Anker Powerline Cable Series Comparisons - II, +II, III, and +III

I have a friend who is interested in the 10ft because then more power outlets and power strips will become accessible in whatever circumstance: at home, at the coffee shop, at the library, you name it.
I’ve been browsing the web for a few days on the subject of cable length vs. charging speed, and the Internet unanimously agreed that longer cables = more resistance in the cable = longer charging times. It’s just straight up science at play. Though there are many nuances with so many different factors playing into charging speed like wall chargers, cable material, etc., overall, this makes sense. However, I did run across many sources claiming the difference becomes minuscule and negligible unless you have many, many, MANY feet of extended cables, which does not fit the description of normal day-to-day charging cables. Yes, there will be loss in charging speed, but is it noticeable? Does the difference between 3ft and 6ft to 10ft make the shorter cables that much more hyper utilized or is this more of a longer-cables-are-more-annoying-to-deal-with type of thing?

I am simply trying to increase the scope of my understanding with these basic cable characteristics and the kind of difference they make. In your opinion (or anyone’s), what makes any cable over 6ft a waste? What are your thoughts?

I repeatedly see you using the term/phrase “draw” or “draw unused”. What do you mean by that?

From what is offered, is taken.

If 2A is offered, but only 1.6A drawn, then there you could offer 1.6A, so if the device is not wanting all that is offered, you can offer it less.

Below I’m using electrostatics, a constant power, I’m not using changing signals, where then impedence matters (changing electric field makes a changing magnetic field which creates a changing electric field which opposes, i.e. eddy currents). For data (a changing signal) it is a much more involved problem. I’m just talking power below.

If say the phone had the electronics to accept 9V 2A 18W, and it drew all what was offered, a USB meter was 18W, then if you used a less electrically efficient cable, the phone would charge slower, but if the phone draw 15W then you can afford to have a cable losses of up to 3W with no downside.

The way you measure cable efficiency is you put a USB meter at the end near the charger, then one at the other end, and measure the Voltage drop. That is energy squirted in by the charger, wasted as heat within the cable, so less energy comes out of the cable.

Ohm’s Law:

image

So suppose you had a USB meter and you measured 5V 1.8A going into a cable and 4.8V 1.8A coming out, so 0.2V drop. Current cannot drop (if it did then you’ve got a short circuit which is a bigger problem). So then R = V / I , 0.2 /1.8 = 0.1 Ohms.

Then that meant the power loss, energy lost in the cable (per second), is R x I-squared 0.1x1.8x1.8 = 0.36W. Suppose you did that for say 8 hours, you lost 2.8Wh. Suppose your Powercore was 72Wh, you lost 4% of the energy in the cable.

If the energy coming out of the charger exceeds the energy the device draws, then it is a sign the cable losses are not slowing things down.

There is a difference in importance for chargers vs portable chargers. A charger consumes very little cost of electricity, so if you wasted energy in the cable, you at most make the device charge slower (if it draws all that is offered). If a portable charger lost energy in the cable then you are carrying a heavier and more expensive portable charger than necessary. So bad cables, more losses, have greater consequences for portable chargers. But there is a way out.

Longer cables lose more energy, but in the case of a portable charger there is little need to have longer than 1ft-3ft as there is no wall from which the cable has to stretch.

In the era of Power Delivery, where you have a range of voltages offered ( W = V x I , Power = Volts x current in Amps ) then the cable losses become less important. Take the above example of a 0.1 Ohm resisting cable. Suppose the charger and device had a choice of between 5V and 15V and needed 10W. For 10W at 5V means 2A, 10W at 15V means 0.67A. The power loss in the cable at 5V is therefore 2x2x0.1 = 0.44W, but at 15V it is 0.05W, the cable loss is ( ratio of V squared, 3x squared) 9 times lower. So the cable choice becomes less salient, for any given Wattage at higher Voltages.

So there are people out there making these mistakes:

  • under-delivery. They have a charger-device combination which is negatively impacted by cable losses, they are using a cheaper or longer cable and so slowing device charging.
  • over-delivery. They have a charger-device combination cable of more than the device can consume. So they have over-spent (wasted money) on a too-fast charger and/or too-expensive a cable.

As a rough rule, a bigger battery can ingest energy at a higher rate. So phones with small batteries tend to not benefit from higher Wattage, while laptops / bigger tablets tend to benefit. So it depends where the electronics in the device are relative to the battery, if the cable losses matter or don’t. It is hard to predict but a sign is a higher Wattage small device (phone) probably will tolerate a less good, such as longer cable, than a larger device.

