Apple has just introduced its official braided Thunderbolt 5 Pro cable, priced at $69. This 1-meter cable, available now on Apple’s online store and Best Buy, supports up to 240W of power delivery and achieves impressive data transfer speeds, making it ideal for creative professionals who need reliable high-speed connectivity.

Paired with the newly released M4 Pro Mac mini—Apple’s first device to include Thunderbolt 5 ports—this cable highlights the significant upgrades of Thunderbolt 5 over its predecessor, Thunderbolt 4. With up to 80 Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth (doubling the speed of Thunderbolt 4) and even higher peak rates of up to 120 Gbps, Thunderbolt 5 caters to high-resolution displays and complex workloads. Users can connect multiple 8K displays, drive 4K monitors at 144Hz, or push ultra-high refresh rates of up to 540Hz for a truly expansive setup.

Apple’s cable also reflects Thunderbolt 5’s backward compatibility with Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, USB 3, and DisplayPort 2.1. This ensures users can seamlessly integrate legacy devices, though transfer speeds will reduce to match the lower standards. The use of new encoding methods and efficient power management through Intel’s Barlow Ridge chip means the upgrade serves both Windows and macOS systems, ensuring broad compatibility across platforms as more devices with Thunderbolt 5 hit the market in 2024 and beyond.

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