By Jeffrey
In Bits & Bytes, Helpful Hints, Sales, Services
![](https://www.checkmarkcomputers.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/img_56a8096b501e8.png)
What’s an “MFi”?
What exactly is an MFi cable, anyway? Aren’t all cables “good enough”?
“MFi” stands for “Made for iPhone” (or iPad, iPod, or your other a favorite iDevice) and it means that a cable or accessory is Apple-certified to be higher-quality and fully compatible with iPhones and other Apple devices. For cables, it also means there is a little chip in it that confirms it’s authorized and “makes the grade”.
Why does it matter? For starters, a non-MFi cable might not charge or sync as quickly, if it works at all, and a low-quality cable even has the potential to damage your phone! While it might sound appealing to save a few bucks on a cable, we generally don’t recommend risking it with a thousand-dollar phone…
You might have a bad cable and not even know it. For example, your phone might be charging but not showing up on your computer or syncing. As if life wasn’t frustrating enough!
The charger that came with your device is the best to use, but may simply not be an option, and Apple-brand replacement cables can be expensive, or too short, and the consensus is they are not the most durable.
Brands like Ventev and Tough Tested have popped up to help, with MFi-certified cables (yes, we have some), but whatever cable you get for your iDevice, we recommend you get one that is MFi-certified, to ensure it will fit and work the best!
If you’re curious, you can learn more about MFi certification, and see the difference in quality:
https://www.howtogeek.com/426208/what-does-apple-mfi-certified-mean/