Just got my 3 meter one in the mail. Bought it because it's literally the only Thunderbolt 4 cable available longer than ~2 meters, which is not long enough to reach from where I have my TB4 dock to the computer. I have been using a supposedly "premium" 3 meter TB3 cable in the mean time, and it sucked. The dock would disconnect and Windows wouldn't see any connected devices unless I restarted (even if I unplugged and plugged everything back in). Problem completely went away with this new cable. Worth the price.
I have bought two of these cables now and in both cases the use of such a high quality cable has fixed really annoying problems that I was having with other 'expensive' TB4 cables - first problem was periodic glitching connecting a Mac mini M1 to a 5k2k monitor at 72Khz - and the second problem was connecting a MacBook Pro to a doc about 2m away supporting multiple devices and a 10GbE adapter - different problems with this setup on most days - put up with them for a about 6 months - then bought this cable - has been perfect ever since. I'm convinced.
Is there any difference between this cable and the previous version Apple Thunderbolt 3 pro cable? Every statistic is identical…only difference I can tell is 1.8m vs 2m.
yup they abandoned fiber optic spec, and it is for a Good Reason. "People are sloppy when handling cable" they bend it, stretch it, pinch it. if we put fiber spec on that, it will break on first week use.
Good shielding but are the wires any larger diameter than cheaper cables? Are these the same chips in Apple's other cables? Why not do some performance tests before tearing down? (If in another video, link to it.) I think it's crazy that so many cables don't have strain relief that limits the bend radius at the connector. We all know that's where the majority of cables fail.
Watched 2024 videoby Savage, they used xray on apple thunderbolt. There are some as good, less expensive but how would you know? $3? I'm staying away from. 5:39 I like this review because he cut inside others to expose lack of signal management, and even lack of thunderbolt specific wiring. I guess there are brands with same high standard. Just have to do the search.
It be interesting to compare to a cheap 3rd party; but Thunderbolt 4 certified cable and basic USB-C. I'm going to look for it in your other videos after this comment. 🙂
Why do they put the pcb in the cable and not like .5 inches away in the thunderbolt devices? Just curious. This explains why these cables are so pricey
Thanks ChargerLab for this tear down of the very expensive APPLE TB 4 cable. Very obvious is that the APPLE TB 4 cable is of a very high quality, they even used brass with double welding to ensure connector stability. The cable insulating and shielding are over-engineered for optimal use. This APPLE TB 4 cable is sold as an after-market product unlike the DELL TB cable that you uploaded later. The individual cables are made up of many silver-coated and tin-coated copper wires which have excellent signal transmission capabilities. The individual strands of cables are also much thicker than that for the DELL TB cable. Most likely that this APPLE TB 4 cable will perform much much better than other 3rd party TB cables including the DELL TB as per specifications and will be useable with a longer lifespan and durability with its quality construction. If anyone need just one TB cable, it’s cost effective to just buy one APPLE TB 4 cable that perform to specs and last longer than to buy many lower quality TB cables that will fail, have intermittent signal transmission faults and will not last long. With this tear down, it is justifiable for APPLE to charge more. Great video
If I buy that Intel chip from Mouser, 2500pcs at a time, they are $4.44ea. That's retail pricing. So, all the other stuff are pennies really, so why does it cost as much as it does?
Bro, I got a question, yerterfay I purchased an iphone 13 pro max, but I was wondering if I can charge this Phone with a 25 watts charger, I know that it can support a 30 watts charger, don't know if that is gonna harm the battery. Thanks man.
Optical fibers are far too delicate for a cable sold to the general public. There are very bendable optical cables out there, but they are incredibly expensive.
