About the Apple USB-C to Lightning Cable

November 01, 2021 5 min read

Poor battery life is one of the drawbacks of many mobile devices, iPhone as well. Phones are all prone to running out of power at the exact wrong moment, especially when you are about to go out.

Check out your iPhone charging cable. Which type of USB connector does it have? Maybe USB-A. Actually, most iPhones utilized the Type A USB for its high-speed and reliable charging, in the old days. Nowadays, the scenario is a bit different to boost the charging speed even more.

You have a USB-C to Lightning cable to speed up the charging. You can survive from the 5 mins charging before leaving the house when only to find you are 20% battery left. Quick charge your iPhone 12 Pro Max from 20% to 55% using a charger up to 20W, right after you take a quick shower.

What is a USB-C to lightning cable?

Picture source: unsplash

Seems like a buzzword, right? Let me define it before heading to the main point of its use.

A charger consists of two parts.

· Adapter

· Cable

Now, if we talk about the cable, it has two ends. One end has a USB connector while the other end has a lightning connector.

Easy to define I suppose.

The USB-C to lightning cable has a USB type C connector at one end while lightning connector at the other end.

However, you should know that the lightning ends are slightly different, the lighting terminal is silvery white instead of golden yellow on all USB-C to lighting cables.

For faster charging, juice up 50% in just 30 minutes, use the USB-C to lightning charging cable with a higher watt charger (higher than 20W for iPhone).

*Length of the USB-C to lightning charging cable:

Confused about standard length?

The standard length of the official Apple USB-C to lightning cable is 2 meters— 6.6 feet.

You will get the USB C to Lightning cable when you purchase a new iPhone, iPad, iPad pro, AirPods and more.

Which is better?

USB-A to Lightning Cable vs USB-C to Lightning Cable

Picture source: unsplash

You must be thinking, why replace the USB-A to lightning cable with USB-C to Lightning cable? Am I right? We all know, we used USB Type-A to Lightning cables for decades, and you just get used to it when people say “lighting cables”.

However, USB type C has taken over due to the following major points.

a. Design and Shape

The USB-A connector has a non-reversible insertion only at the bottom of the USB port. Even the design is not so much cooler or slim in other words. Now, we have the upgraded design, features, and quality of charging with the type C USB. USB-C seems to have changed the game. Cover data transfer, speed, or boosting recharge speed, USB-C does this all. Along with these features, its user-friendliness makes it popular among famous tech giants. Therefore, Samsung, Google, and Microsoft are shifting to USB-C connectors. It is not surprising to see Apple choosing the USB-C port as an upgrade.

b. Data Transfer Speed

When it comes to data transfer between the devices, we can compare both cables. Usually, USB-C supports high data transfer rates. But when it comes to the lightning connector at the opposite end, the scenario is different. It can offer a data transfer rate of up to 480Mbps. It is still enough to transfer the huge files within minutes. The same scenario is true for USB-A to lightning ports. It also supports 480Mbps.

So, there is no difference in data transfer speeds available via lightning regardless of the cable or device it’s connected to.

Power Compatibility

c. Power Compatibility

To start with, you should know that charging wise the difference would be that it is hard to find higher than 12 watts USB A chargers.

Actually, the USB-A charging adapter that Apple usually provides in the box with iPhones and iPads is just a basic 5V 1A device, so that’s a maximum of 5W charging power, and less than a third of what the devices can handle. Moreover, 5W is a stable speed, the speed won’t change regardless of you charging with different devices.

The situation is reversed with USB-C charging adapters and USB C to Lightning cables. Most of these implements USB PD at 15W or above, and they mostly are USB-C adapters. So assuming your iPad or iPhone can use this power, these adapters will charge considerably faster than even a 10W USB-A adapter. This includes all the USB-C charging adapters provided with MacBooks and MacBook Pros, all of which will charge iPhones and iPad at 18W with a USB-C to Lightning cable.

But that shouldn't make that much of a difference on an iPhone, while iPads will probably benefit. That is to say, you can also use this cable with your Apple 18W, 20W, 29W, 30W, 61W, 87W,or 96W USB‑C Power Adapter to charge your iOS device and even take advantage of the fast-charging feature on select iPhone and iPad models. The charging speed of the same cable will differ when you use a higher or lower charger.

In all, USB C to Lightning cable wins in the long run.

P.S. For the Charger, the bottom line is to make sure you read the specs on the charging adapter that you’re buying to see what power it can provide, noting that this can be different for each port if it’s a multi-port adapter, such as there are both USB-A and USB-C port on the charger, the charging speed still might be different.

Which one is better?

USB-C to lightning charging cable is a clear-cut winner. Faster charging speed means you can save your time by hanging in there together with the wall charger, and free yourself anywhere you like. Go ahead. Purchase it from the uniAccessories with more advanced features.

How do I use a USB-C to lightning cable?

A simple process to involve in establishing the connection for USB-C to lightning cable. Here are some points that can help you understand the exact mechanism to operate and charge your devices.

Plugin your USB type C connector into the USB-C port in the Charging Adapter.
Next, you can insert a lightning connector into the device you want to charge.
Insert the adapter into the power switch and turn it on.

However, you might get confused when find the the right charger with different device with the same USB-C to Lightning Cable, since you can use this very same cable with your different Apple 18W, 20W, 29W, 30W, 61W, 87W, or 96W USB‑C Power Adapter to charge your iOS device.

* You can use any of the adapters listed below (make sure it comply with applicable safety standards) to charge your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or iPod, AirPods, AirPod Pro, Magic Mouse, and keyboard, Apple TV remote, and more with Lightning connector.

Device	Recommend Charging Adapter
iPhone 7P and earlier versioniPad Air 1/2/3, iPad mini 2/3/4/5th gen, iPad 2 / 5th gen/ 6th gen/ 7th geniPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st/2nd generation), iPad Pro (10.5'' / 9.7'')	5W / 10W / 12W USB Power Adapter
iPhone 8P and later version	18W / 20W USB-C Power Adapter(or higher watt)
iPad Pro 12.9 '' (3rd/4th generation), iPad Pro 11'' (1st/2nd generation)
iPad mini (6th generation), iPad (9th generation)iPad Pro 12.9'' (5th generation), iPad Pro 11'' (3rd generation)iPad (8th generation), iPad Air (4th generation)