The Javex USB-C to USB-C cable came to our attention over its claim of having met the stringent UL 9990 testing standards, which involves Underwriters Laboratory buying random samples of the cable from stores and rigorously testing them for performance and consistency.

As you can imagine, it’s probably not cheap to be in the program, especially when few are even aware of the value of a UL 9990 logo; which could explain why Javex is no longer listed as part of the program but still claims UL9990 “materials” are used.

Regardless, we do know that in our testing, the cable was top-notch in delivering higher voltage at both 60-watt and 100-watt loads. Like most brands we’ve never heard of, there’s confusing ad copy, with claims of just 5 volts at 3 amps (15 watts) and no mention of it supporting 20 volts at 5 amps (the 100 watts you need for a laptop). The ad copy also mentions a 56k ohm pull-up resistor “for safety.” That last part confuses us because that’s only required on a USB-C to USB-A cable—not USB-C to USB-C.

Despite this, we saw solid performance in both reaching 100-watt charge rates for a laptop, and very low resistance on its high-quality wires makes it our top pick for a 6-foot charging cable from a brand you haven’t heard of.

And while it lacks wires to support USB 3.1 speeds, that makes the cable very pliable and lightweight. When we purchased the cable, it was $10, which makes it average-priced. As of today, however, is has dropped to $7, which makes it a far more attractive and easily recommended by us.

Most everyone loves the feeling of scoring a good deal, and Nekteck’s 4-meter USB-C cable pack gives you that feeling by offering two relatively excellent and super-long cables for $6. That’s right: $6 for two cables.

At 4-meters (over 13 feet), and limited to USB 2.0, this isn’t the best cable for data transfers. As a charging cable though, Nekteck did its homework and we recorded excellent resistance, which resulted in very low voltage drops at the business end of the cable. It even carries the correct e-Marker info too. 

What more needs to be said? These cables are too long to carry around as a portable solution, but at $6 for two—two—of these cables, you should buy a pack just to have for the day when you need to charge your laptop, tablet, or phone from 13 feet away from the outlet.

If you’re looking for a high-quality USB-C cable that will give you excellent performance, it’s hard to beat Cable Matters 6-foot USB-C cable. The cable can do it all and do it all well (well, almost) from charging at up to 100 watts, transferring data from your USB 3.1 SSD, or running a monitor. The only area where it doesn’t excel is in Thunderbolt performance, which is limited to 20Gbps. That’s not a ding in our book because that’s the tradeoff of a 6-foot cable. To hit 40Gbps, you’d have to step down to a shorter cable.

The other cost of this quality is weight and pliability. The cable weighs almost 3.5 ounces, making it the the heaviest cable we tested outside of the 4-meter (13-foot) cable we looked at above. Those thicker gauge wires also mean you can’t roll up as easily or compactly as other cables, too.

And no surprise, high performance and high quality mean it’s not cheap. At $20, it’s among the more expensive cables here. But if performance and quality is your jam, the Cable Matters 6-foot USB-C cable will have you humming.

Cable Matters USB3 Cable is but 2.6-foot so it lacks the appeal of long cables. What appealed to us enough to buy the cable is its USB4 rating which promises high-performance.

And no surprise, the cable was able to charge our laptop at 100 watts, and offered the best voltage and lowest resistance thanks to the wires Cable Matters uses and its 2.6-foot length. That also translated into excellent USB 3.1 data transfer rates, monitor support and the only cable here capable of driving our Thunderbolt 3 SSD at a full 40Gbps data rates.

If you’re looking for high-performance in all things and don’t mind the length, the Cable Matters USB4 cable is our pick.

Its weaknesses are its stiff construction thanks to the higher-quality, thicker wires and construction Cable Matters uses and its price. Looked at for dollar per foot, this $20 cable is about $8 per foot. Compared to the Amazon Basics USB 3.1 USB-C cable, you’d only be paying $3.17 per foot. 

That Amazon cable can’t match the Cable Matters USB4 in Thunderbolt performance but few need it. That makes the cable best suited to niche areas but it’s fast nonetheless with excellent construction.

There’s not a lot to dislike about the Amazon Basics USB 3.1 Gen 1 USB-C cable. This 6-foot cable features rubber sleeving and hefty wires that gives it a substantive feel without the stiffness you get from some cables.

It’s marked with Amazon Basics and a SuperSpeed logo so you’re not going to mix up with the generic cables you have and the SuperSpeed logo tells you it’s fast for data transfers.

