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- I'm extremely frugal, and spending more than $10 on a phone charger never seemed appealing.
- However, my apartment recently became an unofficial graveyard for under-$10 CVS phone chargers that could not survive me as their custodian.
- For the last few months, I've been using a $30 phone charger made from the same material found in bulletproof vests. It has stood up to a lot of abuse, and outlived many cheaper kinds.
- Overall, the Belkin Duratek has been a great investment.
I have a chronic case of frugality.
But, as is often the case with applying a "whatever's cheapest and gets the job done" rule universally, frugality does not always wind up being the most cost-effective option. In fact, it can end up costing quite a lot just to deny yourself the finer versions of things.
Take for instance the graveyard of cheap, last-minute CVS iPhone chargers languishing around my small NYC apartment. I never willingly spent more than $10 on one, but, as part of that compromise, I accepted the need to replace them at an interval so frequent it only otherwise applies to bananas and un-refrigerated meat.
In the end, buying the cheap version of things - especially the basics - can be expensive. If you like one expensive chapstick more than 30 others, stop buying 30 others and just invest once in your favorite. It will probably cost the same, or it will be cheaper in the long-run. The same goes for pens, and the same goes for phone chargers.
This is the logic that led me to the $30 phone charger made out of Kevlar. It's called the Belkin Duratek Kevlar Lightning Cable, which sounds like a new model of armored truck, and its basically supposed to act like one, too.
It's built with DuPont Kevlar - the same material found in bulletproof vests and extreme sports gear - and made for ultimate durability. An exterior of hard-wearing and double-braided nylon acts like a protective jacket, and aluminum casing protects the circuit board inside the connector. The connector is supposed to withstand over 40+ pounds of force and has enough strain relief to withstand being bent in half over 5,000 times. Inside is flexible insulation that reduces friction without compromising how your charger bends and moves.
The Duratek is also Apple MiFi Certified, and works with a slew of devices.
The reviews on Amazon are mixed (240+ and an overall 3.4 stars), but it's the best option I've yet found - and since it has outlasted so many cheaper fallbacks I have, it's also been a great value for $30. I've been using my Duratek for the last few months and I've never once been careful with it - tossing it in purses with loose books rolling around on top of it, jammed into small pockets, and contorted at strange angles. I've also noticed that it charges quickly.
I don't have any illusions that this charger will last forever despite its impressive fabric choices, but it has outlasted all the cheaper iterations I've bought in the meantime - which makes it worth it to me. There are cheaper options out there for braided chargers (like this one from AmazonBasics), but I've been trying to avoid prioritizing price over the things (like a sturdy connector piece) that make any price actually worth it.
If you're looking to settle down with a resilient phone charger you can count on for more than a few months at a time, it may be worth looking into Belkin's Duratek Kevlar cable. And if you're always skipping out on the finer things because you're stuck on frugal autopilot, it's definitely worth expanding your definition of what a great value looks like.
Belkin MIXIT Duratek Kevlar Lightning to USB Cable, from $25.99
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