BEWARE! "Aicase" MFI Cables Are Not Apple Certified and Can Cause Serious Damage to Your Phone

Lmrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 12:41

Recently I had an iPad air die and wouldn't turn on which we replaced at Apple.
The next day my iPhone 6S same happens I'm going crazy how must be the charger I check and its one of many AICase cables I've bought from eBay. I stop using it take my iPhone to apple they replace it for me.
I've put it aside to do a bit of research in my office. Busy week ensues.
Fast forward 3 days later my wife's phone is dead and doing the same thing dies wont turn on , she found the cable and used it. lucky under warranty replaced at Apple.

After a bit of research turns out the U2 IC on each was blown caused by the cable. I'm furious i contact the seller and they do nothing and insist it is something else. I throw the cable.

Fast forward another 3 months on my last trip to china I bought a little machine to test cables. My results found that these cables are not MFI certifed at all and in fact use a ridiculously cheap IC inside. The IC inside a 50c cable is what is being used. I've seen a lot of people say they are happy but they charge a bit slow etc etc this is all because it is not certified and is using a really cheap IC inside.

Please see the Imgur album below for whole bunch of different cables. The score is a rating out of 100 for power/data cheap IC will hit under 50 and a high end copy would be 80+

http://imgur.com/a/Wkbjs

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • Axelstrife on 06/07/2017 - 12:59
    +1

    Thanks for posting i actually bought some the other day.
    Which seems to charger a little slower than my Belkin cable which is longer.

    • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 13:14

      Yeh upto 3M length there is no effect on MFI cables the difference is the IC inside for sure.

      • Axelstrife on 06/07/2017 - 13:21

        Any recommendations for cables that dont cost $30 like apples?

        • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 13:32

          http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Short-Long-GENUINE-Certified-Flat…

          I know 100% that yellowknife is genuine factory for MFI. have used them before got alot of samples from them for work and think 1 or 2 are still working from 3 years ago.

          Hmm now I'm abit lost.

          http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3x-Apple-MFI-Lightning-USB-data-C…

          way too cheap that is less than wholesale at 5,000 pcs. so wether they are fake yellowknife i don't know.

          I've ordered some i will post results once they arrive

        • Axelstrife on 06/07/2017 - 14:21

          @mrjtaw: Ok thanks
          I paid $15 for three Alcase so it is a similar price.

        • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 14:59

          @Axelstrife:
          The first link is about $15 a cable which sounds good. Ive seen and used that model of cable before. I then saw the next listing which says yellowknife but a different design for $4.80 a cable and that doesn't sound right. i ordered the lot of the cheap ones and will test em out and let

        • kusama on 06/07/2017 - 15:54

          I've been using Kogan's for a while

          https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/3-pack-apple-mfi-certified-ligh…

          3 pack $30

        • mrjtaw on 16/07/2017 - 14:50
          +2

          @mrjtaw:

          In case anyone was wondering its a total bait and switch. they just sent me 3 really generic cables that look similar but not the same as the yellowknife cables

        • Member 0230 on 17/07/2017 - 11:53

          @mrjtaw: thanks for the update!

        • mrjtaw on 17/07/2017 - 12:38

          @Member 0230:
          They asked me to send back but then just isssued the refund. I knew it was too good to be true but was interested to see if they were copying Yellowknife or not. Yellowknife is a pretty good Mfi cable supplier

  • Randxyz123 on 06/07/2017 - 13:07
    +3

    This is why I don't buy those no name cables.

    • [Deactivated] on 07/07/2017 - 06:03
      +3

      And this is why i use android so any micro usb cable can be used.

      • cheepwun on 17/07/2017 - 16:06
        +1

        Not to mention many models with USB OTG and USB Mass storage. Real file system. Full read/write access to USB storage, etc.

        • [Deactivated] on 17/07/2017 - 17:34
          +1

          And to take it all the way.

          S5 with zerolemon battery with otg cable and mini lightning cable to charge up wifes iphone 6s plus when hers is running low ;)

  • MeesusEff on 06/07/2017 - 13:23
    +1

    Damn, i bought the 4 pack of these, and recently my brother has been complaining about the crappy charge time. Thanks for the heads up!!

  • dheywood on 06/07/2017 - 13:29

    :(
    This may have been what killed my daughters iPad recently. My wife bought a cheap cable from KMart as a spare, which she was using to charge the iPad…sigh.

    • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 13:34

      Kmart (audiosonic) cables by far are the worst I've seen ever and have countless stories from a friend who does motherbaord repairs of them causing the U2 chip failure. please never buy one from kmart again.

