Accessories
The best gadgets are only as good as the cables and accessories that connect and protect them 
. A charger rated for 100W means nothing if the cable cannot carry it, and a hub that overheats will drop your drive mid-transfer. This is the gear most people buy last and think about least, yet it is the most common point of failure in a charging or desk setup. We focus on the details that decide whether a cable, hub or adapter actually delivers: the wattage it is rated to carry, the data speed it really hits, and how it holds up after months of being coiled, dropped and packed 
. We weigh maker claims against the standards they cite, across the UK, EU and US, so your secondary gear is as reliable as your primary tech.
Independent and unbiased
Spec verified
UK, EU and US
Updated for 2026
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What to look for in a cable, hub or adapter
Four things separate an accessory that quietly works from one that bottlenecks everything plugged into it.
Wattage rating and the E-marker
A USB-C cable only carries the power it is built for. Anything above 60W needs an E-marker chip to safely pass 5A, and the newest cables go up to 240W under USB Power Delivery 3.1. A charger and a pack can both be rated high, but a thin unmarked cable in the middle quietly caps the whole chain. We check the rating, not just the connector shape.
Data speed, not just charging
A USB-C plug tells you nothing about data. A charge-only cable can move data at a crawl, while USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 reach 40Gbps. If you move files, drive a monitor or dock a laptop, the cable and hub have to support it. We confirm the real data standard, because the label and the connector often promise more than the wire delivers.
Thermals and steady performance
A hub that gets hot and throttles is an engineering failure, not a feature. Sustained transfers and high-wattage pass-through both generate heat, and cheap parts cope badly. We look at whether a hub or adapter holds its speed and its connection through long sessions, rather than only in the first minute.
Build quality and strain relief
Accessories live in bags, get yanked from sockets and wrapped tight. The first thing to fail is usually the join where the cable meets the connector. We favour reinforced strain relief, braided jackets and solid housings, because the cheapest accessory is rarely the one you buy twice.
Accessory questions, answered
The questions we get asked most about the gear that connects everything else.
Does the cable really affect charging speed?
Yes, often more than the charger. A thin cable has higher resistance, which causes voltage to drop along its length, so your device draws less power and charges slower while the cable runs warm. A cable rated for the wattage you need, with thicker conductors, removes that bottleneck.
What is an E-marker chip, and do I need one?
An E-marker is a small chip inside a USB-C cable that tells devices how much current it can safely carry. Any cable rated above 60W needs one to deliver 5A, and high-wattage laptop charging depends on it. If you charge a laptop or use a 100W or higher charger, an E-marked cable is not optional.
Can any USB-C cable carry 100W or 240W?
No. The connector is the same, but the rating is not. Only cables built and marked for high power deliver it safely. Pushing high wattage through an underrated cable means slow charging at best and heat at worst, so match the cable rating to the charger and device.
Why does my USB hub get hot or drop the connection?
Hubs generate heat when they move a lot of data or pass power through to several devices, and weaker designs throttle or disconnect once they warm up. A powered hub with its own supply and decent thermals stays stable, while a cheap bus-powered one struggles under load.
How we choose what to recommend
We are a curator, not a manufacturer. With accessories, the spec sheet hides as much as it shows, so we test what the label leaves out.
Rated power, verified
We confirm the wattage a cable or adapter is built to carry, and check for the E-marker on anything above 60W, up to the 240W PD 3.1 ceiling, so a cable never becomes the weak link in your charging chain.
Real data standards
We check the data speed a cable or hub actually supports, from charge-only up to 40Gbps USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, rather than trusting the connector shape to tell the truth.
Performance under load
We judge hubs and adapters on whether they hold their speed and connection through long, hot sessions, because throttling after a few minutes is where cheap gear gives itself away.
Built to last
We weigh strain relief, jacket quality and housing strength, because an accessory that fails at the connector after a month is a false economy, however cheap it looked.
