StarTech Micro USB- A to Left Angle Micro B Cable, 30 AWG

2016-10-04T20:00:00

I came across these cables while browsing a vendor site one day. I have used them for 3+ years now almost exclusively. I use them because for people that use their phone/tablet while it is plugged in to charge, I get a lot more life/duration out of the angled style. The non-angled USB heads often wear-out & break apart where the head molds to the cable(cable fray). Also the length of the straight-end USB cables makes it more prone to bending, and the little "teeth" in the USB connector no longer hold firm in your phone/tablet (over time they tend to sit flat inside the metal micro-USB connector). If you just plug in your phone/tablet and then walk away then you wont see much difference/benefit from this style of cable. However if you are a person who needs there device plugged in a lot because you use it a lot, you are going to find you get at least 2x the lifetime use out of these cables, and 5x the reliability. I have used this style of cable with a: Samsung Galaxy S3 (SGH-I747M) Samsung Tab A (SMT-350) Samsung Galaxy S6 (SM-G920W8) The charge time reported by the phone/tablet, was the same as the genuine Samsung cable, using the genuine Samsung wall-adapter charger(EP-TA20JWE). For the Samsung S6, the "Fast Charge" capability worked with this cable, the same as it did with the genuine Samsung cable(the one that came with my phone originally from the box). I cant speak for other models/devices, but the cable works with the ones I listed. In the end, for me, I just want to plug in my phone & not worry about if its charging or not. I Just want it to work. Straight-end USB cables, I always ended up having to press it just-right, and then not dare touch or move the cable or else it would disconnect from charging until I angled it just the correct way. The design of these angled heads made it a very firm connection. The one CON about the product, is that since they are trying to reach an "economic" solution(common with most Startech products), the cable is quite thin & not super shielded. So the cable itself cannot take abuse(if anything pierces the plastic outside of the cable its right into the wiring, and the cable is no longer useable). Since you really have to be trying to break a USB charging-cable by damaging the cable itself, this was a fair trade-off to me VS thicker or genuine Manufacturer cables.

ReviewFromAB

Originally posted at

2015-04-12T20:00:00

I was initially pleasantly surprised at how slim this cable is. But when I plugged it in and tried to charge my phone, I was quickly disappointed because it cannot charge any of my devices at high speed like all of my other cables. This makes it pretty much useless to me.

TechGuyInBoston

Originally posted at