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On the whole, I think that Apple has far more hits than misses when it comes to product quality. Sure, like every other company, Apple has things that miss the mark, but there's one Apple product that's consistently awful.

Charging cables.

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Regular readers will know how much I detest Apple's cables. iPhone charging cables have been a particular bugbear for me over the years because of how fragile they were, with MacBook charging cables coming in a close second.

I'm not sure what it is about Apple cables, but the brilliant white rubber coating the company uses just doesn't seem to be all that robust. After about six months of use -- you know, the regular stuff like plugging and unplugging it -- the outer starts to get soggy and discolored, and then over time becomes more and more fragile, until one day it starts peeling off, and then it is game over for the cable (unless you want to go through the pantomime of patching it, which buys you a little time).

While I've long given up on using Apple cables for my iPhone and iPad -- and even for my Apple Watch -- I had hoped that the USB-C-to-USB-C charging cable for my MacBook Pro would be OK.

I mean, how badly can you mess up a USB-C-to-USB-C cable?

Pretty bad, if you're Apple it seems.

I bought my 15-inch MacBook Pro back in early March, and here we are in early October, and pretty much right on schedule, the cable is showing signs of discoloration.

It's now only a matter of time until the cable decides to give up the ghost.

I just looked on Apple's website for a replacement, and they are $19 (oddly, the price is the same for both 1m and 2m lengths). That sort of money will get me an Anker Powerline II cable that will last much longer, or I can grab an Amazon Basics cable for under $10.

It's kind of reassuring that some things don't change.

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