In our testing, we were able to able to push the limits of our USB 3.2 10Gbps  SSD and could also drive our 240Hz 1080p panel. It also was capable of driving our high-performance Thunderbolt 3 drive at its 20Gbps data rate but not at its 40Gbps data rate—which is expected of a 6-foot cable. And despite its USB 5Gbps rating, we could hit 10Gbps speeds anyway which says the cable’s signal integrity is good despite its length. Why not label it USB 10Gbps? Amazon is sticking to the rules which say a 10Gbps isn’t supposed to work on a 6 foot cable.

Also oddly, Amazon specifically claims there’s “no alt-mode” support for this cable so driving a monitor won’t work. Except it does just fine since the alt-mode on USB-C just uses the wires included for the higher-speed USB 3.1 data transfers to run the monitor. We could even drive our high-performance Thunderbolt drive at 20Gbps transfer rates so way to sell yourself short Amazon.

The only real disappointment with the cable is charging is limited to 3 amps which means it tops out at 60-watt charge rates. That’s fine for a Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Pro 13, but not enough for a Dell XPS 15 or MacBook Pro 16. In fact, that’s the primary reason we didn’t give the cable the nod for best brand-name cable pick.

It does carry Amazon’s name which has value to some, but at $19, it’s hardly a steal. With that said, this is a fine cable, but there are indeed ones with more capability too. 

The Dockcase USB-C to USB-C cable is the worst value here if you only judge a cable by length and price. In capability though, this 8.5-inch cable is one of the better performers—a consequence of its short length. The shorter the cable, the less the resistance and, well, the better the performance, even with thin wires.

The Dockcase advertises a 100-watt charge rate, 4K video support, and even Thunderbolt 3 support. The company doesn’t mention it but that Thunderbolt 3 speed is limited to 20Gbps, not the full 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 users expect, so take note. It’s not practical, but we did charge our laptop at 100 watts with the Dockcase.

Physically, the cable is a flat design with a rubbery outer sheath. The strain relief where the cable connects to the housing is minimal, as well, which makes us question its durability over time. 

Its length is best suited for an ultra-fast portable USB-C SSD, and can pinch hit for charging or running your monitor. We personally wouldn’t recommend it for use with a high-speed Thunderbolt drive or device though, given its aforementioned limitations with that spec.

The Amazon Basics USB-C to USB-C USB 2.0 is the cable that epitomizes minimum effort. At 6-feet long, it will do its job to charge your phone or tablet, and even your laptop at up to 60 watts, and that’s about it. Since it’s a USB 2.0 cable, data transfers to or from your computer will be dog slow compared to a USB 3.1 cable. Moving a 1GB file might take a few seconds on a USB 3.1 cable and nearly a minute with the Amazon Basics USB-C Charging cable.

The cable itself is amazingly light. In fact, it’s probably too light, which means Amazon didn’t really use the thickest wires it could for this cable. That shows up with some of the highest resistance among the cables 6 feet or longer in this roundup, meaning less power delivered to your phone or tablet. Granted, we are talking about 2 percent lower wattage compared to the best of the longer cables here. But still, that’s like a school report card that says “present” as its main selling point.

It’s not all bad for the Amazon Basics cable. It does carry a big-name brand. And its lack of wires to support higher-speed USB 3.1 makes it relatively thin and light, and very pliable.

Would we use this cable to charge our laptop every day? Probably not, but for someone charging a phone or tablet, its lightweight feel can be be a plus. 

This is Anker’s oldest Powerline cable but it’s still available alongside the Powerline II and Powerline III models. As its name tells you: This version is a USB 2.0 cable, so transferring large files to your phone or tablet from your computer will be tedious at best.

It has a black plastic sleeve without the tacky rubbery feel some cables have. On the inside it’s about average, with actual charging performance somewhat better than the Amazon Basics USB 2.0 cable but not in the class of the Javex cable, which supports charge rates up to 100 watts instead of the Powerline’s 60 watts. Phones, tablets, and light-duty laptops are its best use cases.

Unfortunately, while it’s a decent cable for certain uses, its pricing hurts it. At its typical pricing of $12 it’s not worth it. We’ve seen it more recently for $8, which makes it slightly more attractive, but even at that price, we’d recommend you buy the Javex instead.

Among the small-brand cables that support all the features of a USB-C to USB-C cable, the Rampow ranked as probably the best. The 6.6-foot cable supports USB 3.1 10Gbps data transfer rates, up to 100-watt charge rates, and could run our high-refresh USB-C monitor. Although its USB drive performance was a few points off the faster cables here, it could run our high-performance Thunderbolt drive at 20Gbps just fine.

