Has anyone else noticed a precipitous drop in packed-in USB cable durability?

[Baryn]

I haven't really had a USB cable fail on me since... USB became a thing.  However, in the last 2 years, I've had a handful just kick the bucket.  Both Mini-USB and Micro-USB.

 

I'm not going on the road with my cables often, so they're not getting roughed up.  In fact, one of the failures was the cable for my charging stand, which never even moves.

 

Anyone else notice this?  And, could it be related to global manufacturing standards getting cheaper (and worse) for commonly-packed cables?

[lewdicrous]

Depends on the company I guess, cables are an obvious way for lowering costs imo

[Baryn]

2 minutes ago, lewdicrous said:

Depends on the company I guess, cables are an obvious way for lowering costs imo

Right, I neglected to mention that I have been cannibalizing cables for my oft-used items from other things.  For example, the Vive VR headset doesn't get a lot of use from me anymore, but it came with several very premium Micro-USB cables.

 

It's kind of weird to think about.  "Premium USB cables."

[Mira Yurizaki]

I haven't really had a problem with packed-in cables, but I am a little concerned over the one that came with my S10+ for feeling a bit flimsy.

[DrMacintosh]

In my experience, buying multiple cheap cables has been cheaper than buying a few really good ones anyway. 

 

I've had good luck with Amazon USB-C cables. I have a Micro-B to USB-C cable for my external USB HDD. Cable is very thick and feels sturdy. I bought some lighting cables from them, they are pretty cheap but they still work (barely). Once they break I'll buy another for less than $6 probably. 

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

In my experience, buying multiple cheap cables has been cheaper than buying a few really good ones anyway. 

 

I've had good luck with Amazon USB-C cables. I have a Micro-B to USB-C cable for my external USB HDD. Cable is very thick and feels sturdy. I bought some lighting cables from them, they are pretty cheap but they still work (barely). Once they break I'll buy another for less than $6 probably. 

I prefer something that will last several years, and under my use, my cables tend to last for years. Soon as my sibling and Dad get ahold of them though, lifespan drops to about a month... Maybe...

 

This is with Micro-B. USB-C seems to show somewhat faster wear on the cable end, though the biggest pain is the lint getting inside the port ifself and being a PITFA to clean out. 

[Anomnomnomaly]

The best cables I've ever had are those magnetic ones, I don't currently have a phone/tablet with a type C connector, everything is still micro.  So I picked up a couple of cables with the magnetic tips... those sit in my phone/tablet and never need to be removed, prolonging the life of the socket and the cable as it no longer gets kinked are moved around.

 

I paid around £10 for a pair, one sits in my home office and the other in my car... I got some for my mum too as she'd had multiple failures... one of which shorted out and damaged 2 tablets.

[ianspy1]

My usb-c is around 10 month´s still strong (blackberry)