We purchased the Anker PowerLine+ so that our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and evaluate it. Read on for our full product review.

Despite its simplicity, the Anker PowerLine+ is a Lightning cable that exceeds expectations for such a simple product. It’s durable, better looking, more feature-rich, and more affordable than Apple’s official cable. The Powerline+ is perhaps one of the best value cables out there, with plenty of durability, plenty of reliability, and even a few surprises.

There’s not much to say about the design: on one end of the cable is a standard USB-A port, on the other is the Lightning connector. In between, you’ll see most of the visual cues. The Anker PowerLine+ is a braided cable, which first of all has some durability implications that we’ll discuss in the next section. That already sets it apart from the flat, rubberized texture of Apple’s standard charging cable.

You can get the average white, but you can also opt for a gray-black scheme, a glitzy gold theme, or the one we tested: a mostly red cable with a pop of black at either end. While it’s nice to see so many colors, we wish they’d expanded it to even more, maybe even the whole family to match the iPhone XR. The braided texture has a nice feel to it, while the subtle metal strip flanking each of the connectors (complete with Anker logo) gives it a uniquely futuristic look.