With prices so cheap, it’s hard to convince Apple device owners to pay the price for an official lightning cable from Apple, but is the short term saving worth the long term expense? Unofficial Lightning cables, apart from being poorly constructed and incredibly unreliable can be dangerous in certain situations, this also applies to unofficial apple charging plugs.
Certified Apple chargers have a tiny authentication chip inside them which tells your device it’s Apple MFI certified. This is important, because non-certified, or knock-off, lightning cables can be very dangerous to your device.
Why are non-certified Apple chargers dangerous?
It could damage your device:
They can cause power surges in your iPhone or iPad which can damage the charging chip inside the charging port, without a functional charging port, you will be unable to charge your device. If the charging chip avoids damage, the same most likely won’t be said for your device’s battery, as non-certified charging cables can rapidly reduce the device’s battery health, even if it’s a new battery. These cables can also cause more damage internally to the device including the processor, killing the device completely.
Health and safety implications:
The biggest reason you should not purchase non-certified Apple chargers. These chargers have a reputation for overheating, catching fire and potentially delivering a lethal electric shock to anyone at any point during their use. Some cables are so poorly insulated that users have reported being able to ‘feel’ the current running through the cable when held. A UK-based Charted Trading Standards Institute did some research into unofficial Lightning cables, the team tested 400 non-certified Lightning cables and of those, only 1% (three cables out of 400, to be exact) passed basic assessments for safety.
Why it's important to use a genuine Apple charger or MFi charger
Original or MFi cables are important because those cables have the tiny chip inside the cable that will protect your device from voltage fluctuations which, you now know, will cause a lot of damage to your device.
Are there any good alternatives which are still cheaper than Apple?
Some well-known companies such as Anker make MFi Certified Apple charging cables and plugs cheaper than Apples. Just type ‘MFi Certified Apple Charging Cables’ into Amazon or your preferred online shop.
What is MFi Certified?
Introduced by Apple in 2005, MFi Certified is short for ‘Made for iPhone/ iPad/ iPod’. It lets you know that a product has Apple’s official stamp of approval and will work perfectly with an Apple device. Apple recommends using only accessories that Apple has certified and that come with the MFi badge (pictured below).
For more information, please forward to Apples more in depth explanation about uncertified Lighting cables by clicking the following link - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204566
