FAST, Modular…and Very Yellow: Future Racing Cable Set and Youth Charger (AOHI)

Introduction

One premise of a smart home is to automate the repetitive tasks in life, like controlling lights and the thermostat. And one of the underlying benefits of this is to save time. You can save time through automation, or…by getting a faster tool for the job.

I’m taking a look at this type of a tool: The Future Racing Cable Set and the Youth charger. These can:

• Fast charge your phone, tablet, or laptop.
• Transfer data at blazing fast speeds.
• Support an 8K external display.
• They’re also completely modular, allowing you to adjust the cable length depending on your use case.
• And…they’re very yellow.

These things have an unusual name with an unusual design, but are they any good and how might you benefit?

Main Points

Features

The Future Racing Cable Set is built for charging your devices and transferring data, and doing these tasks as fast as possible, hence the name racing. The set includes three separate cables and a carrying case.

There is a USB-C to USB-C cable measuring about 5” long. The cable is a rectangular, rubberized material with grooves in a u-shape layout, which gives the perfect grip for my thumb and pointer finger to unplug the cable from devices. Because of the rectangular shape and strong rubber, the cable bends easily up and down, but it doesn’t twist or move much side-to-side. There is a black, metallic end, with an LED light that provides a quick, visual indicator of the charging status. Yellow means the device is fast charging. Blue means standard charging. And Green means there is a low current. This cable is USB 4. That means it supports up to 40 Gpbs data transfer, 8K audio and video transfer at 60 hertz, and up to 240 watt fast charging. So, in theory, you could transfer a 10 gigabyte video file in just four seconds. To get the full performance, your devices must also support it.

Next up is a USB-A to USB-C cable of the same length, design, and materials. This one supports USB 3.2, meaning it’s limited to 10 Gbps data transfer and 60 watt charging. But, this is more than enough to fast charge my iPhone 15 Pro Max. And the USB-C cable that Apple provides with an iPhone 15 Pro Max does not support 10 Gpbs data transfer speeds. So, an accessory like this can unlock the device’s potential.

By themselves, the two shorter cables are great for something like plugging an external drive into a laptop or phone. Sometimes, a shorter cable is just better for the job. When you need more length, the cable set also includes a male USB-C to female USB-C extension cable that is about 32” long. You can plug either of the short cables into this, bringing the combined length to just over 3’, or about 1 meter. I suspect the combined length is intentional, since the max cable length recommended for 40Gbps data transfer is 1 meter. The extension cable is also rubber, but it is a more traditional round shape unlike the rectangular design of the two shorter cables. This allows the extension cable to bend and move in any direction. It includes a velcro fastener for cable management.Combining the extension cable with one of the shorter cables would be good for connecting a laptop to an external display, or for reaching a charging outlet in the wall.

All three cables fit into an included black, rubber, lightweight carrying case. This makes it easy to store and travel with all of your cables together. The case could easily slip into a backpack or purse, though it’s too big for pant pockets.

To get the full performance of these cables, you’re going to need a compatible charging brick. The Youth is a 140 watt, UL-certified GaN charger.

GaN is short for Gallium Nitride, and enables chargers to produce less heat. If there is less heat, then components can be closer together, allowing chargers to be smaller and more energy-efficient. They can handle higher power levels and charge faster than traditional silicon.

The Youth charger supports power delivery, or PD, 3.1 for fast charging your devices. It has three ports: two USB-C, and one USB-A. The first USB-C port supports 140 watt charging. The second USB-C port supports up to 100 watt fast charging. And the USB-A port supports up to 22.5 watt fast charging. My iPhone 15 Pro Max needs 20 watts or higher to fast charge, so all three ports support this. My 14” M3 Pro MacBook Pro requires a 96-watt USB-C power adapter to fast charge, so either of the two USB-C ports support this. However, none of the three ports on the Youth charger can max out the 240 watt fast charging that the USB-C to USB-C cable supports.

The Youth charger is yellow and black like the cable set, with collapsible outlet ends. I don’t typically gravitate toward bright colors, but I like the matte yellow finish and textured, black front. Note that the Youth charger does not fit in the carrying pouch that holds the three cables.

Performance

So, how do The Future Racing Cable Set and Youth Charger actually perform in the real world?

Using the USB-C to USB-C cable, I was able to fast charge my iPhone 15 Pro Max from completely dead and 0% battery up to 50% battery in 28 minutes, or about two minutes faster than expected. It took a total of 56 minutes to go from 0% to 80%, or a total of 65 minutes to go from 0% to 95%. It is expected for charging speeds to reduce as the device approaches a full charge. I also tested going from about 40% to 80%, and this took 40 minutes.

The USB-C to USB-C cable with extension had no problem outputting video and audio from my 14” M3 Pro MacBook Pro to a 4K LG display. I don’t own an 8K display to test this with.

Final Thoughts

AOHI claims this is the world's first modular-extension USB 4 power delivery 3.1 cable set. I know that I have never seen charging or data cables that look like these. The modularity, material selection, form factor, and colors are super unique. It appears not only thoughtfully designed, but also high quality. Together, these devices have a unified look that really sets them apart.

The one potential shortcoming may be the rectangular design of the two shorter cables in certain setups. If you use it to connect a laptop to an external display, you may need the full length of the cables to reach. Since the rectangular cable doesn’t bend as easily, it could result in an awkward connection at one end.

There was one particularly frustrating issue for me, though it may not be an issue for you. I cannot use the USB-C cable with my iPhone 15 Pro Max without first removing my phone case. I don’t have this issue with the USB-C cable that Apple provides. For context, I’m using the Peak Design Everyday Case V2. It a fairly slim case, so I was surprised by this limitation. Of course, if you’re using a different case — or no case at all — you may not have this issue. It’s disappointing because it’s a really solid cable set, but it’s just too annoying to remove my phone case every time I need to charge.

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