Tech

Tired of your iPhone cable breaking? Here's an indestructible replacement

After months of hard testing and abuse, I've discovered the one iPhone cable to rule them all. If you're tired of broken cables, this is the one for you.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor July 2, 2016 at 4:22 a.m. PT

Is it me, or do cables just not last as long as they used to? I remember when the charging cable you got with a phone or other device would outlast the device. Now they don't even outlast the warranty.

Apple's Lightning connector hasn't been out for four years yet, but in that time I have gone through almost a dozen cables.

Apple's own cables are the worst, barely lasting six months before the coating deteriorates and the cable starts breaking at the strain relief. In fact, Apple has such a serious quality control issue with its cables right now that I don't recommend them anymore. It's OK if you have an Apple store on your doorstep and you have the time to futz about taking them back under warranty every few months, but I don't have time for that sort of hassle.

At the beginning of this year I set out on a mission - and that mission was to find an iPhone cable that was tough enough to put up with day-to-day abuse without falling apart, and after months of testing cables from a variety of makers such as Amazon, Anker, Griffin, and Monoprice (as well as several from no-name suppliers that I found on eBay), I'm now ready to unveil the survivor - the MOS Spring.

Why is the MOS Spring the winner? Well, not only is it still working - and of all the cables I tested, only the Amazon and Monoprice are still working, although both have started to break at the connector - the MOS Spring still looks likes new.

Tired of your iPhone cable breaking? Here's an indestructible replacement

And let me make it clear, this thing has seen a lot of abuse. It's been trodden on, rolled over by office chairs, left in a car to bake in the sun, twisted, thrown, left out in the rain, and it even got mangled in the mechanism of my La-Z-Boy recliner and it still survived.

But all that's just normal abuse. I've also actually tried breaking it by yanking on the cable when I disconnect it from my iPhone rather than pulling the connector, tying knots in it and pulling as hard as I can, and slamming it in doors and drawers.

This thing just won't die!

MOS Spring cables come with a Lightning or microUSB connector in 1, 3, 6 and 10 foot lengths, and in a choice of white or dark grey.