It might sound strange, but I don’t really feel like I’m traveling until I grab my Grid-It organizer and pull out one of the tech accessories that I set aside specifically for travel. I use the same wireless phone pad every night at home, I putz around the house plugging my laptop into the same chargers day after day, and I charge all of my other gadgets with the same well-used cables that have been plugged into the same outlet for years.
I think that’s why I put so much thought into the tech accessories that I keep in my travel bag, and why I have a collection of tech accessories that I only use when I’m traveling. Sure, I could always throw my regular charging gear into a suitcase on the way out the door, but when we go on vacation, we generally don’t go to a place that feels like home. We go somewhere different. Somewhere more luxurious, somewhere more adventurous, somewhere better. You use the same banal tech accessories day after day at home, so shouldn’t the ones you use when you’re on vacation provide a tiny break -- or even an upgrade -- from the ordinary as well?
PowerLine Flow
I think that’s why I’m so infatuated with Anker’s newest charging cable, the PowerLine III Flow. It’s way more expensive than a cable has any right to be, and it doesn’t offer any technical features that you couldn’t get with a cheaper cable, but it feels completely unlike any other charging cable I’ve ever used. It’s a vacation from the chargers you’ve grown accustomed to.
Anker’s brand new PowerLine III Flow cable is currently only available as a USB-C to Lightning cable, meaning it’s only for iPhone and iPad users for now, but I assume Android-friendly USB-C cables will be coming soon. You could sum up the cable’s entire aesthetic as “soft”. Most of its color options are soft hues, its included cable wrap is a soft silicone rather than a stubbly Velcro, and its rose gold connector accents give off soft vibes. But most importantly of all, the cable itself is nearly as soft and forgiving as a shoelace.
Whereas most charging cables, including our previously recommended Anker PowerLine 3-in-1, will maintain kinks and tangles after they’ve been rolled up and tossed in a bag, the PowerLine Flow seems to have no memory of how it was stored. As soon as you unhook the cable tie, the whole thing gives itself over almost completely to gravity. You probably haven’t ever given any thought to the stiffness of your charging cables, because that’s just how charging cables are. But after you hold the PowerLine Flow for about half a second, every other cable will start to feel stiff and unrelenting by comparison.
Don't take that to mean that the cable isn't built to last. Like all of Anker's recent cables (some of which I've used daily for years), it's rated for 25,000 bends, and should survive a lot more abuse than Apple's notoriously flimsy Lightning cable. If you do manage to wear it out though, it also comes with an 18-month warranty.
Graphene Is the Key
The secret is the cable’s graphene layer, which is sandwiched between the power-carrying copper wires and the supple silicone outer shell. In most cables, this role is filled by a layer of thin, interlaced metal strands, or possibly a protective material like kevlar or aramid. Graphene though is something of a super material, as detailed by The New Yorker, and offers an incredible amount of strength despite being, at a microscopic level, only one atom thick. It hasn’t been used commercially much outside of tennis rackets and ink for printed circuit boards, but trust me, you’re going to want it inside all of your power cables soon enough.
No More Tangles
For travelers, the upshot here is a tangle-free existence. Between the silicone cable tie and the flexible nature of the PowerLine Flow, it’s hard to imagine it getting knotted up in your bag. But let’s be honest, that’s not much of a reason to buy this thing. You should buy it because it feels nice; nicer than the cable you usually use. And whether you set it aside for special occasions like travel, or use it at your desk every day, you’ll hopefully feel a tiny glimmer of joy every time you pick it up and remember just how much better it feels than every other charging cable in your collection.
Cost and Availability
There is, of course, a downside to being the first graphene-based charging cable: the cost. It’s not very expensive in an absolute sense at $22 for a 3’ model, or $25 for a 6’ version, but It’s probably the only third-party Lightning cable I’ve ever seen that’s actually more expensive than the one you can buy at an Apple Store. Anker’s cables have outperformed Apple’s for nearly a decade now, but they’ve always done it at a lower price point than the official cable. This is the first time Anker’s asked for more than the tech giant, but if you appreciate good tech design as much as I do, I have to say the PowerLine Flow makes a compelling case.
Top photo by Iam_Anupong
