The new high-end certified 40 Gbps Thunderbolt cable by Apple is marked at $129. There’s divided market opinion on whether this is a bargain or just ridiculously expensive.
To get into some of the features of this braided cable, it would be interesting to point out that the new $129 Thunderbolt 3 Cable supports DisplayPort video and 100 watt charging and other Thunderbolt 3 specs like allowing for USB 3.1 Gen 2 data transfer all the way up to 10 Gbps.
Coming to the question of whether it’s really a bargain. The $129 cable can’t be simply thought of as cheap. However, Apple’s Thunderbolt 3 cable is one of the few certified cables that support all of the Thunderbolt 3 specs as mentioned above. You could get a lot for $129, however, if you’re a video editor or a pro, you’d know that cost is a drop in the bucket. The TB3 optical cables cost hundreds of dollars itself!
The cable is not a passive one; it’s highly active with chips on both ends. You can finally avoid buying TB3 optical cables that cost hundreds of dollars. Also you won’t need to place the drive half a meter away to get the full 40 Gbps speed.