Kinps 10-foot Lightning Cable Review

We purchased the Kinps 10-Foot Lighting Cable so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review.

Anyone living in an Apple-centric household with one or more devices surely has Lightning cables hanging around, but while Apple’s official cables typically do the trick, they’re short, pricier than the competition, and aren’t the most durable cables we’ve ever handled.

Luckily, the aforementioned competition is plentiful, and they’re battling it out to provide the third-party Lightning cable of choice. One such compelling option is from Kinps, which makes a Lightning-to-USB cable that is lengthy at 10 feet, more durable than some rivals thanks to its braided nylon exterior, and very well priced. If it holds up as well as Kinps suggests, this is sure to be one of the top Lightning cables around.

Design: It wears braids

There’s only so much you can do with a charging cable, but Kinps’ Lightning Cable at least does more than Apple’s ultra-minimal white cord. The nylon-wrapped cord makes it look more like a sleek hoodie drawstring than an everyday tech accessory, which not only adds to the durability but gives it a unique allure as well. The Lightning end of the cord is slim near the connector to ensure that it’s compatible with cases but expands a bit further down for an easier grip. Meanwhile, the USB-A side—which plugs into your power adapter (not included), computer, or wherever else—sticks with a plain, boxy approach.

Thankfully, you’re not limited to one color either. While our review cable was white, Kinps also sells it in black, silver, pink, and a bold red, providing a solid array of options that should pair well with many of the current iPhone colors on the market.

At 10 feet in length, it’s three times longer than Apple’s official cable. That provides a lot more flexibility in reaching faraway outlets, not to mention continuing to use your devices as they’re charging. With a cable like this, now you don’t have to sit right next to the wall charger. The downside, then, is that it’s a lot of cable to carry around, and it’s going to take up a lot more space in your pocket if you’re taking it on the go.

Durability and Build Quality: Built for a beating

Thanks to the tightly-wound nylon covering, the Kinps Lightning Cable purports to be dramatically more durable than most of its competition, promising a lifespan of more than 50,000 bends. Of course, if you don’t keep track of every time you bend and finagle the cord, then you’ll never really know whether it lives up to that claim. That said, if this cable survives at least a couple solid years of everyday usage, then we’ll be pleased.

In our testing, we brought the Kinps Lightning Cable along on a weeklong trip to Seoul, pulling it out during lengthy flights or whenever our iPhone XS Max was running low to provide a top-up. We’ve used it with wall chargers and portable battery packs alike, and also had it stashed in a backpack and in a pocket at various times. It didn’t disappoint in terms of build quality and didn’t seem weathered in any way from the long voyage.

Charging Speed: Just as expected

Our iPhone XS Max and iPad Air charged as quickly as normal using the Kinps Lightning Cable, as compared to the official Apple cables that shipped with each device. When used with the 5W iPhone charger or 12W iPad charger, the charging speeds felt entirely in line with what we’ve seen with other cords. In other words, it does exactly what it’s supposed to.

Kinps’ cable is Apple MFi-certified, which means it meets Apple’s stringent quality standards and is assured to work with all iOS devices. Non-certified cables will sometimes give you error messages when you try to charge, but we had no problem with the Kinps while charging multiple sets of iPhones, iPads, and AirPods.

Features and Accessories: Just the usual

The Kinps Lightning Cable doesn’t come with any additional accessories, such as a clip or case, and the feature set is the same as the official Apple cable: it’s designed to charge iOS devices, as well as connect them to a computer for data transfer. It doesn’t need to get any more complicated than that, and it doesn’t.

Price: It’s a stellar bargain

We’ve seen the Kinps 10-foot Lightning Cable on Amazon for anywhere between $9.33 and $10.99, and any point on that price spectrum is a pretty great deal for a durable, MFi-certified Lightning cable that is this long. It’s much cheaper than some other 10-foot cables, leading us to wonder what the catch is. We didn’t see any during our testing.

Kinps Lightning Cable vs. Anker PowerLine+

Kinps’ Lightning Cable is similar in the overall approach to Anker’s PowerLine+, with the same kind of nylon coating around the cord and multiple color options available. We quite liked the Anker PowerLine+, but the Kinps Lightning Cable not only goes longer at 10 feet versus 6 feet, and it also purportedly withstands significantly more bending (Anker’s estimate is 6,000+ bends). On top of that, the Anker cable is sold for $18, making it nearly twice the price.