In one of my posts, I mentioned that I was switching all of my USB cables to USB-C. Because I was making that transition, another idea I had was to also convert a bunch of the cables to be magnetic.
Benefits / Use Cases
Adding a magnetic adapter to the ends of a bunch of my cables has a few benefits. The first one that is usually advertised is the improved safety. If you trip over the wire, you’re less likely to take the device with it. The idea is that the force of pulling on the cable would be greater than the resistance of the device wanting to move. Thus, the cable breaking free instead of it falling off the table. I rarely trip over wires so this is a bit of a straw-man argument in my case, but may be valid for others.
The other use case is just to make connecting and disconnecting to the device easier. This is what mainly piqued my interest and is the main reason why I started searching for magnetic adapters in the first place. Its a minor inconvenience to have to plug your phone in without any asistance.
The final reason why I started looking into the adapters was to improve the lifespan of the plug. When you plug-in and unplug a USB cable, you are also causing wear & tear to the female end of the plug. On some of my older phones that were Micro-B plugs, they eventually started to fail and no cables worked. So instead of burning through the lifespan of the plug on the device, I could reduce the damage on the plug by using an adapter.
Research
I started looking around online for bulk adapters and was quickly disappointed. All of the adapters I found online were $25+, and had poor reviews. Magnets failing, poor connections, and even destroying power sources in some cases.
I was thinking of setting up a few devices with the magnetic adapters and a few cables that dont really move with the adapters:
| Device | Cable Location |
| Phone | * Bedside * Desk * Car |
| Laptop | * Desk |
| USB Hub (Usually connected to my laptop) | N/A |
By adding the adapters for at least 2 cables for my phone (Bedside and Car), I think I would remove the majority of the wear and tear on my phones plug.
However, 2 adapters would cost me ~$50. Im guessing that would be about the same price as having the plug fixed at a repair shop, so it would defeat the purpose of preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance should reduce the overall maintenance cost, not just replace it.
I’m guessing the prices are so high due to apple releasing a series of macbooks that didnt have their magsafe technology, and only recently reintroduced it. Everyone is thinking about magsafe now so demand has gone up. Demand goes up, Price goes up.