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iCable i10 Power Series microUSB Cable
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Review

iCable i10 Power Series microUSB Cable

by January 21, 2016
Positives

+ Cable sleeves protect the wires within while looking awesome
+ Metal connectors look durable enough to take some abuse
+ Stress reliefs on the cable are long and thick enough for proper fray prevention
+ Length of cables is convenient for charging
+ Power delivery is unaffected by the length
+ Lifetime warranty

Negatives

- The length may be too much at times

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Appearance
9.0
Features
9.0
Materials
9.0
Performance
9.0
Portability
9.0
Value
8.0
Bottom Line

Black, long and tough. Wait that sounds wrong... but that is exactly what the cables are. With lifetime warranty, they are going to last a long time too. That sounded wrong too...

8.8
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Cables are something that we easily overlook when thinking about smartphone accessories. Probably because every smartphone is bundled with one, people often do not realize the importance of getting good cables to charge their phones with.

Apple raised some awareness among consumers about the need for quality cables with their proprietary MFi chips built into the cables, as cables that doesn’t have Apple’s chip of approval will not work after software updates on their devices. While I feel that the MFi chips are actually just a fancy means to earn money from third party cable manufacturers, it did make consumers realize that cheap cables just don’t cut it.

For Android users, we are not forced to abide by a monopoly, but cheap cables generally don’t last as long as the quality ones, or just can’t deliver power to the device properly, resulting in slow charging. Cheap cables just can’t transmit the amps from your charger to your device as efficiently. Hence, realizing the importance of using quality cables, I have the iCable i10 Power Series microUSB cable here with me, to test the difference that a RM120 cable makes over the common RM10-20 cables you find everywhere.

 

Unboxing

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As you can see the packaging is quite simple, with a large cutout for you to see what color you are getting and some important information.

 

Appearance

icable connectors 2

The i10 Power Series microUSB cable is only available with black nylon sleeving and with metal gunmetal gray connectors. The black sleeving is neat and tight, smooth all the way down the cable. The stress reliefs where the cord meets the connectors are thick and sturdy looking, which should ensure that fraying is a remote possibility.

 

User Experience

I think for this I have to start to talk about the experience from the moment I contacted iCable Asia’s FB page to inquire about these cables as my original ASUS ones are damaged.

torn cable

The guys handling the page are very friendly and answered every question I had regarding the cables and the warranty. They even offered to help me with purchasing the cable in case I wasn’t up to speed with online shopping. I politely turned down their assistance and  went ahead to order my cables on the website iCable Asia, and the cables arrived in just a few days. Anyway, let’s start going through the cable.

icable length

The cables are 2 meters long, and quite stiff. The length can make it unwieldy if you connect it to your PC to transfer files, and the stiffness does it no favors there either. I always say that too long is better than too short though. Data transfer speeds are as fast as it gets, it won’t make files transfer any faster than your phone can accept them.

icable in use

Charging my Padfone S with the i10 Power microUSB cable is just perfect. As I have my plugs at the bottom end of my bed in my apartment room, I have gotten used to sleeping upside down just so I can scroll Facebook while charging my device with the stock cable before falling asleep. Now with the iCable I can sleep anyhow I want and still use the phone while its charging. While we did learn back in Physics 101 that resistance is directly proportional to the length of a wire, so I did check whether that extra length came at the cost of higher resistance. I am happy to report that the charging speed is equivalent to the original cable back when it was still new and not torn at the tip, around 1010 mA according to the app Ampere.

Now that I confirmed that when new it works perfectly, we will see whether it stands the test of time. I will check the charging rate from time to time and report back after 6 months. Since iCable Asia is confident enough to offer a lifetime warranty for these cables, I expect these cables to be really durable.

 

Conclusion

These cables look and feel tough enough to withstand the usual abuse that one deals unknowingly everyday, especially if they use the cables with their powerbanks on the go. I would definitely recommend it, given the lifetime warranty and superb build quality. This will really be the last microUSB cable you ever need as iCable promises to replace the cables free of charge if it ever fails during the lifetime warranty period. The length can be a little too long at times but everyone’s preferred cable length may be different, and the iCable i10 Power Series microUSB cables are a good compromise as too long is definitely better than too short.

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About The Author
Vyncent Chan
Technology enthusiast, casual gamer, pharmacy graduate. Strongly opposes proprietary standards and always on the look out for incredible bang-for-buck.

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