ToughTested Rugged Micro-USB Cable Review
Tough Tested Rugged Micro-USB Cable
We recently took a look at ToughTested’s Rugged Battery Pack, which includes a short 12inch standard micro-USB cable. For a rugged battery pack, you might want to purchase a rugged charging cable to go along with the Rugged Battery pack, plus a 12inch cable is pretty short to use while on the go. ToughTested has a line of Durable USB cables that would be a perfect match for their Rugged Battery Pack. Like most of ToughTested’s line, they do not have a wide range of Durable USB cables, this line is limited to just a few models, a micro-USB, Apple Lightning and Apple 30-pin. Let’s take a look at the Durable USB cable to see how well it is built.
Like most of ToughTested products they are packaged in bright orange packaging designed to draw attention to itself. The front goes over the basic such as the 5 year warranty, 6ft length, what it works with while showing off the cable and the cable tie. This durable USB cable has a retail price of $19.99, however you can find it online for $11.99 with free shipping. For those of you that use Apple devices, ToughTested has cables for you as well, a Lightning version is available for $20.97 with free shipping.
The ToughTested Durable USB Cable is pretty basic, it is fully braided from end to end which provides durability to the outershell. Under the braided layer is double layer of shielding which again provides additional durability. In addition to the cable, ToughTested provides a short cable management snap together loop that helps to keep the cable together.
The ends of the cable is where most people will run into issues with durability. Pulling cables out by the cable, bending, twisting and putting a strain on the cables at the end all leads to a shorter life span. ToughTested has run the reinforced shielding to the start of the connectors, under the heavy plastic end cap. Rather than going from the cable to the end cap cover, ToughTested has added a simple strain relief that should provide some additional flexibility, but still leaves a good place for the cable to bend and get pinched; nothing can really prevent this though. ToughTested says the strain relief will withstand up to 25lbs of pressure.
I gave this cable to my wife to test, she is extremely rough on micro-USB cables, she has gone through cables from Anker, Belkin, StarTech, Cables2Go, and many others. When ToughTested said they were confident their cable would outlast the others, I was of course skeptical. Most cables last barely a month, the longest lasting is the Anker PowerLine+ which lasted just about two months before it was having issues charging. She constantly uses her phone and tablet while charging putting a bend in the cable, sometimes with the cable going up the back of the phone from the bottom. While she hasn’t used the ToughTested Rugged Micro-USB cable for two months yet, after a month of heavy usage it still looks brand new, and the end of the micro-USB side is easily straightened. In fact, the previous picture was taken after a month of usage. Time will tell whether this cable survives my wife, if not, it does have a 5 year warranty.
For $11.99 with free shipping, the ToughTested Durable Micro-USB cable (part number TT-FC6-MICRO) seems to be a small but good investment for those that need to have a rugged cable. For you Apple people, you can get the Lightning version for $20.97 with shipping. ToughTested doesn’t offer a huge range of sub-models, the Durable USB cable is only provided in a 6ft length, if you happen to need longer you’ll have to look elsewhere for now.
Legit Bottom Line: While the ToughTested Rugged Micro-USB cable hasn’t gone through months of torture testing, after a month of heavy usage it still looks brand new, and isn’t showing any signs of fraying or issues.