****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
For starters I have a 2010 13" MacBook Pro that I bring back and forth between work and home. I just leave the cable at work connected to my desk monitor. I plug it in every morning, putting most of the wear-n-tear on the MiniDisplay end. I used to own a cheaper knock-off of the adapter sold at the Apple Store, and it lasted about a good 8 months before video would flicker and what not if I bumped the cable. Finally it died after about 15 months. That is when I purchased this cable which seemed to be a bonus as I don't travel with it, so carrying around a 6-foot cord is not an issue, and it cuts out the middle-man of needing a short ~6" adapter and then a regular DVI cable. Overall, there are less variables in the connection to the monitor which I like.Build Quality: the cable looks a little cheap, but overall it feels sturdier than the last adapter. I do not use FireWire 800, so I cannot attest to it blocking the FireWire port. But it does not block any USB cables, USB memory card adapters, etc. that I plug in next to the MiniDisplay. Some people complain about the screws not being notched on the DVI side, but they seem to suffice. Again, I am not constantly moving this cable in and out of different monitors. And if I were, I would just buy 2 of these cables, which is still cheaper than buying 1 from Apple. Mind you the Apple adapter only gets a 3-star rating, according to their online store.Video Quality: The video quality seems great. Perhaps the old adapter was just on the way out, but even when it did work, the edges of the monitor seemed dim. I thought maybe this monitor was dying with the old cable, but now I know it is not.Bottom Line: Cheap price, great quality (so far), and unless there is some incompatibility with Thunderbolt ports, I can't see any reason not to get it. Also, someone complained about the shipping being slow, I have a Prime Account, so I would not know. I ordered it on Friday and got it on Monday, with Free 2-Day shipping. You can't beat that.Pluses:The cord has some length to it, which was nice, so I didn't need an extension. Worked as intended for a little over a month.Minuses:I bought this cable a little over a month ago so I can use two monitors for my Macbook Pro (laptop screen and external). While I didn't have much of an issue with the cable blocking USB ports (Some skinny USB devices plugged in just fine, such as my Mac mouse, but some flash drives were wider and had trouble fitting. This is more so Mac's design problems rather than this cable's.), I did have a few other problems.Immediately when plugged in I noticed that the screen quality looked as if I had used a VGA cable. The quality wasn't horrible by any means, but it didn't look as crisp as when I use my PC to DVI cable to the same monitor. If you can tell the difference in the on screen quality between VGA and DVI, then I wouldn't recommend this cable. I do graphic design for a living, so I found myself working mostly on the laptop monitor just for the better quality image. Which defeated the purpose of buying the cable in the first place.About two to three weeks after owning this cable, I began to have signal issues from the Macbook to the monitor. To correct this, I had to gently move the cable around like an antenna until I got my picture back. This progressively got worse every day I used it and had to play with it longer and longer to get the single to work. Before this issue, I used this cable very gently and only moved it about 2 or three inches every day to connect to my laptop, otherwise it didn't move around. Eventually the cable stopped working altogether (as in today).Since the cost of returning this product exceed the cost of buying a new one, I decided to disassemble it to see what the issue is. Within the circuitry in the connection that connects to the computer, a small wire broke loose from its tiny circuit board. Maybe this was due to the cord twisting? Not sure.Summary: The quality wasn't as good as I expected a DVI cable to have and the cable died on me a little over a month of gentle use. If you want a higher quality signal, don't get this cable. If you do get this cable, be very gentle with it![Update July 2013] I think different sellers are shipping different cables. Cable Matters Inc. instantly shipped me 3 good quality cables with a neat, molded connector that didn't block anything else and has been working fine for over a year now. [End update]I was pleased to get rid of the little white adaptor dongle that came with my MacBook Pro. The cables (I ordered three) work great and are lighter weight and more manageable (i.e., roll up neatly) than the old combination of the adaptor dongle plus a big DVI cable. Total price for three was less than Apple's price for one short adapter (and you might still need DVI cables too.)The screws are maybe a little shortish, but I was able to make them work on all the displays I've tried. The cables came with that annoying smell I've found on inexpensive plastic items from China, but that dissipated within a day or two.Some older reviews said the connector on the display port end was too fat, but apparently that's either a problem with specific sellers or else they've fixed it on currently shipping cables, because I'm easily able to plug other cables in right next to the DisplayPort. I ordered from Cable Matters Inc., and it was delivered the next day using Amazon Prime even though I didn't pay for next day shipping.works as intended.
