingsley-Hughes is…nuts. Been using these cables since iDevices first required them, and never…that’s never…has one of them gotten “soggy”, or discolored, or started to peel off. What the hell is he doing with his stuff?
I look forward to the next gen, but unless the gold contacts become discolored, they all just work as they should.