Do you ever wonder why iPhone charging cords are so short? The 3-feet long iPhone charging cords make it hard for you to charge your phone AND use it at the same time, but did Apple it on purpose or is there another reason?
iPhone charging cables are short as most cables are used connected to a MacBook or iMac where a lot of Apple users charge their iPhones. Short cables save Apple money, the shorter the cable the less materials used, also longer cables are easier to damage since they tangle more often and they are easier to store.
Keep reading to understand more about my Apple uses short cables, and if short iPhone cables charge faster and how long should an iPhone cable be.
Why Apple Charging Cables Are Short
- Practicality: Most people have access to computers, laptops, and MacBooks for work or play every day. They end up charging their iPhones directly from these devices rather than an outlet. A long cable across a desk would be more mess than necessary, if you’ve ever used a 10ft cable you will know the pain
- Cost: A shorter cable costs less to manufacture than a longer cable due to fewer materials used. It means that shipping and manufacturing costs are significantly cheaper, saving Apple millions, also short cables are better for the environment.
- Damage Prevention:If you’ve used an electronic with a long cable (think a microphone cable) you know the pain of untangling a cable, a shorter cable tangles less is much easier to untangle and makes the cable last longer since it doesn’t get damaged constant entanglement
- Easier to store: A shorter cable is easier to store, a 10ft cable takes 5 times the space of a 2ft cable.
Do Short iPhone Cables Charge Faster?
Generally, short iPhone charging cables charge your iPhones faster as the voltage does not need to travel as far from the socket to the device. As a result, the current flow is quicker from Point A to Point B.
There are two primary factors affecting the speed of your charging cables:
- The length of the charging cable impacts the speed of charging. Electricity is similar to water; it needs to flow easily between Point A and Point B. If the distance is shorter, it will take less time for the current to pass from one point to the next.
- The width of the charging cable also impacts the speed of charging. Most charging cables are 28AWG. A thicker line will make the current flow easier due to more copper available inside the cable. Therefore, more voltage is allowed to pass through at a given time.
NOTE: The smaller the AWG size is for the charging cable, the wider the wire gauge is. If a charging cable is 10AWG, it would be thicker than a cable with 30AWG, making it charge slower.
It’s crucial to understand what cables you can and cannot use to correctly charge your iPhone. Read what you can use in my helpful article.
How Long Should an iPhone Charger Cable Be?
Apples standard iPhone charging cable is three feet long, but the company does offer a six-foot option. However your iPhones charging cable length should be decided on personal preference and what they want for the length, the longer the cable the slower the charge.
The length of your charging cable does affect the speed of your iPhone charge, the difference is not as big as you might think.
There is a difference of about 0.8 watts between the speed of a charge in a short cable and the charge rate in a long cable, barely a difference in charging time.
Note: This only applies if you use a high-quality charging cable from Apple, or a high quality third party cable from Amazon. Want to know more about charging your new iPhone? Please read my article about charging new iPhones.
When looking at the inside of the lightning connector, there are four different colored wires. The red and black wires are for the power from the plug socket, the white and green wires are for data transfer.
For example, moving songs and other data to an iPhone. These cables take up room in the charger, meaning that the charge may be slightly slower, but the performance may be better for the action you are carrying out.
My advice? Get the cable length you think will be the most practical for your life, not the one you think will charge faster, if you always charge your iPhone from a distance then get a longer cable, if you charge from your iPad or MacBook get a 3 foot charger.
Are you having problems with charging your iPhone? You may have a damaged charging port. Check out my article on whether iPhone charging ports can be repaired which includes the cost.