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If you unwrapped an Apple product today it likely came with one of the company's first-party Lightning cables, but having an extra on hand is always a good idea, so you can place it in other rooms in your house, in your car, or in a bag when you travel.
For that reason, now's a good time to shop for third-party Lightning cables that are cheaper than Apple's own accessory, but still Made For iPhone certified to guarantee their quality.
One of the best examples of this is well-known and reliable third-party accessory maker Anker, which has a 3ft / 0.9m Lightning Cable for just $5.99 on Amazon. Apple's comparable product, the Lightning to USB Cable, sells for $19.00 on Apple.com.
Additionally, this holiday Anker has a combo promotion with the Lightning Cable. If you purchase the $5.99 cable (or other qualifying products), you can save 10 percent on either the Anker Elite Dual Port 24W USB Travel Wall Charger ($9.53, down from $10.59) or the Anker PowerCore 26800 Portable Charger ($55.79, down from $61.99). Anker has other cables, chargers, and power banks on its Amazon storefront.
Many of Anker's accessories have been certified under Apple's MFi program, which helps consumers identify products that are assured to work well with iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Shoppers should keep an eye out for MFi certifications when shopping for products like Lightning cables, and be wary of counterfeit accessories that are somewhat common on Amazon and could potentially harm their devices.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Top Rated Comments
I wish the warranty were longer; over time, any cable can experience strain and stop working. But for what you pay, the Anker stuff is a very good value.
Jonathan Ive is not only manish about "thinness" of MacBooks and IOS-devices, he is also manish about "cable-thinness":
I had to replace nearly ALL original apple-charging cables of IOS-devices by now because the exterior isolation of the cables was more and more broken and fell apart. these important cables are too thin, the copper core as well as the outer isolation!
cables from Belkin, Anker or the very well done Lindy (swiss-made) are made for eternity. maybe also other third parties, but personally I have only practical experience with these three.
they are lightyears in front of apple regarding quality:
always much better and reliable also for all-day use (not only to look at them in apple-stores, but in daily use) , never more expensive, but nearly always even less costly. Same for Thunderbolt cables (just bought some from OWC, also lightyeras better and less pricy than the orignal low-quality made by apple) , adaptors, and other things.
original apple cables are nothing but garbage in comparison to many third-party cables.
BTW: same for the original 60 or 75 W chargers for Macbooks and macbook Pros:
the thin cable between the charger and the books is not at all well isolated - so one day the isolation begins to fall into little parts. also because of the too thin and not mechanically protecting isolation the too thin copper core breaks - even if the isolation is not yet gone. you can feel it because when half-broken this part becomes more and more hot as a result of multplication of electrical resistance) It is a shame that millions of users have to pollute the environment just because of well functioning chargers, which have a not-replacable, bad designed low-voltage cable part.... not regarding the financial side (apple AC/DC chargers are very expensive) and the danger by undetected short-circuit (might set something on fire)....
That being said, agree with above. Anker makes good stuff.