5 Best Braided Thunderbolt 3 Cables That You Can Buy

For Apple MacBooks and Thunderbolt 3-compatible laptops like Acer TravelMate P6 P614, investing in a Thunderbolt 3 cable is essential. Apart from experiencing top transfer speeds (Thunderbolt 3 supports up to 40 Gbps) to fast charging your laptop or connecting it to a compatible external monitor, Thunderbolt 3 cables add versatility to your setup. But at the end of the day, cables are vulnerable to everyday wear & tear, especially if you have the habit of plugging and unplugging them often. Braided cables help prevent just that.

Apart from shielding the cable from splitting and fraying, braided cables are also known to tangle less than their non-braided counterparts. And the latter adds to the experience in the long run.

So, if you are looking for quality braided Thunderbolt 3 cables, here are our recommendations. But before that,

• Here are the best HDMI adapters for Mac­Book Pro users
• USB‑C vs Thun­der­bolt 3: Which one should you use

1. Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable

Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable

Buy

If you want an Apple-branded Thunderbolt cable, the official Thunderbolt 3 Pro cable proves to be the perfect pick. And like most Apple products, this one has many good things going on for it. For one, the build is solid and clever. Here, the strain relief is long, allowing you to place your fingers over it when plugging and unplugging. More importantly, this Thunderbolt cable works as advertised and gets you theoretical speeds up to 40 Gbps when connected to a Thunderbolt port (10 Gbps when connected to a USB-C port).

The performance is at par with other Apple products. You get the desired speed and versatility as well. So be it connecting your MacBook to a laptop dock or hooking it to a Thunderbolt monitor, the Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable does them without breaking a sweat. Plus, the 6.5ft length helps the case.

Like most Apple-branded products, the Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable is priced a little on the higher side. That said, you will get a cable with a solid build and performance for the price. And provided you take care of it well, it’s likely to last you a long time.

2. Maxonar Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Maxonar Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Buy

If you are looking for a Thunderbolt 3 cable to connect to your eGPU, the Maxonar Thunderbolt 3 Cable is the perfect fit. This is a 3.9ft cable and should give you ample wriggle room to connect your eGPU to your Mac, especially if the stock cable falls on the shorter end. Its performance, especially for connecting eGPU, has been praised by quite a few users. And that’s not all. This braided Thunderbolt 3 cable can easily double as the humble charging cable for your Mac or the display cable for your external monitors.

The build is strong, and the thick cable sheathing ensures that the cable’s innards stay unaffected by daily use. The long cable strain is the highlight of this cable since it prevents the ends from fraying easily in the long run.

An 18-month warranty backs it, and some of its user bases have praised the customer service for their prompt reply and help.

If you look around, a responsive customer service plays quite an important role when it comes to the experience in the long run.

Maxoner advertises USB4 speed, however, quite a few users have refuted the claims.

3. Nimaso Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Nimaso Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Buy

Another Thunderbolt 3 cable that costs a lot less than the Apple cable is the one by Nimaso. Like its counterpart above, this one has a braided exterior to shield the cable from harm. It’s built well and finishes the look with a long connector that helps you with a better grip. However, we wish the strain relief was on the longer side.

That said, you will find all the features such as support for Power Delivery up to 100W and support for dual 4K external monitors. The company claims quite a few compatible devices in its list, including Microsoft Surface Book and Dell XPS laptops, MacBook Pro (2016-2019).

So far, this Thunderbolt cable has earned its fair share of reviews from its userbase. People love it for its quality and performance. However, at 3.3ft, do note that it’s a tad smaller than its Apple counterpart.

4. JSAUX Thunderbolt 3 Cable

JSAUX Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Buy

If you have explored the world of HDMI cables or DisplayPort cables, you might have come across JSAUX cables. These cables are affordable. The JSAUX Thunderbolt 3 cable is no different. This one is suitable for connecting your Mac (or compatible Windows laptop) to a laptop docking station or an external monitor. It performs well and delivers the required speed and power when connected to compatible ports.

At the same time, it also supports dual 4K displays. For those unknown, the Thunderbolt 3 specification supports DisplayPort tech, which means you can use a single cable connected to your laptop and drive multiple monitors (in this case, two) with it. The greatest advantage is that you won’t need separate display cables connected to your laptop, thereby easing the cable management process.

However, there’s a slight catch. For some users, the JSAUX Thunderbolt 3 cable hasn’t fared well when connecting it to an eGPU. So you might want to take consider this point. While this JSAUX cable is compatible with the Apple MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and HP Spectre laptops, it’s not compatible with Apollo x4 and Arrow devices.

5. Sweguard Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Sweguard Thunderbolt 3 Cable

Buy

Last but not least, we have the Sweguard Thunderbolt 3 Cable. This one is an inexpensive yet fully functional cable and comes with all Thunderbolt 3. For one, you get support for 4K/5K displays and can achieve full Thunderbolt 3 speed. Plus, it can deliver power up to 100W should you want it to double it as a charging cable.

Since it supports Power Delivery you can also use it to charge USB-C smartphones. Of course, you won’t get Thunderbolt speeds, but it gets the job done and charges at a relatively faster speed.

The braided cord is nice and thick. While it may be a little difficult to wind it up, you can safely say that the braided exterior will protect the insides from wear & tear and fraying in the long run.

Again, it works as advertised for Apple MacBooks, Microsoft Surface laptops, and some compatible Dell laptops. However, this Thunderbolt 3 cable is not compatible with Apollo x4, Twin, and Arrow devices.

Bring in the Thunder

One of Thunderbolt 3 cables’ biggest advantages is that they use the USB-C interface, thanks to which you can easily use them in standard USB-C ports for data transfers ( with reduced speed) and the likes.

With more laptops opting for Thunderbolt 3 cables, it makes sense to invest in one that not only does the job of transferring the data but one which is both durable and strong. After all, you wouldn’t want to buy cables for the same purpose time and again, right?