I tested the viral ‘tangle-free’ USB-C cable, and its my new travel backpack essential

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Magtame cables are available for purchase from Amazon, with the 3.3-foot, 240W USB-C-to-USB-C cable selling for $17.50.
• The magnetic coiling makes it easy to pack and store the cable.
• They’re thicker than regular cables and, as such, can be cumbersome to manage in smaller spaces.

My laptop bag is a mess of tangled cables. I try to coil them neatly, but with everything from Raspberry Pi computers to toolkits being tossed in and pulled out, chaos inevitably takes over.

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The main culprit of my messy laptop bag is cables. I usually have a few USB-C cables and a MagSafe charging cable for my MacBook Pro, and too often, these have tangled into a big, messy ball that takes several minutes to untangle.

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And before you ask, yes, I do know how to roll cables up properly!

I stumbled upon “magnetic” cables recently that claim to use magnets to coil themselves automatically. It sounded too good to be true, but I decided to take a chance and bought a Magtame USB-C cable. And I’m glad I did.

Magtame offers a variety of cables, including 240W fast-charge USB-C-to-USB-C cables, more affordable 60W USB-C-to-USB-C options, USB-A-to-Lightning cables, and 2-in-1 USB cables with built-in adapters.

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For testing, I chose a 3.3-foot, 240W USB-C-to-USB-C cable, and it’s an impressive piece of hardware. The cable is thick yet flexible, with tough yet smooth nylon braiding. The connectors are high-quality, sturdy, and securely attached to the cable’s body.”

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The cable also features an E-Marker chip, which devices use to identify its maximum speed and current capacity, so it’s up to the task of carrying high loads. On the data front, the cable has a rated data transfer rate of 480Mbps, which is decent.

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But what separates this cable from the rest are the magnets built into the cable at regular intervals. These magnets seek out each other and automatically – I want to say magically – curl the cable up. You can easily make small coils.

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Or even larger loops for easier holding. The magnets are strong enough to hold the loops in place while being loose enough for you to unwind them easily.

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Naturally, I had a question related to heat: Would a curled–up cable carrying 100W+ of power get hot? I tested this a number of times under different loads, and while the cable would get warmer than the surroundings, it never became hot.

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ZDNET’s buying advice

It seems like a simple thing, but these curly, magnetically coiled cables are a game changer for anyone who has a lot of cables. My laptop bag is a lot more organized now that I have swapped out a handful of my old, most-used cables for Magtame cables<!–>. 

I bought these with very low expectations – after all, it’s just a coiling cable! But now, I can’t imagine not having them.

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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com