So what I suggest is:

  • stop looking at Watts, it’s Volts, Amps and Watt-hours. Voltage drop in a cable (measured difference each end) is energy lost, Volts x Amps = Watts, energy/second. Watt-hours = energy per unit time x time = energy. Energy out of the wall is less important if wasted than energy out of a small portable charger.
  • don’t look at marketing.
  • buy a USB meter
  • buy the cheapest cable, measure it, if it’s a bad cable then use it where it matters least (lower power devices which typically are smaller so say flashlights, headphones), if a good cable use it where it matters most (generally higher power, larger devices).
  • when travelling, and using portable chargers, err on the side of using shorter cables and ones you test frequently. Cable losses increase as the cable ages and so you use such an ageing cable for different contexts in it’s life.
  • use the right cable, and charger for the device and context.

Does that make all complete sense? The wisdom here is largely 100 years to 200 years old and use the level of maths a child can do.

External Material Nylon Fiber:

Fraying - I’ve had the wire the entirety of 2020 and I can tell you that I have no fraying at all with all my usage of it which is just about everyday.

Discoloration: I see little to no discoloration. I have the black Powerline + III, so that make make the hiding a tougher call

Staining: if I am understanding you correctly, do you mean like do I notice stains on the nylon material itself? No my cable is pretty clean.

Bending: it holds up quite well. I have no problems with the wire being in a bad position constantly.

Additional:

The ends of the wire are although very durable they are fingerprint magnets. Something to consider, but it honesty doesn’t bother me.

I have a 1ft version of the Powerline + II

But it’s still holds up very well with usage and being that it’s 2ft smaller.

Also the ends of the wire are not fingerprint magnets. Just something to consider.

1 Like

I thought the same at first and still think the range could be refined, but give it a little research and time and you’ll soon be familiar with the range.
@Insider (post 5) is a great insight.

2 Likes

Awesome.
And great information @Insider that’s helped a lot.

2 Likes

Hope you find the answers you seek here in the forum :+1:

Thank you, this was really insightful.

Boom and @professor gives so much information I feel stupid, again. Lol. No seriously though he knows his… You used the phrase “making a long-term purchase”, not saying they aren’t high quality, because they are. I have over 20 Anker cables and I think 1 broke, maybe even this cable, it has the Nylon Braiding you were referring to, has starting fraying at the end after years of abuse, not use, abuse lol, but it works just fine! Also know that Anker honors their warranties, as long as when you purchase the item it’s from AnkerDirect, they’ll cover whatever the warranty says, they are awesome. So if I were you I wouldn’t think of a simple cable purchase as a “long-term”/thing to worry about. Anyway. Good luck!

1 Like

I really appreciate your effort in trying to share wisdom and knowledge, and yes, I can catch onto most of the calculations and general concept of energy consumption. Thank you.
In all honesty, I am on the lookout for personal experiences with cables and their thoughts on a product’s qualitative characteristics like what Daniel shared with his Powerline + III cable–to gauge product features and how they hold up to the promised descriptions.

Thanks~!

You guys have been instrumental in helping me narrow and decide between the Powerline cables! Thank you! If possible, I will give updates on what I purchase, but in the meantime, it just now comes down to personal preference and thought now. From here on, it’s a mental battle.

@professor At the current moment, I won’t be purchasing an USB meter–yet–but I will look forward to investing in one in the near future.

1 Like

It really just depends on what ends you want/need and the power your device can handle and the power being pushed through your cable. In a very general sense C-C is the fastest. A 3.1-C, A3.0-C, are all going to be faster than A-Micro and wirless will always be slow.
That’s what we do here, look out for each other! Welcome! I hope to hear what you decide on!

1 Like

Well then, that means you don’t actually care about warranty.

How do you know an Anker Powerline cable is not working well unless you can measure it?

Before there is visual evidence, there will be measurable electrical evidence.

So it is an imbalanced decision to believe in warranty so you can resolve faults, and yet not be able to test for faults.

That would be like there’s a warranty for car brakes and yet you never do the odd quiet road emergency stop test to find out if you need a warranty claim.

I’ve never had an Anker cable fail on me, but I do have some now not needed. I’d be very cautious making a mental gymnastic justification to pay any extra $ on a cable. Save the $ and buy a USB meter instead.

Prices fluctuate so much, at any particular time, a cable tested to a higher claimed bend test, may be lower cost.

I bought some C-L cables this last week, for an iPhone XR, I need 3 cables to get used in 3 regular spots. Suppose each cable was used once a day, so each cable is bent twice a day. I reckon the Lightning port’s insanely stupid existence was finally killed off in the next generation and the phone was used for 2 years. Means the cable is bent 2x2x365= 1460. That means the Powerline III cable is over-engineered by a factor of 17. So you see why if say the Poweline II cable, which is over-engineered by factor of 8 is, was a little cheaper, then absolutely fine safe decision. 2 years from now I’ll probably not need all 3 of the cables, so I’ll test them all and use each in the best fit context on performance.

