Apple data cable cross-evaluation. How to choose a good data cable

1.the detail of its appearance You get what you pay for

[Cross-evaluation] It ’s not a day or two that Apple ’s mobile phones are delicate. Apple ’s mobile phone is easy to use and its performance is strong, but it is fragile as well. It can be said that it is Apple's official purpose to protect the device by making the mobile phone "delicate", such as the temperature protection mechanism of Apple 6, and the MFI certification of Apple's data cable. At present, the MFI-certified data cables on the market are not cheap, but the mobile phone does need to be charged in multiple places. They are all data cables, the 9.9 type can be used in charging, so does the more than100 yuan type. Although they look the same, is the real charging process really be the same?

This time, the evaluation room selected a total of 6 Apple data cables for a small cross-evaluation test (one of which is an Apple original data cable). We will conduct a detailed evaluation of these six Apple data cables from five dimensions. I hope it can help you choose the best data cable for your favorite machine.

Appearance part

Comparison of data line material

Let's first introduce our six data cables. Ranked from the lowest price to the highest price, the brands are Quboo, Beseus, Miniso which is authorized by MFi, Momax, Ball and the very famous Apple original data cable that is easy to break but still sells expensively.

Compared to PVC, the TPE material is much safer, and the finished wires are softer and easier to coat with various colors. It has been favored by most manufacturers. Apple ’s own accessories are basically all made of TPE, but we must notice that the TPE material will easily oxidize and turn yellow, especially for Apple's own accessories. It is also particularly fragile. The connection part between the wire and the interface is particularly vulnerable to "breaking."

The third category is the nylon braided wire. The advantages of nylon braided wire are that the wire resist wearing and pulling. However, the nylon wire that came out earlier is hard and easy to fluff. No one likes it. But after that, many big factories (such as the bull weaving apple data cable that we got this time) started to apply new types of nylon braided materials to the data lines. The new nylon braided material is softer. If the manufacturer has higher demands, the weaving wire will basically not fluff during the process of usage.

As for the outer cover of the wire, we still recommend that you choose TPE or nylon woven outer cover if possible. If you want to choose PVC, you should choose the wire producted by a qualified manufacturer. After all, you don’t know old the outer cover material used by Taobao 9.9 product is.

Product materials & details

The workmanship of the product reflects the manufacturer's dedication to the product and the degree of responsibility to the consumer, as well as the manufacturer's craftsmanship. We have made a rough comparison of the wires, now we will look at the details of each product.

Quboo SC21 Apple data cable e-commerce price reading ... Quboo Apple data cable

Quboo Apple data cable, the wire is regular, but the nozzle of the interface is not refined, it has burrs.

Baseus Apple data cable, can be used with iPhone6s / 7plus Red e-commerce price reading ... Baseus Apple braided data cable

Baseus Apple braided data cable, the wire is regular, and the interface part is also very detailed. After all, it is not surprise to see how delicate a cable is when its price is more than 30 yuan and has not been certified by MFi.

Miniso Apple data cable for 5S / 6 / 6Plus e-commerce price reading ... Miniso Apple data cable

Miniso Apple data cable, its PVC material is consistent with Quboo’s. The wire is regular. However, the problem of burrs at the nozzle also appeared.

Momax Apple MFi Certified Data Cable Applicable for iphone8 / 7/6 / 6sPlus / X / 5s / SE / iPad E-commerce price reading ... Momax Apple braided MFi Certified Data Cable

The details of the work of this nylon braided data cable from Momax will be much better. The tail net is also lengthened, and the bending resistance is improved. Compared to the previous ones, it is indeed a lot better.

Bull J7210 Apple nylon braided data cable e-commerce price reading... Bull Apple braided data cable

The workmanship of the bull apple braided data cable is also very meticulous. The tail net has been lengthened, and the bending resistance has been improved a lot. Even the interface shell has been polished and chamfered, and the details are better.

Apple Lightning to USB cable e-commerce price reading ... Apple original data cable

As for Apple's original data cable, because I took the one that my colleague has used for a period of time, the wire is a bit yellow, the main point is that the connection point between the wire and the tail net already showed signs of breaking. The wire itself has a good workmanship, but how to solve the problem of the wire's fragility is a big problem in the current use of Apple data cables.

In terms of wire details, the workmanship of the two PVC wires still needs further improvement. Leave the 9.9 yuan wire alone, The data lines of MINISO which is sold at 40 yuan should not have little flaws like this. The 32 yuan Baseus’s line has good details, but its disadvantage is that there is no MFi certification. Although the other two nylon braided data cables are expensive, their details were handled carefully and with MFi certification. This price is still acceptable. After all, compared to the fragile and expensive Apple original data cable, their cost performance is too good. The interesting thing is that the 0.5m and 1m long original Apple data cables are both 149 yuan, an increase in length but no increase in price. So if you think about this way, is Apple still Very conscience?

2. Performance reflection Big Factory + MFi certification is essential

Performance part

We will use the Power Z KM001 USB test meter to test the charging performance of the data cable, use a fixed size data file transmission to detect the transmission speed of the data cable, and use the Apple Lightning wire identifier to test the MFi certification of the cable. The equipment we use is the original 12W iPad charger for. The charger supports output up to 5.2V / 2.4A.

