Ever imagined a battle-royal to find the king of the cable, a USB with a killer USP? Well if such a position / device existed then Nonda, a manufacturer of smart hardware products based in Palo Alto California, believe they have it. It arrived in the post this morning and seems like the real deal, lets take a closer look…
The above picture explains how the cable is given increased tensile strength and durability by using Kevlar. Yes, the material that bullet proof vests are made with! In fact in their press release Nonda describes it as:
…the stuff that allowed Curiosity to withstand 65,000 pounds of force on its descent to Mars. With Kevlar, the ZUS cable can be crushed or tossed around without a problem.
So a super strong USB, great, whats at the other end though? One of the triumphant trio of Micro USB, USB type C or Apples Lightning connector to keep all but the most esoteric gadget users happy!
The Indiegogo campaign that started on the 3rd of May 2016 and lasts for a month is running at 1286% of its $10,000 goal backed by 2876 backers and counting so clearly there is a need for this kind of rugged electronic equipment and feeling the cable in hand it does give the impression more of tough rigging wire rather than a delicate computer accessory.
The campaign has the price of a single cable at Early Bird purcashe cost of $15 USD + Shipping which it says means 25% OFF retail value. (free USA shipping. flat international shipping.) Whether it’s worth spending that kind of money on a USB very much depends on your expected use-case scenario but it does seem like a good idea for anyone camping, traveling or just giving there cable a good over. Also the company is willing to offer a lifetime guarantee:
We’re so confident in our ZUS cable that we’re offering our backers a lifetime warranty. What this means is that if a cable breaks from normal wear and tear, we’ll replace it. For free.
Is their confidence well founded? Check out two videos below for examples of its toughness:
So what do you reckon, a worthy addition to your kitbag as everyone needs reliable cables for charging and data transfer? Or an unnecessary expense, the cable you’re using will be fine? We’ve got a USB Type C version here and are willing to put it through a couple of (reasonable) resilience tests, please leave any suggestions in the comments field below. If there are enough good suggestions we will look into recording a few and putting them on the CoolSmartPhone YouTube channel.