The review

Buy almost any 240W USB-C cable and you get a fast charger and nothing else. They run data at USB 2.0, which is fine for charging and useless for files. The Amazon Basics USB4 is the cable that breaks that pattern in this price bracket. It’s the genuine article: USB4, 40 Gbps, Thunderbolt 4 and 3 compatible, with 8K video output and 240W charging in the same lead. If you want one cheap cable to drive an external SSD, a dock or a monitor and still charge a laptop, this is the one to look at. There’s one honest caveat, durability, so read the build section before you buy. Our USB-C cables explained guide covers why the data and video difference matters.

How we test and choose

We recommend cables by cross-checking each one’s claims against the manufacturer’s published figures, the USB4 and USB Power Delivery standards, and independent test data, alongside hands-on use of the gear we own. SmartGadgetKit is a growing site, so where we have not long-term-tested a specific unit ourselves, we say so. We haven’t had this exact cable on the bench, so this review leans on the Amazon UK listing for the specs and on independent testing by MobileReviews Eh! for the real-world data, charging and durability results. You can read the full method on our how we test page.

Data and video: this is the real thing

This is where the cable earns its place. It’s a true USB4 lead rated at 40 Gbps, not a 240W charging cable wearing a USB4 badge. Independent testing by MobileReviews Eh! measured large-file transfer at roughly 238 MB/s write and 234 MB/s read out of the box. Those numbers are limited by the drive used, not the cable, which is exactly what you want to see: the cable isn’t the bottleneck. For an external SSD, a backup drive or a docking station, that is a real, usable difference over the USB 2.0 charging cables it sits next to in the best USB-C cables roundup.

Video is the other half. The listing supports a single 8K display at 60Hz, a single 4K at 120Hz, or two 4K screens at 60Hz, provided your host device supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode. Add Thunderbolt 4 and 3 compatibility on top, and you’ve got a cable that does the lot from one connector. That versatility is the whole reason to choose it.

Charging: full 240W on paper, lower power confirmed

On power, the spec is everything you’d want. It carries up to 240W under USB Power Delivery 3.1 Extended Power Range, which is 48V at 5A, with the e-marker chip the standard requires above 60W. To actually hit 240W, your charger, cable and device all have to support 48V/5A and be EPR capable, which is true of any 240W cable.

Independent testing by MobileReviews Eh! confirmed the cable cleanly hit the common charging protocols out of the box, including 15W, 27W, 45W and 60W. The full 240W draw was not independently bench-validated in the testing we could verify, so treat the 240W as a verified rating rather than an independently measured result. As a charging cable, it does the job. As a charging-and-everything-else cable, it’s doing far more than its rivals.

Durability: the catch, and it is a real one

This isn’t a braided cable. It uses a TPE jacket with a notably large connector head, and Amazon rates it to 5,000 bends at 95 degrees, which is well below the 30,000-bend braided cables elsewhere in our cluster.

Independent testing by MobileReviews Eh! went further with a custom bend rig and stress-tested it harder than the listing claim. The cable showed only limited visible damage, but it failed functionally afterwards. Data transfer stopped establishing a proper connection, voltage drop rose from 0.59V to 0.74V, and charging worked only 1 time in 20 attempts. The reviewer’s conclusion lines up with ours: acceptable for a stationary setup, not ideal for daily portable use. Amazon’s 5,000-bend figure is the official claim, and the independent stress test is a tougher, separate test, so treat them as two different measurements rather than a direct contradiction. Either way, the message for a buyer is the same: keep this one on the desk.

Everyday use: who it is actually for

Think of this as a desk and dock cable. Plugged into a monitor, a Thunderbolt dock or an external SSD, where it isn’t being coiled into a bag every day, it’s excellent and does things the charging cables next to it can’t. As a cable you sling in a rucksack with your keys and water bottle, the durability evidence says think twice. For that job a tougher braided charging cable, or a slim retractable, is the safer pick. Buy this for what it uniquely does: data, video and power from one connector at a budget price.

Sources: independent testing by MobileReviews Eh!; USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) for the USB4 and USB Power Delivery 3.1 standards. Specs from the Amazon UK product listing.