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Ugreen Nexode 240W USB-C cable
4.0
Pros & Cons
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Capable of handling up to 240W of power. -
Built to last. -
Power meter is practical, accurate, and fun. -
Very competitively priced.
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Somewhat thick and bulky.
It’s been a while since I’ve been excited to review a cable. I mean, there’s not much to say really. Most of the time, a cable’s standout feature is that it fails in some way, and that’s hardly going to be review-worthy.
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But the Ugreen Nexode 240W USB-C cable got me jazzed because it’s the perfect cable for the tech geek; not only is it great for all your charging needs, but it also has a cool and useful built-in power meter.
And, just to make it even better, it’s not expensive!
One point for sturdiness
Let’s put the meter aside for a moment — I know, you’re excited to find out about it too — and look at the cable.
The Nexode 240W USB-C cable definitely falls into the premium cables category, and it oozes ruggedness and utility. From the snag- and abrasion-resistant nylon-braided jacket that can withstand over 30,000 bends and flexes to the premium aluminum alloy connector housings primed for more than 10,000 insertion/removal cycles, this cable has been built to last.
It’s the kind of cable that you can wrap up, throw in a pocket or bag, pull out when you need and it won’t be tangled or bothered by the treatment.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
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Yes, the cable is thick, and it doesn’t bend as smoothly as thinner cables, but robustness always carries a “bigger and bulkier” tax. That said, this definitely isn’t the bulkiest cable I’ve used.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
On the inside, this cable is about as cutting-edge as they get. It can handle up to 240W of power, has full PD 3.1 support, and inside there’s an E-Marker chip that stores information about the power and data the cable can carry. It’s a particularly important safety tool because cables can now carry high currents and wattages.
This is specifically a charging cable, so data transfer is limited to 480 Mbps, which is fine for moving about everyday files such as documents, photos, and home videos between devices. There’s also no video transmission support, so this cable can’t be used for screen mirroring or to connect a display.
You get to choose from two lengths, depending on your needs — 3.3 feet (1 meter) and 6.6 feet (2 meters).
The cable is held in a look using two hook-and-loop strips.
It’s effective, but I’m not a fan of these because they get caught up on fabrics and collect a lot of muck and hair.
The feature you didn’t know you needed
OK, we finally get to the bit we’ve all been waiting for: the screen. And it’s not just any screen, it’s a touchscreen color TFT display (albeit the touch features are limited — I’ll get to that in a minute).
Once you connect the cable, the display shows voltage (V), current (A), and power (W) in real-time.
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For when you don’t need specific numbers, there’s a colorful border that is used to show you at-a-glance if charging is fast and greater than 60W (orange-yellow), in the normal 18W to 60W range (green-blue) or less than 18W, indicating a slow/trickle if the device is fully charged (green). I love this feature because it means that my old eyes don’t have to work too hard, but I still get a good idea of what’s happening.
The touchscreen bit controls the display, with a quick tap rotating it and a long press turning it off. I like the off feature because you don’t always want something glowing, no matter how useful it is.
I’ve tested the built-in meter against my standalone units, and it’s spot-on accurate, so it’s perfect for times when I don’t have a dedicated power meter.
ZDNET’s buying advice
I’ve left one of the best bits about the Ugreen Nexode 240W USB-C cable for last: its price.
The 3.3-foot version is only $18.99, while the 6.6-foot version is only a dollar more at $19.99. This is an amazing price for a quality USB-C cable that can handle 240W, that’s before you add the power meter.
