Type C cable test

  • Mar 13, 2022

Many people think that smartphone charging cables differ only in color and appearance, but this is not at all the case. With different cables, the charging speed from the same charger can change several times and I do not mean the Quick Charge function.

Type C cable test

I bought two cheap meter USB cables on Ozone - USB Type C. I chose those where the allowable current of 2A is clearly indicated and there are no bad reviews "on the case". As a result, I bought OLTO ACCZ-7015 for 136 rubles (now it costs 199 rubles) and Maxvi MC-A02 for 129 rubles (now he costs 144 rubles).

I compared these cables with known good and bad ones and measured their parameters with the help of the device Qway U2 (aka Web-U2).

Type C cable test

In the cable resistance measurement mode, a load is connected to the device (I loaded the cables with a current of 2A), a measurement is made without a cable (the device is connected directly to a voltage source, I used a laboratory power supply, in which the output voltage does not change with the load), and then the device is connected through a cable and shows its resistance and drop voltage.

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At the same time, I measured the lengths of the cables, the diameter of the sheath (for cables that have a fabric sheath over the main one, the diameter is marked with an asterisk) and weight. Here are the results.

The "exemplary" five-amp Huawei and Choetech cables have a resistance of about 0.07 ohms and at a load current of 2A, about 0.2 V drops on them.

Ozone cables have a resistance of about 0.2 Ohm, while the cheaper Maxvi turned out to be slightly better (at the same time I will say that the cable is softer, the connectors are slightly thicker with rounded plastic). Almost 0.45 V falls on them at a current of 2A.

The thin Untamo cable has a resistance of 0.26 ohms and already drops 0.6 V on it.

Kuulaa magnetic cables with a flat four-pin magnetic connector turned out to be quite good quality in themselves (the resistance of a half-meter cable is only 0.106 ohms, which is quite good).

An unnamed magnetic cable with a two-pin round magnetic connector has a resistance of 0.232 ohms and drops more than 0.5 V across it.

Worst of all were beautiful Chinese fabric-braided cables: the purple Uslion has a resistance of 0.289 ohms, thick red Tenyisen 0.322 Ohm (more than 0.8 V drops on it), and due to a bad USB connector, the resistance changes to 0.44 ohm.

I checked how the Honor 20 Pro smartphone charges from regular and QC charging with different cables. I note that modern smartphones are very smart in terms of charging, and even from the usual "slow" charging they consume different current depending on the quality of the cable (the smartphone measures the voltage at different currents and selects the optimal current charging).

With Huawei, Choetech, Olto, Maxvi, Kuulaa cables, both from normal and QC charging, the smartphone exhibited a charging power of about 10 watts. With a thin Untamo cable with QC, the power was about 10 watts, and with a regular one it dropped to 7 watts. With the purple Chinese Uslion, the power did not exceed 5 W, and with the red Tenyisen, the charging power was only 0.7 W (!).

In general, I do not recommend buying cables in a fabric sheath - to make the cable look beautiful, the cores and wires are made as thin as possible.

As for the cheap cables from Ozone, they are certainly not the best, but for such a price (especially in modern times) they will do just fine. I ordered a couple more of those that are cheaper, in reserve.

Peace for everyone!

© 2022, Alexey Nadezhin

For twelve years I have been writing about technology, discounts, interesting places and events. Read my blog site ammo1.ru, in Learn, Zen, Mirtesen, Telegram.
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