Tangle-free magnetic USB cables are here

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

If your cable could stick to itself and form a neat coil, what would it look like? What if they were good cables that could charge and sync all the things?

You can now buy cables that do the first part. I wish cable manufacturers would figure out the rest of that shit.

For the past few weeks, I've been testing out some really nifty cables that can do the magnetic coiling snake trick. They were brought to the attention of the English-speaking world by a brand called SuperCalla, and now they are sold by a lot of no-name brands. SuperCalla's campaign promised two years ago that they would be incredible fidget toys.

Image: SuperCalla

In my photo, they coil just like the GIF. The six-foot ones are easy to wrap and are not exactly self-winding.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Magnetic beads and Silicone sleeves are strung on a thin cable.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

They can stick to themselves in other ways.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

You can attach them to all sorts of other metal objects and pay just as much cable as you need. One of the cables is hanging off my microphone stand, another is on the corner of my wall, and the last one is on the edge of my keyboard.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Are you ready for the catch? I bought four different types of cables, and they all suck big time at data transfer, charging, or both.

It won't charge most of my gadgets at all, but I was able to sling some files from it. It has weak coiling magnets and felt even cheaper than the rest.

The one I used was pretty decent at charging, but it wouldn't connect to a phone or external device. They didn't show up on my computer.

This cable was the worst. It topped out at 10W of charging, not the 15W I usually see with my phone.

There is a SuperCalla cable in the box, even though it is sold by a brand called Tech.

There are other styles of magnetic no-tangle cable I found. The neat accordion-style one is the best of the bunch, I got 15W charging, and it feels better built than the others.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

It's less fun to play with, the magnets aren't as strong, and it has an awkward shape when fully extended. It tops out at 480Mbps, or around 42MB/s in practice. I couldn't find a C-to-C version.

I would pay a lot of money for a solid, reliable, six-foot cable with strong magnets, 100W charging, and at least 10Gbps of bandwidth.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

If I'm really dreaming, how about 40Gbps for theusb 4? Give the ultimate cable a built-in power meter while you're at it.

These cheap-o, $10 novelty cables are a real shame. The design of the magnet deserves better.