Review: Nomad adds a hefty 100W USB-C cable to the lineup

Today, everyone’s favorite rugged accessory maker Nomad added a hefty 100W USB-C cable to their lineup. Perfect for MacBook Pro owners, we got to go hands-on and test it out.

But first, watch my quick hands-on video of the new Nomad rugged cable.

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Now let’s dive in to all the fun and technical details.

What it can do

There are two big differences with this cable: support for 100W power output and 4K video. Clearly, this makes it ideal for those with a MacBook Pro, which can easily handle 87W of power. It’s also great if you have a high resolution USB-C monitor.

If you’ve got a USB-C drive, this cable can handle 10Gbps of data through USB 3.1 Gen 2.

It’ll be useful for any other USB-C devices, like a GoPro, though it just may be a bit overkill.

What’s on the inside

Inside this cable we see a lot of what we’ve seen in other Nomad cables. At the center is a beefy 20AWG core, needed for that 100W of power. We’ve also got RF shielding, a polyamide core, a durable PVC jacket and a 500D nylon exterior.

Nomad says they have tested this up to 4,000 flexes at 150º and it still works reliably.

Nomad’s USB-C cable differences

This brings Nomad’s USB-C lineup to three cables: a universal cable with swappable tips, a 60W and a 100W.

The 100W is only 1 meter and quite thick. If you don’t need the 100W power or 4K video, you might as well pick up the 60W cable. The 60W cable is also capable of handling USB 2.0 data, something the 100W cable lacks.

If that’s a lot of numbers to throw at you, here’s a table with all of the important facts.

Spec 60W 100W
USB 2.0 Yes No
USB 3.1 No Yes
4K Video No Yes
Flex Test 10K 4K
Length 1.5M 1M
Cable Tie Yes No

Wrap up time

I really loved Nomad’s 60W USB-C cable.

But, when I’m really throwing a heavy workload at my Mac, 60W isn’t quite enough. The 60W cable also lacks the quick data and 4K video that I need on a regular basis. The 100W cabled has fixed all of these issues, even if they did drop the length by a half meter.

The length is the only thing keeping this cable from replacing one included with my Mac.

It isn’t Nomad’s fault.

Being able to create a 100W cable at that length, while still keeping data, has been nearly impossible for vendors thus far (fingers crossed it’s something they can overcome soon).

If you’d like to pick up the 60W or 100W USB-C cable, you can do so directly from Nomad—the 60W cable will run you $24.95 and the 100W will be $39.95.

Will you be picking one up?

Let us know in the comments below!