Most of you have heard of it by now if you're not already using it, but you probably don't know all the details. Like, what's the difference between USB-C and USB 3.1, or are all USB-C cables capable of the same speeds.
Type C USB v/s Local USB
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Well, that's what we're going to talk about today because even though all USB-C connectors look the same, there are a LOT of different types of USB-C you should know about. And believe me, it can get REALLY confusing, I literally did about 5 hours of research for this video, but I'll try to make it easy to understand. First of all, let's start off very simple, what is USB-C.
At it's the most basic level, USB-C just refers to this specific USB plug, plus some specifications for those cables' wiring, and that's it. So just saying "USB-C" only tells you about what the cable looks like, it doesn't describe any specific speed, power capability, or supported data protocol. It was basically designed to be a more modern, future proof plug.
Most notably, the plug has more pins so it can do a lot more "stuff" which I'll get to in a bit, AND the plug is reversible, so you can't plug it in the wrong way. The joke with old USB cables was no matter how many times you flipped it, you couldn't plug it in until you looked at it. And by now you might be thinking, alright, so it's just a plug.
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But, there are three main criteria that will be very different than we can talk about. Those are data speed, power, and protocol, and those three differences are mainly what I'll cover. Now quickly, before we get into that, I should point out that even though USB-C doesn't describe any specific speeds or power capabilities, it does still have MINIMUM specifications.
For example, all USB-C cables should support at least 3 amps of electrical current, and 60 watts of power.
Also, because a USB-C cable is the same on both sides, it must obviously be wired so it can send data and power both ways equally, called "dual role". This is unlike previous USB cables, where the "host" side, such as your computer, typically had a USB-A connector, and the "device" had some other connector like MicroUSB or USB-B. So let's get into the different possible speeds of a USB-C cable. You may already be familiar with USB 3.1, or "superspeed" USB, which supports up to 10-gigabit speeds. To be clear, USB-C is NOT any of those things.
Again, USB-C is just the connector, while USB 3.1 is a data transfer standards. Rather, a USB-C cable will use one or more of those USB standards. That could be USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 Gen1, or 3.1 Gen2. And depending on what USB speed rating it uses, it will have different maximum speeds.
That means that even though USB-C is the latest brand new connector, you could still get one that only supports USB 2.0, and it will have the same speed as a regular old USB 2.0 cable, just 480 megabits. Of course, it may also support USB 3.1, but it's not a guarantee. So you need to look at the labeling to see which speed it has. But one thing you can look for is if the cable is labeled as a "full-featured" USB-C cable. This term means that the cable supports the latest USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds of 10 gigabits per second, and is backward compatible with USB 2.0 as well.
And that's an actual term from the specification documents, so you can't just call a cable "full-featured" if it doesn't fulfill that requirement. Ok so those are the different speeds, now let's talk about electrical power. As I mentioned before, any USB-C cable should have a maximum current of at least 3 amps. Though there is one exception being a USB-C to USB 2 Mini-B cable for some reason, which is 500mA, let's just forget about that one.
Anyway, you may have also heard of USB "power delivery", which allows for more electricity to be sent through USB, and more versatile charging capabilities of up to 5 amps and 100 watts. This is much higher than the standard 3 amps 60 watts. But again, not all USB-C cables, or devices for that matter, will have it.
As you can imagine, if the USB-C cable doesn't have power delivery, the most you can get is 3 Amps since that's all the cable is rated for, even if the charger and device do it. And by the way, it doesn't matter what speed rating the cable is for it to have power delivery.
Now if your cable, charger, and device do support power delivery though, it has some cool capabilities. Because you've got 100 watts to work with, you could charge much larger devices like a monitor without having to plug it into the wall, because all the data and power is through the USB-C cable.
Also, power delivery does more than just send power, it also communicates information about connected devices. Because if a cable or device doesn't support power delivery, the power source will default to sending just 3A, but if it sees that it supports power delivery, it needs to know more, like how much electricity to use.
Also, power delivery can take advantage of the "dual role" ability of USB-C, so a port may be used either as a power input or output or even switch between modes. This is why in the latest macs, you can charge them by plugging the cable into any of the USB-C ports, and all those ports can also be used to power devices themselves. So make sure you know which of your devices and cables support power delivery, so you can charge at maximum speed. Alright, now the third topic I mentioned was different protocols that may use USB-C, called "Alternate Modes".
And at the moment there are four, Displayport, thunderbolt, HDMI, and MHL. The first three you probably know, but MHL is used for connecting smartphones to TVs. If you've ever seen a micro USB to HDMI adapter for a phone, it probably used MHL.
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And just like before, any given USB-C cable may or may not support any of these protocols, AND of course these protocols won't necessarily use USB-C. Obviously, Displayport and HDMI have their own connectors you've seen, but thunderbolt 3 is actually going to use USB-C exclusively.
But this is where it gets REALLY tricky. Because each "alternate mode" has different compatibilities which are pretty arbitrary.
Take Thunderbolt 3 for example. A thunderbolt 3 cable can be used for USB 3.1, Displayport 1.2, and Thunderbolt obviously, as long as you have a Thunderbolt 3 port. And any Thunderbolt 3 cable can also be used for USB 3.1, even if it's not a thunderbolt port. BUT, there are actually two types of Thunderbolt 3 cables. There's an "active" cable that does 40 gigabits and a passive cable which does 20 gigabits. Now say you have a native DisplayPort jack on your computer, I just said that thunderbolt 3 supports DisplayPort, so I should be able to use a thunderbolt 3 cable right?
Well maybe. You CAN use the passive thunderbolt cable with up to native Displayport 1.2, but you apparently CAN'T with an active cable, it must be Displayport over thunderbolt. And if you can't follow that, well just look at this simple, easy to read table which tells you what cable types work with what modes! So yea... Turns out USB-C isn't going to be as universal as everyone thought. In fact, I think in some cases it will be even MORE confusing.
I mean, if you're just looking for a cable to use for moving data over USB, basically any of the cables will work. Though even still, you'll want to look at the speed of it. But if you're connecting a monitor or something that uses USB-C, good luck. You'll probably have to use one specific cable, that looks exactly the same as all the others except a little logo on the end. At least now you can look at any cable and instantly know what it's for just by the connector, and you can be almost sure it will work. But with USB-C, I could totally see average people trying to use a basic USB-C cable for a monitor, and having no idea why it won't work.
They should at least be color-coded or something, like how USB 3 plugs are all blue. Now in general, I do think USB-C is a positive step forward. I figure in MOST cases, it will just be used for regular USB, so it will be nice to know that if you buy some gadget, that you'll be able to use it with everything else. I just wish they standardized the cables themselves.
At least then you'd just have to worry about if the devices you're connecting are compatible, and not whether you're using the right cable that looks the same as all the others. And yea they will supposedly have logos for different types, but that barely helps because they always use stupid names instead of giving the specs.
USB Full speed, USB Hi-speed, USB Super-Speed, USB super-speed plus! It's like you have to memorize a chart of what names correspond to what speeds.
Not to mention that "High speed" USB just means USB 2.0, which was released 17 years ago! In another 10 years, they'll be calling it Ultra-Super-Duper-Mega-Max-Speed USB. Anyway enough rambling. Basically, just know that NOT all USB-C cables are created equal, and I hope you learned all the different possible types you might need or come across. So that's it, if you want to keep watching I'll put some other videos right here, you can click on those even if you're on a phone.
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I'll see you next time, have a good one.
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