      • dheywood on 06/07/2017 - 13:57

        Cheers, I'll go home and throw it out tonight. Appreciate the info.

  • Neilzy on 06/07/2017 - 13:50

    Dang. Thanks for the heads up! Was wondering why my the charge was starting to slow on my aiCase one.

  • scrimshaw on 06/07/2017 - 15:46

    A bit dodgy, but there are a lot of 4.5 star reviews on eBay for AI case "MFI certified" cables

    https://www.ebay.com.au/urw/3x-Aicase-Apple-MFI-Certified-Li…

    I wonder how many of those reviewers now have dead phones and tablets.

    Maybe we should all write our reviews and see if we can lower the 4.5 star average…

    • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 16:37

      I think genuinely people are happy with them because they appear to work. there are a few reviews which say they are bad and I'm 100% some peoples phones have fried and they never put 2 and 2 together because they were using "MFI" cables.
      Most cables stop working or playing up once itunes gets involved if you only ever use it for charging from a powerpoint it could last a long time as long it is designed well. I have an old cable from 2013 still works and is not MFI works for its charging but all the others of that type died eventually when used on the computer.

  • whooah1979 on 06/07/2017 - 15:59

    Mfi means that the manufacturer has paid apple a fee to use the mfi acronym.

    • scrimshaw on 06/07/2017 - 16:11

      Chinese manufacturers don't care about paying royalties to apple. They will mislabel their products to ensure they can mark-up their items effectively.

    • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 16:46
      +1

      MFI is that your product is actually using the IC/tip of the cable provided by Apple. You pay per piece approx $2.8-3.8AUD(its a stockmarket as many factories on sell so price fluctuates) a piece they provide the Tip/IC for each cable and the factory provides the housing, wires, USB A end etc. You pay I think $5000 to get accredited as a factory and a once off $1000 per design to be approved.
      When you buy the IC from apple you're allowed to use the "Made For Apple" logo on your products with a whole bunch of restrictions on where you place, colours and size etc. etc.

      In short you're not paying to use the name you're paying to actually have an original apple piece in your cable. In doing so gives yoyu the right to use the "Made For iPhone" logo. MFI is the acronym of Made for i(insert product here)

  • gummibear on 06/07/2017 - 16:22

    Where'd did you get that cable tester? Are they available online anywhere?

    • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 16:33

      i bought it locally in Shenzhen, China. i remember seeing them online but expensive ~$300 on Aliexpress

      • cheepwun on 16/07/2017 - 16:45

        How much did it cost in China?

        • mrjtaw on 17/07/2017 - 09:03
          +1

          Closer to $200

  • KaTst3R on 06/07/2017 - 19:12

    The price will be a dead give away. You go online and you see Aicase cables 3 for US$10 or 10 cables for US$22 etc. I have never seen a real MFI cable go for under $10 each.

  • Clear on 06/07/2017 - 19:30

    Always good to lookup brands on Apple. On a rare occasion an OEM cable will go under a factory brand so the model or UPC/EAN if they provide one will work.

    • mrjtaw on 06/07/2017 - 21:18

      AIcase is actually listed.
      Standard China practice either the factory started with MFI chips and now supplies this rubbish now (unlikely as MFI licenses are valuable in China and too easy to be caught) more than likely someone in China just thought it would be a good idea to pump out copies of the real deal any factory can produce the cable copy and the packing is easily available.

  • Member 0230 on 07/07/2017 - 12:54

    Wonder if I should take the risk? My AIcase is ~2 years old but hadn't noticed slow downs or other issues.

    Kogan is registered with MFI, so may be a safer low-cost option.

  • dbun1 on 10/07/2017 - 09:58

    hmmm…..I bought a bunch of the AICASE braided cables and so far they have been flawless.
    After reading this though I'm now hesitant to use them and might bin them. I bought them not too long ago, so might message the seller and see what they say.

    I'll have a look at Anker cables on Amazon and might get some of those. I really like the braided cables after using the AICASE ones.

    There's another brand floating around on eBay - UGREEN
    They actually check out if you go to Apple's MFI verification website.

  • UFO on 08/06/2018 - 16:05

    I wish I saw this post earlier!

    I can confirm that AICase Cables DO fail after a few months, with the dreaded "this accessory may not be supported" message when trying to charge devices.

    I bought these cables from a very reputable Ebay vendor (99.3%, 76000 reviews, vendor name: URCASE).
    Purchase date late January 2018, and it's now early June 2018… less than 6 months later, but of course AFTER feedback has already been given.

    DO NOT BUY AICASE CABLES!!!!

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