$3.50 Lighting Cable Knockoff Teardown: As Shoddy As You’d Expect
Unshielded, shoddily built and as close to dangerous junk as you can get without actually being dangerous. Today, this description happens to apply to these knock-off Lightning adapters from China, but it could equally describe any cheap no-name Chinese electronic accessories.
The cable you see above was called a “functional knockoff” by Apple Insider. And like a functioning alcoholic, it might get the job done, but at what cost?
From the outside, the cable looks great. On the inside, though, the poor quality shows. This cable was bought by Frank Donghi of reputable cable-maker Toxic Cables, and its problems include a lack of shielding, which will add some amusing pops and buzzes to any audio devices it is used with. Then again, it does manage to sync and charge the iPhone 5.
Still, who cares, right? If it works, and it costs $3.50 instead of $20, then they’ll sell by the hastily-imported container load. And faced with replacing my frankly ridiculous number of 30-pin dock connector cables, $3.50 looks mighty tempting.
- Source Apple Insider
Charlie Sorrel sits in his gadget nerve-center in Barcelona, Spain, and spits out words about various weird plastic widgets while the sun shines outside his iCave. Previously found at Wired.com's Gadget Lab covering cameras, power cables and sneaking in as much Apple-centric coverage as he could, Charlie spends his rare moments outside perched atop a bicycle and snapping photos. You can follow him on Twitter via 
