Ideal Cable Length

#1

Most of us use cables at least every day to reach from our chargers to our devices.

Short cables are sometimes best when you are using a power bank to charge your phone in your pocket (say 6” or so). Did you know that Anker sells cables these short? You can find the Lightning version here: https://goo.gl/Y6Cc3G
And the micro USB version here: https://goo.gl/pZg97D

Other times you need longer lengths, such as when charging your phone at night, where a cable anywhere from 3 feet to 2 meters may be necessary.

But sometimes you need an extremely long cable to reach distances far from the outlet. Perhaps you don’t have an Anker power bank handy, you’re in a hotel, there is not an outlet near your bed, but you want to use your phone in your bed. In cases like these, 10’ cables may become necessary.

But if you could only have one cable length, what would it be? There are obvious advantages and disadvantages for each. A 6” cable is not ideal for many situations, but a 10 foot cable is obnoxious for charging your phone via a power bank in your pocket. On the other hand, it isn’t to bad for inside as you can use a cable tie! For me, the ideal cable length is somewhere between 1m and 2m, as I rarely find myself using a cable longer than 2m, but I want to hear your opinions!

Let me know which length of cable you would choose if you could only have one!

Luckily, in real life, we can often have multiple lengths of cables. Fortunately, Anker has us all set to go and offers packs of micro USB cables in a variety of lengths!
This 5 pack offers all kinds of cable lengths!
https://goo.gl/RhPd2r
On the flip side, Apple charges a premium for 3rd party manufacturers to make their cables MFI certified, which explains why Anker doesn’t currently offer an equivalent for iPhone and iPads users. That said, Anker does offer very premium and durable cables at an affordable price, and you can get some of them in packs with multiple cables, just not all different lengths.

Thanks for reading and have a great day! Don’t forget to let me know which cable length you’d choose if you could only have one.

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#2

I’ve personally never required anything longer than the standard 3ft length, especially so since with a portable charger, you move the charging source (the portable charger) closer to you rather than using a long cable to reach the power source.

To get the cable shorter, in most cases I will use a winding process I’ve been familiar with after playing bass guitar for ~37 years, no cable tie required. The guitar strings come packaged this way when they are new and removed from the packaging:

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#3

Someone needs to invent a cable that can stretch. Expand and contract. 1 cable for all.

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#4

@joshuad11 Nice write up. :slight_smile: I agree with you, when using a power bank, I prefer shorter cables. Mainly because I can stuff a variety of cable in a pouch/case, along with the power bank. Especially useful when I’m switching backpacks. It is nice that Anker gives us a variety of sizes to fit our needs.

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#5

I personally like the 10 foot cables and the 3 foot cables. I am constantly using my devices and seem to always be low on power so the 10 foot cable allows me to not be attatched to one spot constantly. Unless I am on the move then I use the Anker 10000QC with a 3 foot cable. I am not one to care about power loss which seems to be marginal anyways on different cable lengths. :grinning:

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#6

Was going to mention that. Looks like @nigelhealy did some testing for us!

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#7

Yeah I think that really only matters when you go camping or backpacking days at a time or you are OCD? :joy:. For the majority of individuals it doesn’t matter much. I am sure most people do not know about power loss from cables either.

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#8

Short cables, the price / quality had no discernible impact on performance.

Longer cables, there is a much more marked difference in performance. Longer cables seem to need to be thicker so you end up with diminishing returns with length where the longer cable is so thick its “all cable” which is nonsense usually.

I tend to pair:

  • shorter cables with Powercores as I tend to have the Powercore right next to my device or recharge it right next to a Powerport. I tend to use MicroB ended cables with the adapter to USB-C so one small volume cable which does my USB-C phone and my MicroB earbuds. So say a Powerport2, a 1ft MicroB USB cable, a USB-C adapter.
  • shorter cabled with the Powerport5,6,10 which have a long cable to the wall. This just reduces clutter
  • longer cables with the Powerport2,4 as these more often are further away from my devices.

I usually end up with 4 cables or so, say 2 short, 2 long. I have cables 6" to 6ft. The 6ft rarely leave the house because they are just huge, better to have a Powerport5 and a shorter USB cable.

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#9

Cable management using Anker PowerCore 10000 along with a 3ft PowerLine + cable (coiled loosely inside of the mesh bag that Anker includes with pretty much all PowerCores).

IMG_0630.JPG2448×3264 1.63 MB

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#10

That is exactly what I do. :joy: It works great and you do not need to carry an additional cable :wink:

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#11

Tough one.

When I have devices attached to my laptop I prefer 1 foot.

In my vehicle I need 3 feet to reach the phone for GPS purposes

Occasionally while mounting an action camera up high on a pole I run a 6-10 foot cable to a battery pack as short cable would make it too top heavy.

unfortunately if I only get to choose one I would have to choose a 6 footer with a cable tie.

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#12

You playing bass guitar for 37 year…!!! Wow, I really respect your passions.:heart_eyes:

#13

@joshuad11 Nice discussion post, if I only have one choice, I will pick up 10ft cables, cos it offer a length ready for every situation and I can use a cable tie to make it organized, I think is find for me!!:grin:

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#14

Do you ever have any plans on selling cable ties separately (or apparel) :heart_eyes:

#15

Don’t exactly have an ideal cable length as such as it depends on the function which the cable is being used for. I tend to lean towards the 0.1m (I think) lightning cable which came with one of my PowerCores for PowerCore use and two 6ft cables (micro USB and lightning) for socket use, as in the office they are few and far between the location of my desk.

#17

To be honest, not yet…hahaha :joy:

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#18

From all the different Anker cables I use the one which gets the most use is my 6ft cable, it simply gives me the best flexibility especially when travelling too, it’s great to have the option of a longer cable as you never know where the plug power point might be.

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#19

Have you ever metered the cable to know how well it performs?

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#20

6-10ft :slight_smile: