Why We Love Anker Power Cables for 2023

Oct 17, 2023

You can never have too many charging cables. The USB-A to Lightning cable version of the 6-foot Anker PowerLine II is down to $11 (from $14).

Anker's PowerLine cables cost less than the originals, last a lot longer, and look better.

Before Apple scrubbed product reviews from its online store, its Lightning cable had a paltry rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars, across 2,300 reviews. At $20, the cables are expensive, and they’re prone to fraying at the ends.

This cable is MFi-certified, it has sturdy housings to withstand frequent plugging and unplugging, and it's plenty long enough to keep at your desk or bedside table.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $15.

This cable is well made and inexpensive, and it performed well in every test we threw at it.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $14.

This 6-foot cable is great for charging USB-C phones, tablets, and laptops with chargers up to 60 W (basically everything but the 15- or 16-inch MacBook Pro), but it's limited to slower USB 2.0 data transfer speeds.

May be out of stock

*At the time of publishing, the price was $13.

Enter Anker's PowerLine cables, perennial Wirecutter favorites, thanks to their lower prices and longer-lasting designs. A cable is essential to keeping your phone charged, especially on the go, so it's important that you have one you can rely on.

Anker cables stand up to wear and tear, and they are backed up by a lifetime warranty if something breaks.

We’ve torn open dozens of charging cables and found they’re all pretty much the same on the inside. It's the outside that makes the biggest difference in how long they’ll last.

Versions of Anker's PowerLine cables have been our favorites since 2016, when we named the Lightning and Micro-USB variants our top picks. The USB-C cables came later and are equally great. These cables stand up to wear and tear, they’re backed up by a lifetime warranty if something breaks, and they’re cheaper than the flimsier cables your phone's maker sells.

While Cable Matters's USB-C to USB-C Charging Cable is our favorite USB-C option, we also have recommendations for almost every need you could imagine.

Micro-USB cables are cheap and ubiquitous, but that doesn't mean you should settle for a bad one. We tested six top brands to find the best at a great price.

The best Lightning cable isn't made by Apple. We tested dozens of options to find the best cable for charging an iPhone, iPad, AirPods, and Mac accessories.

I still have PowerLine cables I’ve been using since 2016 that work as well as the day I got them. Anker claims they’re designed to withstand tens of thousands of bends.

Anker tested over 100 different materials to strengthen its first PowerLine cords. "Finally we settled on using the same material often used in bulletproof vests," a fiber called aramid, said Alex Xiao, Anker senior product manager.

Although we originally tested 3-foot cables, we very quickly found that we really loved the different lengths. The 10-footers, in particular, are extremely handy in a living room, so you can swipe away on your phone from the couch without being tightly anchored to the wall.

Steven Yang started Anker after he quit his job in software engineering at Google in 2011. I’ve been writing about gadgets since then, and I have seen the company go from being a small startup that sold good, but unremarkable, portable power banks on Amazon to being a near-default brand for charging accessories (though we always test to be sure).

The company has since branched out, and it now offers everything from Bluetooth speakers and headphones to robot vacuums and security systems that are mostly well designed and affordable.

Black Friday and Prime Day are always great times to pick up Anker cables at cheap prices, but we usually see pretty good deals throughout the year, depending on the cable type and length.

Anker PowerLine II USB-C-to-Lightning cable$18 Average street price for the 6-foot cable$12 Best price we’ve ever seen

Anker PowerLine Micro USB cable (5-pack)$16 Average street price$6 Best price we’ve ever seen

To prolong the life of any cable, take two precautions: When removing it from a port or outlet, always grasp the plug, not the cable. And instead of folding or bending the cord for storage, loosely coil it.

This post is part of our 2020 "52 Things We Love" series, an ode to Wirecutter picks that have withstood the test of time. Read the entire series.

Nick Guy

Nick Guy is a former senior staff writer covering Apple and accessories at Wirecutter. He has been reviewing iPhones, iPads, and related tech since 2011—and stopped counting after he tested his 1,000th case. It's impossible for him not to mentally catalog any case he sees. He once had the bright idea to build and burn down a room to test fireproof safes.

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