An old video but it shows how someone could test these thoroughly, if you wanted to, mentions and recommends Anker from 5 years ago.

2 Likes

Which USB meters do you recommend for USB-A and USB-C ports?

The ones I own I don’t recommend, I’d just be forwarding someone else’s recommendation. Being honest. You need one which does Wh, mine only measure V and A so I can find bad cables but not measure efficiency and with PD it’s much more about efficiency.

@wanderr @professor
A quick scan on Amazon returned this but it looks like A only.
I’m interested in getting a meter but it’s a minefield out there.
If either of you find anything that ticks all the boxes tag me in!
I’ll do the same in return.

WOVELOT 12 in 1 USB Tester Dc Digital Voltmeter Voltage Current Meter Ammeter Detector Power Bank Charger Indicator Blue Shell White Backlight

This looks ok, not so keen on the price though @wanderr @professor

UM34C USB Tester Power Meter USB Voltage Tester Current with Bluetooth USB Voltmeter Ammeter Multimeter Tester, 1.44 Inch Color LCD Display USB 3.0 Type- C Cable Resistance Load Impedance Meter

That’s one of the better reviewed.

As I don’t personally own, I can’t recommend, if I tried I’d simply be scanning reviews like you can and you’d get a false sense of confidence from my recommendation.

You’ll just have to make the best choice from reviews and let us know how it goes.

I’m still ploughing through these. This section explains why you want higher voltage over longer cables.

This one derives Ohm’s law from atomic structure and then shows why bad cables should be avoided.

The meters I have can detect resistance in the cable. The challenge is USB PD sends data so if I don’t get a USB PD meter it won’t work.


1 Like

@Insider @TechMan

We’re stuck reading tea leaves when Anker should provide us with this information. Say, a matrix on the Anker site as well as the Amazon product pages comparing the features and functionality of the different cables. Or a wizard that customers could walk through, where they’re asked questions about their specific goals. Or an FAQ, for goodness sake.

All the money we spend on Anker products, all our customer loyalty – and Anker effectively sends the message that they’d rather befuddle users into buying the latest and most expensive items. Seriously. I see no other explanation, when I look at all the posts over the years on the Anker forum and other sites from consumers simply trying to make informed purchase choices

If anyone on this thread either has a line to Anker employees, or a following on Twitter or other sites, I urge you to raise this issue.

I appreciate the deep dives and thoughtful conversation on this thread – thank you! I came here trying to understand:

(1) If I should get the powerline II or III for all purpose cables, use with Android cell phones, Mac laptops, and Chromebooks.

(2) If there’s a difference in data transfer for USB-C to USB-A among the powerline versions. Specifically, I need to connect a monitor that uses USB-C to a mac desktop that only has USB-A ports, and I want to avoid latency with items plugged into the monitor: the web cam, keyboard, and mouse .

(3) If there’s a potential latency issue in the above USB-C to USB-A scenario if I use a long cable, say 10ft vs 6ft.

2 Likes

All Anker cables are good.

Rule 1: So just buy the lowest cost Anker cable at the time of the length and type you want. Don’t believe any hype, the need of the cable will expire before the cable is worn with Anker cables. Example, 12000 bend wear cable, use cable twice a day, two bends each use, 4 bends a day = 8 years. So a 30000 bend wear cable is way over the top over-engineered. The port type and the protocol will die before the cable dies even for the basic Anker cable.

Rule 2: Shorter is better, more efficient. More so for the lower voltage 5V type protocols (e.g. more so for the USB-A to Lightning cables) and less of an issue for higher voltage 9V, 12V, 15V, 20V USB-PD (e.g. most Android newer phones).

Rule 3: Consider desk chargers over wall chargers so the USB cables are shorter, more so if you have the lower voltage protocols. The desk charger has a 110V-230V C8 cord to get long distance efficiently so shorter USB cables can be more efficient.

Rule 4: Buy a Powercore. It makes everything become much less important. If you get a Powercore, even a small one, the cost is low around $10-$30 depending on size, and to a degree smaller is better it is with you all the time so you can use it more often. Then your phone is never flat anyway, and so you’re never in battery angst, never needing a fast recharge from the wall socket. People with a Powercore can get by with any charger, any cable, as a result.

Rule 5: All things Apple are technically inferior and make anything Anker specific irrelevant. Apple has technically inferior charging technology, they are lower Wattage, so the power losses in the cables are lower. Your most important decision is to ditch anything Apple, more important decision than choice of Anker cable.

3 Likes

I’ve found that braided cords, no matter which brand, last longer than the rubber usb cords. The rubber cords tend to start tearing away from the connector within a year, no matter which device you have - Apple or Android.