Comparison of Data cable charging speed

The above picture may not be an intuitive way to look. It will be easier to see the gaps by converting the above data into a chart.

It can be seen that, in terms of charging power, the one with the highest power is the Bull Apple braided data wire, and the one with the worst performance is the Baseus Apple data wire, even the 9.9 data wire has outperformed it in terms of power. Although the total power is not much different, but there is a big difference in the stability of the current and voltage. The Momax data cable, Bull Apple braided data cable and Apple original data cable that have higher price show very good stability. However, the remaining three models have relatively poor stability. Among them, the Baseus Data's data cable fluctuates the most. Do not underestimate the charging stability. This is related to the life of electronic products and the safety of battery use.

It is worth noticing that the quality of the original Apple charger is very high. If you use a non-brand copycat charger, the charging current fluctuation in the above test will only be further amplified, which may cause the charging power to be too high, and may even burn out the phone.

As the saying goes, a good horse has a good saddle. Even if you buy a good data cable, it is best to have a good quality charger.

Comparison of data lines ‘transmission speed ’

Before the data transmission test, we first need to verify a point: only MFi-certified data cables can ensure to connect computers without errors, and the upgraded system can also be used normally. Non-MFi-certified data cable connections are prone to problems and cannot be identified and used after the system is upgraded.

We have tried 6 data cables carefully, using iPhone 8 Plus, the system was upgraded to the latest iOS 11.1. The test includes front and back connections of the Lightning interface. The result is that all the cables can be connected normally, and the data can be uploaded and downloaded to the device.

This is related to the fact that most non-MFi-certified data lines use cracked chips to trick Apple devices into data transmission. And after Apple iOS7, the restrictions on non-MFi-certified accessories have been relaxed, so most of the non-MFi-certified data cables that use the new scheme can now normally connect devices with computers.

We used iPhone 8 Plus and MacBook Pro 2016 15 inch version for file transfer speed test. The transfer software is iTunes, and the transfer file size is 1.72GB. Repeat the writing and deleting steps 5 times for each data line, and record the writing time with a stopwatch, the result is the average time of the 5 tests. (The smaller the value, the better)

In fact, the results are very close, but the four models with higher prices all perform slightly better, but the difference is only within half a second. Here we also remind readers that although MFi certification lines and copycat lines are comparable in read and write speed of large files, some poor quality copycat lines may also have unstable current during data transmission and are prone to data loss. When backing up your mobile phone, the backup may fail due to missing files, so it is still necessary to choose an MFi certified data cable.

The importance of MFI certification

The Lightning wire identifier can test whether the chip is MFi certified. Only certified products will display the original, and non-MFi certified products will display copycat. During the test a product appeared in the test as Taiwan, in fact, it is also the result of high imitation chips.

E75 and C48 are both MFi hardware solutions. Most of Apple's original factory lines use E75 solutions, while C48 is mostly a solution for authorizes MFi chips. Both solutions are MFi-certified chip solutions. However, if the copycat is displayed in front, it means that the E75 or C48 solution of the cracked chip is used, which are all non-MFi certification.

MINISO has stated on its packaging and product promotion pages that its wire has passed the MFi certification, but in the test, it shows Taiwan, which is suspected of a false standard. This test is only responsible for the sample, and cannot be used to deduct whether the other device og the same model has certified MFi chips.

And what exactly is MFi certification? MFi is the English abbreviation of Apple's Made for iOS, which is a type of license mark authorized by Apple to produce parts. Apple accessories that have passed MFi certification have certain restrictions on the quality of their components and production processes, and Apple does not provide after-sales warranty for product damages due to the use of non-certified accessories. Therefore, MFi certification for Apple is a quality control restriction for accessory manufacturers, ensuring that accessory manufacturers produce products that meet their own standards. And at the same time, charge the certification fee. That is why products that pass the MFi certification usually sell for a higher price.

Apple will provide MFi-certified chips for MFi-certified Lightning data cable, the chips can ensure that the data cable can still be used normally after the equipment system upgrading. Non-MFi-certified data cables may cause device recognition failure after the iPhone or iPad system is upgraded, and some may even not support the charging function. In addition, the chips provided by Apple can ensure stable output during charging, which is a protection for the device itself.

https://mfi.apple.com/MFiWeb/getAPS.action，click here to check whether the purchased wire passes the MFi certification by scanning the barcode.

Evaluation Room Summary

The "delicacy" of Apple devices is actually Apple's official protection of their products. Selecting a product that meets the standards can effectively protect your favorite machine, and it can be more assured when use.

For the "delicate" features of Apple devices, it is better for you to choose a data cable with MFi certification. Take the Bull Apple braided data cable in this review as an example. Although the data cable is about 100 yuan, which is not cheap, the data cable at this price is not only of good quality, but also of excellent workmanship, compared with Apple's official data cable. The charging speed is also faster than the original one, and it is also in line with Apple's equipment. Do not take the “Taobao 9.9” wire even if you want to choose a cheaper one. Although there may be no difference in a short period of time, there are still some security risks. It is recommended to better choose a slightly higher priced MFi certified data cable.