Anker Braided USB Cable Review and a Nice Extra

Normally when I buy some new USB cables, the thought of writing about them here never even crosses my mind, but leave it to Anker to find a way of making even lowly boring USB cables fun and exciting.  The Anker Braided USB Cables (via Amazon) are not the only braided USB cables out there, but the presentation and packaging are outstanding, and as a pen person, the packaging also makes for a great additional accessory.  Just as a side note one of the four Anker Braided USB Cables that I picked up didn’t come packaged like this, so I’m not sure what the reason was.

To my surprise when I opened my first Anker Braided USB Cable box, I saw a tissue paper wrapped pouch.  For a second, I thought that maybe I ordered the wrong thing and didn’t realize it, because this already looks like some pretty fancy packaging for a USB cable, no?

After peeling the tissue paper wrapper off the pouch, I saw that my fancy new Anker Braided USB Cable was tucked away in a pretty soft felt pouch with a small Anker label sewn onto it.  At this point I’m pretty sure I must have ordered the wrong thing because I’ve actually had more expensive pens come in packaging that was nowhere near as nice as this.

Inside the fancy pouch I’ve finally confirmed I actually ordered a USB cable, and it looks really cool.  The reason I picked the grey version was because this one is going to get plugged in behind my couch and since the couch is almost this same exact color grey, the cable should go pretty unnoticed once I plug it in and snake it through the back and between the seat cushions.  The key is to have it easily accessible but also as well hidden as possible and the color and texture make that a much easier task to accomplish.  I also picked up some tan ones to put in my car and bedroom because they match the carpet and interior well.  I like to make sure I’ve got both Android and Apple charging supplies around for friends so sometimes I guess I go overboard with the cables, but since these look so nice and blend in so well, I don’t feel too bad about having them around.  Oh, also one last thing of note on the pouch before we get to the other use for it, it has magnets sewn into it so it actually closes and stays shut.  I’ve also found that these cables are much more flexible and less rigid than their standard rubber coated counterparts.  Having them be less stiff like this helps make my phone more manageable when I’m trying to use it while its plugged in.

So although the cases for the Anker Braided USB Cable are intended to keep the cables wrapped to the shortest necessary length and cover the excess, thats totally not how I think they should be used.  I discovered that the pouches for the 6 foot cables which measure about 5.75 inches long are perfect for holding one pen.  There are two Velcro straps, one lays directly on top of the other but is attached to it.  This one can be used to actually wrap around the pen as tight as possible.

The backside of that strap affixes itself to the other portion of the Velcro strap once you wrap it over the top of the pen that you want to keep stored in there.    You are probably better off using a thicker pen, like my Lamy Studio as you see in this picture because on a much thinner pen you don’t get the same tightness once you wrap it in there.

Finally you can just pull the rest of the Velcro strap over the pen and its as secure as can be.  As I mentioned before too, the flaps of the case fold over each other and have magnets on the edge so it will hold the whole package shut.  Now you have a nice cool new pen case from the re-purposed Anker Braided USB Cable case and it looks really cool.  Its hard to review USB cables like these other than to say they look good, are highly durable, and just flat out work like they should, so the additional surprise and functionality of the nice felt case was really a nice touch.  If you are looking for to spruce up the wires that are usually bland, boring, and ugly you really cant go wrong with an Anker Braided USB Cable (via Amazon).