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Comment by darklion | Hacker News Reader

> USB-C cables are ludicrously cheap

Shitty USB-C cables are ludicrously cheap. Quality cables are merely not expensive, and when you have to replace them in quantity [1], it leads to a decent amount of money having to be spent to replace otherwise perfectly fine non-USB-C cables and a whole bunch of electronic waste as those now-obsolete cables make their way to the trash bin.

— [1] I easily have over a dozen and a half Lightning cables between the ones in my bedroom, my living room, my laptop bag, and my home desk. At ~$10-12 for a pair of braided Anker USB-C replacements, I’m looking at nearly a hundred dollars to replace them all.

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For charging, you don't need quality USB-C cables.

And don't tell me lightning is quality, I've seen my friends consume them by the dozen.

Certainly the Apple cables aren’t quality. Or perhaps the better word is durable. The jacketing on the cables is a joke and gets worn through by a swift breeze.

Third-party cables, for whatever connector, you get what you pay for. Is it a shame I have a good number of lightning cables that I will have no use for in the near future? Yes.

I also have countless other cables that I longer have use for. I still haven’t been able to fully remove micro-usb from my life but we’re getting close and I’m glad for it. It would be much nicer to only have one type of cable in my bag, that’s for sure.

10/2*15 = $75

And presumably you only have to replace them if you replace your phone? It's not like the change came in and you had to rush down the shops straight away for new cables.

I’m not sure how you got 10 from “a dozen and a half”; 18/212 = $108.

Also, to your second point, because of the EU, everybody* who currently uses Lightning will be replacing all of their cables eventually. That’s money out of pocket sooner or later. Maybe it’s easier to swallow when it’s $12 every three months instead of $100 all in one go, but the sum doesn’t change.

I got 15 from a dozen and a half because I'm stupid and halved half a dozen. 10 was the lower bounds price. Anyway, $108 on cables. We're not breaking the bank here. You'll probably get to keep those cables for quite a few years. The waste bothers me more. I'm still stoked to have a single charging cable standard though.

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