Say what you want about Apple’s cables, but at least they fucking work.

You’d think Apple’s competitors would sell quality 100W Thunderbolt cables for a better price, but they’re often actually worse. Some companies don’t sell cables rated for more than 60W. Some only do charging, no high speed connectivity. Others sell cables that just don’t comply with the spec at all.

Getting good USB-C cables sucks ass. Your best bet is Amazon cables from brands you never heard of and keeping your fingers crossed when you plug them in for the first time. You’ve got to make sure the cable doesn’t heat up too, because a charger cable that lies about its capabilities can burn down your house.

Apple is one of the few major companies with a store you can bitch at that sells decent cables. That’s not a compliment to Apple, it shows how terrible every other large tech company is.

Lenovo charges $57.99 for a 2ft cable. Asus doesn’t sell cables. LG charges $54 for a “monitor cable” with no power delivery specs. Dell is cheap with only $39 for a 1.5ft cable, $53 for a 6ft cable, but that only goes up to thunderbolt 3; for those specs, Apple charges $39. There are legit use cases where Apple is the cheapest reliable option, and that shows how shitty the PC industry has become.

There are Thunderbolt 4 rates competitors, but their pricing isn’t that far off from Apple and it’s hard to tell how reliable they are because Amazon’s review system is broken, and most people only buy them to charge their phones anyway. Sitecom seems to sell cables for a bit less than Apple, but I only know Sitecom from shitty routers that stop working after two years, so I’m not sending 100W through that thing.