Are there better cables? Sure, obviously, for a charge-only cable we’d take the Javex over the Rampow, and the Cable Matters 6-foot USB-C cable is a better full-feature cable, as well.

But we know, you just like the way it looks. The fact that it’s not expensive at $14 doesn’t hurt either. For a small-brand cable, it’s not too bad and you could do worse.

It’s not enough to know your phone, tablet, or laptop is charging, you actually want to see the flow of electrons going to it. At least, that’s what it feels like when you plug in the Oliamp light-up USB-C cable. Besides charging at up to 60 watts, strands of LED lights “flow” from the source of power to the device being charged. It’s a cool effect and comes in red, blue, or green. We’ll note, it’s brighter closer to the charging source and fades in strength as you get to the device being charged. There’s no switch to turn off the lights, but by plugging the larger end into the device being charged, the LEDs won’t trigger.

It’s a basic USB 2.0 cable, so there’s no ability to run a panel, or transfer data at anything faster than a plodding 480Mbps. 

We found voltage and resistance performance of the cable to be fair and we were able to reach the 60-watt charge range with a laptop. The cable is very pliable and easy to roll up. The sleeve is slightly tacky—almost too tacky—from what feels like a silicon-based exterior.

As a charging cable for your phone or tablet it would be fine, but clearly not in the class of the our picks. Whether its worth $14 really depends on how much you value LEDs in every single part of your world.

Buying a USB-C cable online is an adventure in unknown brands all claiming every single spec in the book. When we purchased the QCE USB-C to USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 cable, the cable carried the SuperSpeed 10 logo indicating USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds. In that time, the company has said it now supports SuperSpeed 20 and has since updated the logo. However, it says in its ad copy, that some customers may still get cables with the SuperSpeed 10 logo, but don’t worry, it works the same! The only update, we suspect, is the paint.

That’s probably enough to make people wonder if any of the claims are true. Surprisingly, you do largely get what the company claims. 

We were able to run our USB 3.1 10Gbps drive, our Thunderbolt SSD (at 20Gbps data rates), and our high-refresh rate monitor. The cable also claims 100-watt charge rates, which we achieved with our laptop, as well.

We did find the data transfer speeds over USB 3.1 a tad off, with performance about 9 percent lower than the Amazon Basics USB-C USB 3.1 cable. That’s likely indicative of the quality of the wires inside of the QCE.

The QCE’s worst offense is probably in value, believe it or not. We paid $16 for our cable, which is average. Today though, it’s going for $20, which makes it far less attractive. At that price, you can get the higher-quality (but less pretty) Cable Matters 6-foot cable that offers better performance, and better wiring for the same price.

We really wanted to like the 6.6-foot Nimaso, with its pleasant black braid, beefy feel, and reasonable price. The cable even surprised us with its ability to support higher-speed USB 3.1 10Gbps transfers, up to 100-watt charge rates, Thunderbolt 3 20Gbps performance, and monitor support. For $13.99, it seemed promising.

Unfortunately, the Nimaso had the worst resistance on its ground wires that we measured. That showed up in charging, where it ranked among the worst in voltage drop at the business-end of the cable. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, but we’d rather have a cable that features better internal wiring.

We did run the Nimaso at a 5 amp, 100-watt load for more than an hour with no issues, but still we’drecommend that you buy the Amazon Basics USB 3.1 cable instead if you want data transfer, or just reach for the Cable Matters 6-foot USB-C cable if you want it all, including 100-watt charging in a long cable.

We were surprised by the performance of several small-brand cables, enough to make us wonder if you really needed to pay for a name-brand. The Lhjry, however, was everything we expected from a no-name brand, especially one we bought for $5.

Like most no-name brands, the ad copy on Amazon makes a lot of claims we couldn’t confirm. For example, the Lhjry says it has passed UL 9990 certification but we could find no evidence of that in UL’s product database. The cable’s ad copy at least says it’s a USB 2.0 cable and cannot be used as a monitor cable.

What bothered us is that its embedded e-Marker chip that tells the computer what the cable can do claims USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps support and a 1 meter length. Well, there are literally no wires inside of it for USB 3.2 support and the cable is in fact 2 meters long. This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

The worst offense though, is the quality of the wires inside, which recorded the highest resistance we saw here and the second-worst voltage drop under a fixed 100-watt load.

Despite all that, we were able to charge our laptop at 100 watts and we even subjected the Lhjry to an hour-long load at its maximum charge rate without it failing. Still, the Lhjry is basically the worst cable here in many respects. At $5 it may seem like a steal since charging a phone doesn’t stress out most cables. But the far better Javex cable is $7, so why skimp out?