How do you know a cable can carry 45w charging...or 60...or 100 or 240w. Does the cable have lanes for alt mode at all (displayport, usb 3.2 gen 2x2 etc) or is it as stupid as an old usb2 cable? Does it have shielding for dp1.4? Or capabilities of tb3? That is why type c needs a chip. Not all cables need one but if you start using alt mode you definetly do. To identify capabilities if you start using functions which not the cheapest cables will ever be able to do
Once u go over a metre you _need_ the *active* retimer chips, Amazon: Apple Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable 1.8m ($127 incl ship) Zeskit Certified Thunderbolt 4 Cable 40Gbps 100W Active 1.5m ($53 incl ship)
Usb4 is just usb 3.2 (all gen abrivations) + thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 4 is just a higher set of minimum requirements of thunderbolt 3 + some security (which can also exist on usb4/tb3 devices) Usb-c already require a chip for many things. Not sure where the line goes, if it is already at usb 2 speeds or 5/10 gigabit with only 5v 500ma/1a which don't require a chip. But i believe if you want displayport through it needs one, or charging etc
And daughter like because this video is cool and you spend so much money on this cable and it would be hard for you to cut it off so to pay tribute to that I also dropped a like
my cat chewed the end of the thunderbolt cable on my dell dock, the other end is proprietary and will take $200 to get a replacement cable. I'm considering, stripping away the sheathing and realigning the 24 wires and sealing it shut.
@@admiraladmirably are you stupid? Why wouldn’t you want the best of everything in a super expensive cable like this? Especially when you can get everything with a $30 cable matters cable
Not coax cables or wires. Simply shielded. Coaxial cable consists of "an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a protective outer sheath or jacket. The term coaxial refers to the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric axis. Coaxial cable is a type of transmission line, used to carry high-frequency electrical signals with low losses." -- Wikipedia
Yeah. Exactly. This cable is nothing like a coaxial cable. Coax is always a single conductor with a shield and insulation. Cable/Antenna cables as a good example.
There're 19 wires inside this cable. And four pairs of differential signal wires and two wires for USB2.0 transmission (a total of 10) adopt the coaxial cable design. We've confirmed this.
@@ChargerLAB But in the video when you say "It's a coaxial cable with 19 wires" it's not. It's a cable with 19 conductors. Some of those may be micro-coax, but the overall cable is not. I can't tell clearly from the video how those coaxial cables are terminated, but looks like all the shields share the ground plane. Interesting to see a differential pair using 2 coaxial lines. I would have expected twinaxial instead, like 100Gb ethernet is doing. That said it's still way too expensive.
Excellent video. This connector could be made out of solid platinum and it still won't stop the iHaters and trolls whining that they can buy a Chinese knockoff version for $5.
Ok, great, I get that this is a tear down video, but what I really want to know is … “does it deliver performance?” I’ve been reading that MacOS has trouble delivering MAX thunderbolt performance. I would ❤️ love ❤️ to see this confirmed!
I read the Apple Silicon Mac are having issues on delivering full thunderbolt performance, but old Intel Mac work just fine. I hope it is something fixable by a software update.
The cable is good for delivery what is put through it from one device to another avoiding losses and crosstalk. It’s up to the computer it’s plugged into and accessories attached to bring high performance. A good cable should be like it doesn’t exist as far as other components in the chain are concerned, meaning that it should not add or take away any qualities from the devices it’s linking together.
I'm pretty sure this cable has about 1,000 times the processing power of the Apollo moon landing capsule control computer
@Hugohopser I think it was a joke
the lightning to 3.5mm adapter is though
Those hand-made magnet N-gates didn't age well, aren't they.
What moon landing?
I think it’s a bit unfair to compare an ASIC to a pretty general purpose computer, but your point still stands.
Unbelievable what they put in cable nowadays.
Just got my 3 meter one in the mail. Bought it because it's literally the only Thunderbolt 4 cable available longer than ~2 meters, which is not long enough to reach from where I have my TB4 dock to the computer. I have been using a supposedly "premium" 3 meter TB3 cable in the mean time, and it sucked. The dock would disconnect and Windows wouldn't see any connected devices unless I restarted (even if I unplugged and plugged everything back in). Problem completely went away with this new cable. Worth the price.
Glad to hear.
We've also took apart 3m version: th-cam.com/video/7P8Rgrs51yg/w-d-xo.html
Bro what did you expect when you're trying to use ultra high bandwith cable that is way to long. You loose bandwith.
