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Hands On: Belkin six-inch Lightning Cable
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MacNN Staff
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Once you step away from buying Apple's Lightning cables, you don't go back. Previously, we had worn out too many to make us willing to keep paying the same price, but this time we wanted something Apple just doesn't do. We needed a short one, and that need led us to the Belkin six-inch/15.2cm Metallic 2.4-Amp Lightning to USB Charge/Sync Cable.
It's very short. You'll never guess how short. Only, even though you see the words six inches or 15.2cm, you really don't guess how short that is until the cable is in your hands. The length is so short that there isn't much play in the cable either, you can't wrap the length around your fingers. That's as much to do with the build quality, through: Belkin has made this cable strong and sturdy.
If you're going to get a short cable, if you have a specific need for it, then the odds are that whatever you want it for, you're going to be using it a lot, and maybe roughly. It's not a cable to leave by your bedside, it's one to take with you on the road, it's one to keep in your toolbag.
Or in our case, we were reviewing the Knomo Bond Purse and we needed the cable to connect that bag's included battery to our iPhones. The bag is roomy for its size -- it's a small clutch bag -- but you could very easily lose the space to the iPhone, the battery and a long cable. Plus, nobody has ever left a Lightning cable in a bag and not had it unfurl, wrap around your keys, and get tangled up into a Möbius strip or something. So having a small six-inch cable, and especially one that is flexible but strong, means that you avoid most of that.
Sometimes you'd want it to be just a tiny bit longer; it happens that the cable isn't long enough to stretch from our car radio's USB port to the iPhone in our car mount. How dare Belkin not come measure our car.
The Belkin six-inch/15.2cm Metallic 2.4A Lightning to USB Charge/Sync Cable is available in the Apple Store for $25, or via Amazon for around $11 plus shipping.
Who is Belkin six-inch cable for:
Travelers, or anyone with an occasional need to quickly charge up an iOS device on the move.
Who is Belkin six-inch cable not for:
If you don't tend to run out of charge during the day, leave your longer Lightning cable at home, and don't bother with this.
-- William Gallagher ( @WGallagher)
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Last edited by NewsPoster; Mar 25, 2016 at 02:40 PM.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
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This looks like a winner , but I have to say my experience is 180 degrees the opposite of yours: once I try third-party Lightning cables, I rush back to Apple's. Even Amazon Basic's first-gen long cables separate at the Lightning connector much sooner than Apple's, to say nothing of brand-X charging cables that spontaneously combust.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Maitland, FL
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It's definitely all about the quality, not the price. I've been happy with the Apple provided ones so far, and of my two third-party Lightning cables, one separated at the neck more-or-less immediate, while the other has been perfectly durable for my travels.
The next one I get will likely be from Monoprice if I buy a third-party one, I've been wanting to give theirs a try. I like the stuff I have gotten from them previously.
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Charles Martin
MacNN Editor
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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I have two Lightening cables from Monoprice, one a year old, the other 3 months. Neither has failed yet.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Aug 2001
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Everyone who lives reasonably nearby an Apple Store should also remember that their cables have a 1-year warranty. I've had several replaced. I just stopped by and asked for a replacement. They won't take modified cables (such as if you have marked them with a Sharpie).
Not sure if they check the serial number or not, but I've often wondered if I could just buy a new cable every year, and replace the old one under warranty if it stops working.
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