I understand the quality of USB cables can have a significant effect on their performance, including their effectiveness in transmitting current to charge batteries in tablets and laptops. It has been suggested that the cable supplied with my Cube 2-in-1 tablet, for charging via USB 2 micro C may not be as high as it could be. How can I tell? It looks OK to me ie. it is quite substantial, the heaviest gauge I have (and had).
It has made me wonder about some other cables I use which are very lightweight / thin, because they are the sort used in small retractable cassettes. I use them (a) because I have them and ( mainly because they help to reduce cable clutter. They are not used for charging but mainly for USB flash drives, and can work OK with an unpowered 7 drive USB Hub with all drives in use (in practice I dont use them that way). I have not used them for charging, but sometime I will try it out of curiosity. I have been surprised to discover how effective they are.
In contrast I have problems with an external USB HDD with two substantial USB cables for both power and data. Most of the time it does not work and to get it working I have to keep plugging / unplugging until the drive comes to life.
A final point, how good are the fairly new flat cables? I have one which seems OK for charging. In general are they better or worse than traditional cables?
Edited by clayto, 18 November 2016 - 01:48 PM.