I have bought two of these cables now and in both cases the use of such a high quality cable has fixed really annoying problems that I was having with other 'expensive' TB4 cables - first problem was periodic glitching connecting a Mac mini M1 to a 5k2k monitor at 72Khz - and the second problem was connecting a MacBook Pro to a doc about 2m away supporting multiple devices and a 10GbE adapter - different problems with this setup on most days - put up with them for a about 6 months - then bought this cable - has been perfect ever since. I'm convinced.
Finally, I am convinced that the cable can be that much expensive.
Wait till you know about 1000$ audiophile snake oil power cables.
@@cockroach9694 thats really cheap for a snake oil cable. Some can cost well over $10k
@@Spencer067 yeah the abyss cables can go up to that
This is probably one of the most complex cables I have seen in consumer electronics
Seems to be a good audio cable if you need type c because of the shielding
You are thinking analog audio which is very different from digital.
I love your videos. Great videos. You are really passionate about what you do. Hope one day - Apple hires you.
Even the charger board is still beautiful.
Exactly the video I was looking for!
Wow fabulous video, jaw dropping complications!
How does this compare to OWC thunderbolt 4 ?
I've heard there are issues using cables longer than 3 feet I think for egpu's due to data loss, could this cable be used for an egpu?
Crazy expensive but it actually fixed thy TB4 power delivery problems I was having between my laptop and LG UltraWide monitor
Nice teardown video
Is there any difference between this cable and the previous version Apple Thunderbolt 3 pro cable? Every statistic is identical…only difference I can tell is 1.8m vs 2m.
This one is "new" and uses highly optimised copper dug at moon. Thats only reason for its price. I would never pay 100$ for a single cable.
Shame they abandoned the fiber optic spec for thunderbolt, I wonder how much faster it could have gotten if PD wasn’t a concern
Of course 1 optic cable much 100x times faster than many copper
@@ayyioad9467 yeah but optic fiber is super fragile and can't be curled
yup they abandoned fiber optic spec, and it is for a Good Reason.
"People are sloppy when handling cable"
they bend it, stretch it, pinch it.
if we put fiber spec on that, it will break on first week use.
apple puts every metal they can found on the periodic table of element into this wire
Good shielding but are the wires any larger diameter than cheaper cables? Are these the same chips in Apple's other cables? Why not do some performance tests before tearing down? (If in another video, link to it.) I think it's crazy that so many cables don't have strain relief that limits the bend radius at the connector. We all know that's where the majority of cables fail.
The strain-relief on Apple cables has been internalized within the end caps for about two years now.
Any difference between cheaper th4 cable?
Is the one meter version also active from Apple?
Yes
This is a so cool!!! Thank you for the awesome video. I absolutely love this kind of video
Thanks for the review! Succinct with no fluff. Love it!
Thank you for chapters
Thank you for 50FPS
Watched 2024 videoby Savage, they used xray on apple thunderbolt. There are some as good, less expensive but how would you know? $3? I'm staying away from. 5:39 I like this review because he cut inside others to expose lack of signal management, and even lack of thunderbolt specific wiring. I guess there are brands with same high standard. Just have to do the search.
It be interesting to compare to a cheap 3rd party; but Thunderbolt 4 certified cable and basic USB-C. I'm going to look for it in your other videos after this comment. 🙂
Can you take apart an original Xiaomi 120w cable and an essager 120w usb a to c cable?
Can you tell whai is the function of crystal
2:39 from when copper have silver colour ?
tinned copper wire, not silver copper.
Great Information on this channel. 👍👍
Why do they put the pcb in the cable and not like .5 inches away in the thunderbolt devices? Just curious. This explains why these cables are so pricey
They are in both. It’s unnecessary for short cables though.
Awsome construction.
So can this be used as a normal charging cable too?
Yes, definitely.
Yes, it is backwards compatible with USB 2 so even basic devices with usbc can use it
Yes, but it's overkill. 5A cables are available for way cheaper
Yea but an expensive one
Now you see again the quality of Apple ❤
it`s Great Teardown! very Good
Sunderbolt?
А на этот кабель можно установить Windows10? ...
