Volutz USB-C and Apple Lightning Charging Cable Review

By Nathan Kirsch June 24, 2020

Volutz Equilibrium USB-C, ArmorCord USB-C & ArmorCord Lightning

Volutz designs, produces and distributes durable USB cables that become fairly popular in recent years. Their USB Type C to USB Type A Fast charging kit has over 5,300 reviews on Amazon with a 4.7 out of 5 star rating. Volutz says they developed their cables to last significantly longer life than average and backs them by a 2-year warranty. Volutz claims their cables were even used by a space agency on the International Space Station due to how well the performed compared to competitors! So, when Volutz asked us if we wanted to review a kit we really wanted to check them out and see why the have such a high rating and are recommended by Amazon’s Choice program.

The model that we were offered was a 5-pack of the Volutz Equilibrium Series USB Type-C to USB Type-A color coded cables in various lengths. Priced at $18.98 shipped, these cables are super affordable at about $3.80 per cable or just under $0.70 per foot. The cables are engineered with Volutz patented DualHousing technology, Nylon braiding and gold-plated USB-IF certified connectors. With a 50,000+ bend rating (120-degrees, 213g pressure at 60RPM) they should be fairly durable as well. All Volutz cables support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 / 3.0 / 4+ technologies as well as other high-speed USB chargers with speeds of up to 5 Voles / 3 Amperes.

The retail packaging for the cables is rather simple, but covers the basics of what a consumer might like to know. Inside you’ll find five USB-A to USB-C cables of varying lengths, including 1ft (30cm), 3.3ft (1m), 6.5ft (2m) and 10ft (3M) lengths. You get two 1m cables and one of each of the other lengths. The color coding on each cable is different regardless of the length! This is great for families as each member of the family can be given a color to use.

Cable weight is a big deal to the /r/Ultralight backpacking community and anyone that wants to pack a light travel bag, so we weighed each cable with the cable management strap included if it came with one.

1ft – 12 grams
3.3ft – 32 grams
6.5ft – 64 grams
10ft – 108 grams

The look at feel of each cable is very premium and should be built to last with nylon braiding over the cable, DualHousing ends that are equipped with a 56k ohm pull-up resistor and gold-plated connector. The feel of plugging in and removing one leaves them feeling solid.

All of the cables that are over 1 foot in length come with velcro cable straps for wire management. These are nice to have, but they are easily removable if you don’t like this cable management solution.

If you are wondering what the negatives are about the Volutz Equilibrium Series USB Type-C to USB Type-A color coded cables we encountered one that might impact some users. Volutz is clearly selling these cables as charging cables, but we were curious if they would work with data transfers. We tried a number of portable SSDs on these cables that are rated at USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) speeds and confirmed that these are infact USB 2.0 (480MBps) cables. Our testing on a desktop PC shows our speeds topping out at 44.6 MB/s sequential read and 41.9 MB/s sequential write. So, if you are looking for a cable that can be used for both quick charging and for fast file transfers you’ll not find that here. Volutz stated that they went with a USB 2.0 cable as it is slightly thinner, more flexible and charges just as fast (if not faster) in some scenarios than a USB 3.0 cable.

Volutz ArmorCord USB C

If you are looking for USB-C to USB-C charge & sync cables the Volutz ArmorCord USB-C to USB-C cable just came out and are backed by a lifetime warranty. They use the same DualHousing technology as the Volutz Equilibrium Series and also have data transfer speeds of up to 480 Mbps as they top out at USB 2.0 speeds once again.

Volutz ArmorCord USB-C to USB-C cables come in 0.3M, 1M, 2M and 3M lengths with pricing starting at $13 MSRP for the 0.3M cable. Color choices are orchid grey, moss green, ruby red, rose gold and jet black. Volutz sent over the orchid grey in a 0.3M cable ($13 MSRP) and the Rose Gold in 2M ($20 MSRP). The cables weighed 14g and 64g, respectively.

Volutz Lightning Cable

Volutz also sells MFi Certified ArmorCord charging cables for Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod) that are available in 0.3, 1M, 2M and 3M lengths. We were the model that was six feet in length for $14.98 per cable. These cables are said to charge 20% faster than most lightning to USB cables that are on the market today.

Volutz went with a 4.2mm slim-tip design on their lightning cable versus the standard 5.5mm tip. Other than that, it features the same exact DualHousing technology and 50,000+ bending tolerance rate as the USB Type-C cables we talked about before. The color that we received was Moss Green, but they also have them available in Rose Gold, Ruby Red, Jet Black and Orchid Grey. The weight of this 6-foot cable ended up being 52 grams.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The Volutz charging cables seem to work great for charging devices and we’ve been using them without issues thus far on all sorts of devices. For data transfers the Volutz cables transfer at just USB 2.0 speeds, so they are the last cable that we grab for when we need to move some files around. That said, getting five USB Type-C to Type-A color coded charging cables for under $19 shipped seems like good deal and they are backed by a 2-year warranty. The price on the USB C and Lightning individual cables is higher, but the ArmorCord USB C to USB C cables are lifetime warrantied and Apple Lightning cables have always been priced higher than standard USB cables.

We looked into how that warranty works since Volutz is based in Sweden they will provide the buyer a prepaid shipping label to return defective cables for replacement. You’ll need to provide proof of purchase, explain the damage and show photos of the damage, but that is pretty easy to do these days and a simple hoop to jump through for a 2-year or lifetime warranty. Misuse and abuse is of course not covered.

Lastly, we talked with Volutz about most of their cables being USB 2.0 (480Mbps) designs and how some consumers might be looking for charging and data transfer cables capable of reaching USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) or USB 3.3 Gen 2 (10Gbps) speeds. They told Legit Reviews that they are in the early stage of developing such products, so that is good news. The fact that we were able to have a conversation with the design team at Volutz was impressive.

At the end of the day the Volutz cables worked great for charging and seems to be made by a small company in Sweden that actually cares about this market and their customers.

Legit Bottom Line: Volutz USB and Lighting cables work great and should last longer than normal thanks to their durable design.