Enlarge / Apple’s Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) Pro cable connector in its reinforced, grounded metal shell (left) and its single-piece crimped cable strain relief (right). (credit: Lumafield)

When Apple finally made the move to USB-C, it did so in a very Apple way. That includes the offering of a $130 Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) Pro cable, one that’s actually $160 if you need the full 3 meters. Could one cable, an object whose job is to transfer power and data and be completely unnoticed, be worth that kind of cash?

Lumafield, maker of manufacturing-minded industrial CT scanners, studied this question across three dimensions. After scanning Apple’s top-of-the-line cable, a $10 Amazon Basics model, and USB-C cables costing $5.59 and $3.89, Lumafield had no definitive answer other than “we buy cables that meet our needs” and that “there’s plenty of room for clever engineering and efficient manufacturing” inside a seemingly defined spec like USB-C.

But we can say that if your goal is to buy one cable that will hold up to abuse, work with the power and data speeds of today and a reasonably distant tomorrow, and remove cables from your list of things that might be the problem? Lumafield’s images show why Apple’s alpha-cable might just be worth it.