Thanks ChargerLab for this tear down of the very expensive APPLE TB 4 cable. Very obvious is that the APPLE TB 4 cable is of a very high quality, they even used brass with double welding to ensure connector stability. The cable insulating and shielding are over-engineered for optimal use. This APPLE TB 4 cable is sold as an after-market product unlike the DELL TB cable that you uploaded later. The individual cables are made up of many silver-coated and tin-coated copper wires which have excellent signal transmission capabilities. The individual strands of cables are also much thicker than that for the DELL TB cable. Most likely that this APPLE TB 4 cable will perform much much better than other 3rd party TB cables including the DELL TB as per specifications and will be useable with a longer lifespan and durability with its quality construction. If anyone need just one TB cable, it’s cost effective to just buy one APPLE TB 4 cable that perform to specs and last longer than to buy many lower quality TB cables that will fail, have intermittent signal transmission faults and will not last long. With this tear down, it is justifiable for APPLE to charge more. Great video
l love this channel
can u do a cheaper Aliexprees thunderblot cable teardown? and compare to this standard apple cable?
Maxonar TB4 cable work fine.
If I buy that Intel chip from Mouser, 2500pcs at a time, they are $4.44ea. That's retail pricing. So, all the other stuff are pennies really, so why does it cost as much as it does?
Apple saying, after your purchase you can't access the memory, this man accessing even Apple's conscience 😵💫
Bro, I got a question, yerterfay I purchased an iphone 13 pro max, but I was wondering if I can charge this Phone with a 25 watts charger, I know that it can support a 30 watts charger, don't know if that is gonna harm the battery. Thanks man.
No it wont harm the battery, ios has charge limiters to stop over power charge.
ill stick with my beastly $1 cable
great teardown.
Perfect! thanks
USB-IF certification?
Better label as 4, Apple cable only has thunderbolt symbol. Thunderbolt 5 is out on some M4 series Mac mini.
I bought one and compared it with my Acacis Thunderbolt cable. The speed is exaclty the same for a lot less money.
nice teardown , but why they don't use tow copper wire for power and one or two optical fiber for data transfer , I think they will obtain more speed.
Maybe durability?
Optical fibers are far too delicate for a cable sold to the general public. There are very bendable optical cables out there, but they are incredibly expensive.
damn... integrated circuits in connectors? Why not in the devices themselves?
Space issues as always in this world of making devices thinner and dic*s thicker
How do you know a cable can carry 45w charging...or 60...or 100 or 240w. Does the cable have lanes for alt mode at all (displayport, usb 3.2 gen 2x2 etc) or is it as stupid as an old usb2 cable? Does it have shielding for dp1.4? Or capabilities of tb3?
That is why type c needs a chip. Not all cables need one but if you start using alt mode you definetly do. To identify capabilities if you start using functions which not the cheapest cables will ever be able to do
They already do. But decent signal integrity is harder to guarantee going through connectors, and even harder going through a long cable.
Well, that was enlightening.
Once u go over a metre you _need_ the *active* retimer chips, Amazon:
Apple Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable 1.8m ($127 incl ship)
Zeskit Certified Thunderbolt 4 Cable 40Gbps 100W Active 1.5m ($53 incl ship)
Very nice video, TNX.
Can you run minecraft on this??
This is an educational video for China to make a good copy of the cable
so eco friendly mr appol
My heart crying at 1:43
😜
thank you
You are good man.
And the data transfer speed is USB 2.0? Or do I need to get a 1TB smartphone pro to the ultimate MAXXX
Thank you for your sucrefice for science
Oh Wow
Future is here
Tip clearly says BC1782, not BC1762 as stated in the narration.
A wonderful vid
Makes me wonder if USB4 will have chip hardware in the cable.
Wait is this cable usb4 compliant?
*confusion increases*
Usb4 is just usb 3.2 (all gen abrivations) + thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt 4 is just a higher set of minimum requirements of thunderbolt 3 + some security (which can also exist on usb4/tb3 devices)
Usb-c already require a chip for many things. Not sure where the line goes, if it is already at usb 2 speeds or 5/10 gigabit with only 5v 500ma/1a which don't require a chip.
But i believe if you want displayport through it needs one, or charging etc
@@Infigo96 I don't think USBC charging needs a chip
@@Infigo96 it's negotiated by the charge controller on the device
"iFixit repairability score of -10"
"We can see why this cable is so expensive"
No, we can't! You can't say something like that without comparing to *any* other cable.
