[General Accessories] Hawke84:
Inateck USB / Lightning Adapter Review (EC2001L)

Overview

Hi all. So i’ve got my hands on another product from Inateck, one of the new up and coming tech firms that seem to do a little bit of everything. Today I'm reviewing their answer to a problem for households that use both Android and Apple devices - a USB cable that had both adaptors!

Unboxing

The cable arrived in a plastic bag, labelled up with all the specs. Its 120cm long and has USB A Male to USB micro B and Lightning port for Apple products. There isn't much else on the packet so I guess its time to open it up!

Honestly I wasn't really very excited about reviewing a cable. Its a cable, something I have hundreds of that has come with every smart device and all seems to be the same to me. How wrong I felt when I first opened this up, the cable looks and feels really premium, I was actually planning on giving it to a friend and now i'm going to keep it for myself, honest truth!

Hands on

Holding the cable, the wire is flat, about 6mm wide covered in a soft rubber similar to the back of a Nexus 7 or a Kobo e-reader, feels quite nice to the touch. The cable doesn't really have much memory, so you can lie it flat without it coiling itself up again too much.

The USB connector housing is covered in a soft feeling gray plastic type material that feels really premium. On the end of the USB A Male connector is a tinted brown dust cover which fits tightly and im not worried about it falling off any time soon.

On the other end is a USB micro B connector plugged into a Lightning connector adaptor, on the end of the Lightning adaptor there is another tinted brown dust cover. The Lightning adaptor unplugs to reveal the micro USB B connector. As I don't own any Apple products I do like that the lightning adaptor can be removed and basically go in a draw until I do take the plunge into the Apple universe, what did upset me was that the little dust cover won’t also fit over the micro USB connector which feels like a bit of an oversight and would have rounded things off nicely for me.

Im a little confused as to its purpose, the little dust caps suggest to me that this is a travel cable but the length is 120cm (1.2m) so its pretty long and more suited to a desktop PC being permanently cabled in.

Testing

There isn't much I can actually do to test a cable other than plug it in and it works! When i plugged it into my trusty Samsung Galaxy S4 the micro USB connector clicked in very firmly and it was immediately detected as a media device so all works fine, I gave it a little wiggle and no issues! I’ve never had a flat cable before and i noticed it sat quite nicely and was easier to orientate the connector to the right orientation without too much guessing.

If you do use Apple products the Lightning adaptor has a little arrow on it to light up the correct orientation to the micro USB connector which felt like a nice touch.

Positive points

Really premium feel

Dust covers for USB A and Lightning adaptor

Flat cable with little cable memory

Decent length, I wouldn't want it any longer

Well made micro USB connector, feel very secure when connected.

Alignment arrows for the Lightning adaptor.

Negative points

The cable ties used to pack the product seem to have eaten a bit into the cable sheath, hopefully the dents will work themselves out but takes away a bit from the premium feel.

The little cable cap only fits on the Lightening adaptor and won't work to cover the USB Micro B adaptor if im not interested in carrying round the Lightning adaptor end or I lose it.

Because its a flat cable it does mean it doesnt ball up very small

A bit long for travel use.

Conclusions

Overall a very nice little product at a reasonable price. I feel like I can trust this to be left alone to charge my expensive products without any problems.

Score

My Score out of 5:

:good::good::good::good::good:

5 out of 5 - it didn't feel like any points should be knocked of for my minor annoyances.

Bottom Line

I’ve never been impressed by a cable before, this feels very nice and maybe I’m starting to realise the value in buying premium cables.

Links

Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KV80WYA

Manufacturer Website

http://www.inateck.com/inateck-ec20...-including-adapter-with-lightning-plug-white/