If you own one of the Apple devices, you may notice icons like the above picture. Have you ever wondered what they mean? In this article, Pengo is going to explain the importance of MFi certification. What is MFi? MFi stands for Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod. Products that are certified by MFi means they are qualified for numerous rigorous tests designed by Apple. But, how hard is that? Honestly, it’s quite difficult. On average, there are only 2% of the suppliers who are eligible for the certification. What has MFi secured for your Apple devices? Long story short, MFi is here to assure products’ performance, safety, specifications, and to avoid problems and failures that may occur during the use of your Apple products. MFi eliminates issues such as unable to transfer data, slow charging and data transfer speed, cable malfunctions after an upgrade, low durability, communication interferences, swollen battery or the worst of all, battery explosion. The interior case are reinforced with a metal protective shell and equipped with Apple-certified chips and power management chips so that the charging rate, charging voltage at different stages can comply with MFi standards. Avoid excessive voltage or electric current to cause damage to the device. When a problem occurs in the output of the power supply (e.g. the voltage gets too high), the certified chips installed inside the cable will automatically cut off the power. If you find our price higher than other brands, it is because it includes MFi licensing fee, chips and quality maintenance in our costs, and all those essences are the factors that make our products better and more reliable than uncertified cables. Apple also routinely audits MFi manufacturing facilities to maintain products’ quality. Does MFi mean better? Apple listed the four issues you may encounter while using uncertified or counterfeit accessories: It will damage your iOS device stability Uncertified accessories have a higher rate of damages. The connector end could come off, get overheated or does not fit properly into your devices You might not be able to sync or charge your devices Since 2018 January, there have been three explosion incidents due to the use of uncertified accessories. Apple always recommends using only the accessories that Apple has certified, by which Apple has also stated, if an explosion is caused by using uncertified accessories, Apple will not provide any repair service nor any compensation. We all know the saying “you get what you pay for” and not everyone might be concerned about the transfer speed; however, the harm caused to your iOS device by using uncertified accessories is unpredictable and yet cannot be neglected. If an uncertified cable only lasts one or two months and costs about $10-14 dollars cheaper than a quality cable, why not choose one for its quality to protect your expensive device? What’s more, with MFi certified accessories, they are more durable and safer for you! How do I know if my accessories are MFi certified? If a notification like this appears when you plug in your cable, it means that this accessory is uncertified. Another case is when you use a certified cable but with an uncertified adapter, a message like this might also show up. What other methods can we take if a message like this doesn’t show? Go to Search for Accessories and input Pengo, a list will appear of all the products under Pengo brand that are MFi certified. Same method applies to other brands as well if you want to find out if your accessories are MFi certified. How do you look for a brand name? 1. Select “brand’ from the drop down menu, 2. Input the “pengo” or “Pengo” in the text bar, 3. Press “Search” This search system was designed for suppliers to check if they pass the MFi tests, and if their brand names will appear in the search result. Although this was meant to help with the suppliers, consumers can also take advantage of it and check if their accessories on hand are safe and quality-assured by Apple. Hopefully now you have a better understanding of MFi certification, and this is the reason why Pengo insists on providing only the MFi certified products. We care about your safety rather than just selling products. Finally, if you would like to learn more about USB-C or some technical knowledge, like and follow us on Facebook. We also have occasional promotion campaigns for you, so don’t miss out on the good deals! *updated 2018/10/5