It’s not his fault you don’t have any knowledge about cables
@@Dr.Bernardo imagine defending a brand for free
19 wires...! damn that cable is gonna be expensive...
I love how apple can make great cables but not iphone ports
4:30 - looks more like BC1782 to me but ok
It's 1762, we've confirmed this.
Imagine cutting $130 cable
Imagine buying one..
@@itsd2388 ahh yess money spent well (i guess)
@@itsd2388 for high-end case use sure
And daughter like because this video is cool and you spend so much money on this cable and it would be hard for you to cut it off so to pay tribute to that I also dropped a like
Who else here is watching this video to minimize buyer’s remorse? 😂
my cat chewed the end of the thunderbolt cable on my dell dock, the other end is proprietary and will take $200 to get a replacement cable. I'm considering, stripping away the sheathing and realigning the 24 wires and sealing it shut.
Looks just like any other cable only costs $130 and doesn’t even do 240w like a $30 thunderbolt cable from cable matters
Who tf would use such a cable for charging 🤦♂️
@@admiraladmirably are you stupid? Why wouldn’t you want the best of everything in a super expensive cable like this? Especially when you can get everything with a $30 cable matters cable
Thank you for your service! -A humble copycat IP infringer somewhere in China
Could you tell me the background song @ChargerLab
dog chewing resistance?
you just wasted a good cable!!!!!!! :) thanks fir the demo, very informative
надо было написать сколько чипы стоят
This cost , 10usd at most!
But good job...
10usd?? You wont get bssic chinese type c cable at that price bro
“Most expensive cable”
Random fucking “high performance” HDMI cables from best buy entered the chat
now this is whats worth those prices
Not coax cables or wires. Simply shielded. Coaxial cable consists of "an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a protective outer sheath or jacket. The term coaxial refers to the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric axis. Coaxial cable is a type of transmission line, used to carry high-frequency electrical signals with low losses." -- Wikipedia
Yeah. Exactly. This cable is nothing like a coaxial cable. Coax is always a single conductor with a shield and insulation. Cable/Antenna cables as a good example.
There're 19 wires inside this cable.
And four pairs of differential signal wires and two wires for USB2.0 transmission (a total of 10) adopt the coaxial cable design.
We've confirmed this.
@@ChargerLAB But in the video when you say "It's a coaxial cable with 19 wires" it's not.
It's a cable with 19 conductors. Some of those may be micro-coax, but the overall cable is not. I can't tell clearly from the video how those coaxial cables are terminated, but looks like all the shields share the ground plane.
Interesting to see a differential pair using 2 coaxial lines. I would have expected twinaxial instead, like 100Gb ethernet is doing.
That said it's still way too expensive.
It is 10 coaxial cables in one shell. A single cable that replaces the whole cable channel full of coaxials. Amazing engineering!
Thankyou for your hardwork
Guey vengo de reddit bro buen video eh
Excellent video. This connector could be made out of solid platinum and it still won't stop the iHaters and trolls whining that they can buy a Chinese knockoff version for $5.
Snake oil audiophile cable says otherwise
dude brutally murdered the $160 cable );
There will be no simple device as cable.
Apple Company: Not anymore.
its a shame that this cable was not produce dinto 2 meter format, only 1.8 and 3 meters
„Sunbold“ 😂😂😂
Soon cables will have cameras an microphones.
🤣
Ok, great, I get that this is a tear down video, but what I really want to know is … “does it deliver performance?” I’ve been reading that MacOS has trouble delivering MAX thunderbolt performance. I would ❤️ love ❤️ to see this confirmed!
I read the Apple Silicon Mac are having issues on delivering full thunderbolt performance, but old Intel Mac work just fine. I hope it is something fixable by a software update.
The cable is good for delivery what is put through it from one device to another avoiding losses and crosstalk. It’s up to the computer it’s plugged into and accessories attached to bring high performance. A good cable should be like it doesn’t exist as far as other components in the chain are concerned, meaning that it should not add or take away any qualities from the devices it’s linking together.
Some chinese startups: "I can make that cheaper!"
That shit can turn on vga for sure
fascinating
still worth $50 max