Under a thousand: Wired for speed…charging speed

The cable has a tiny LED screen (Express Photo)

Fast charging is cool, but how do we know if it is working

All of which is wonderful. But there is a catch – there is actually no straightforward way of finding out actually HOW fast your device is being powered up by a charger. Unless you are willing to fiddle around with settings and/or download apps, you generally cannot find out the speed at which a charger is juicing up your gadget. This can make things a little tricky when you invest in a third-party charger or use a charger to power up different devices.

An innovation that has sprung up to address this issue is charging cables that have tiny LCDs that display the speed at which a device is being charged. However, many of these come from relatively less-known brands and are not considered very reliable. The ones that come from established brands often tend to be on the expensive side.

USB-C connectors at both ends are gold plated (Express Photo)

A cable that charges and shows you just how fast!

Which is why we are very impressed with the Type-C to Type-C PD 100W cable with a digital display from USAMS, which is a reasonably well-known accessory brand. As its name indicates, this is a Type-C to Type-C cable and on one of its ends, just next to the connector is a tiny display that will show the charging speed of the device attached to the cable. It is about 4 feet in length and is made of braided nylon, giving it a flexible yet solid feel. It is unlikely to get physically damaged easily, and sports a transparent look behind the tiny display, displaying circuits, and giving us such Nothing feels. And it is generally available at a price in the range of Rs 900-950, which is not exactly super cheap but is significantly more affordable than other cables.

And it certainly seemed to work just fine in the week or so we have been using it. We used the cable with chargers from OnePlus, Spigen and Xiaomi and got fairly accurate readings, whether we were charging our MacBook Air, iPad, iPhone and Android devices. Of course, the rate of charging keeps fluctuating, so you also get an idea of how long a device actually charges at a certain rate – a 100W charger will not ALWAYS keep charging a supported device at 100W. Similarly, some devices might charge at slower speeds. And it worked just as well with power banks too, reflecting the high charging speeds from the Stuffcool Mega (33W) and the Ambrane 60W power bank as compared to ‘regular’ power banks which charged at 10W or less. In keeping with its rating, it was not able to read charging speeds above 100W – a 120W charger was shown at 100W occasionally. And while the main reason for purchasing this cable would be that display, it can also transfer data between two devices at up to 480 Mbps. The zinc alloy connectors at both ends of the cable fit snugly into the Type-C ports of devices and have a comforting weight and metallic feel to them.

It can charge most devices with a USB-C port, including the iPhone 15 series (Express Photo)

Gadget charging speed demon? Wire up!

It is not only built solidly, but at about 4 feet (1.2 meters), it is of just the right length too. It is not too long to be a tangle, just about long enough to reach power outlets below one’s table comfortably, and convenient enough to be used on the table itself to connect different devices to each other. It transfers data swiftly and from our experience, seems to be able to display charging speeds with reasonable accuracy – the readings we got on the cable were pretty much in line with those we got from apps that track charging speed.

All of which makes the USAMS Type-C to Type-C PD 100W cable (sometimes sold under the Verilux brand name) at around Rs 950 a very good option for those who like to keep tabs on charging speeds. A year ago, it would have been of no use for iPhone users, but with the arrival of Type-C ports on the iPhone 15 series, this is pretty much THE cable for gadget charging speed demons on a tight budget!