I replaced expensive Apple Thunderbolt cables with a $40 Satechi alternative

Shopping for a Thunderbolt 5 cable revealed a wide price range. Apple charges $159 for its 3‑meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable and $69 for a smaller Thunderbolt 5 Pro option, but Satechi’s fully certified Thunderbolt 5 Pro cable is available for $40. The cable meets the Thunderbolt 5 expectations: 240W power delivery (48V at 5A), 8K video at 60Hz (or three 4K displays at 144Hz, with macOS limited to 6K), and up to 120Gb/s unidirectional bandwidth (80Gb/s bi‑directional).

Certification also means compatibility with Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB4, and USB3.2/3.1. It’s a one‑meter (3.3ft) cable with a thick braided nylon sheath, sturdy aluminum connectors with the Thunderbolt mark laser‑etched in, chunky strain relief, and a silicone cable keep.

After checking the specs with a cable tester and moving gigabytes of data to a storage system under review, the cable handled everything without issue. At $40 the Satechi Thunderbolt 5 Pro cable is competitively priced.

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