Ah yes, USB Type-C, the new USB standard that will save us from constantly trying to put
plug in a USB cable the right way.
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.
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 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 reversable, 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.
But, there are three main criteria that will be very different that we can talk about.
Those are data speed, power, and protcol, 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 speed.
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 labelling to see which speed it has.
But one thing you can look for is if the cable is labelled 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 backwards 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, but 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 microUSB to HDMI adapter for a phone, it probably used MHL.
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 cable.
There's an "active" cable which does 40 gigabits, and a passive cable which does 20 gigabit.
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!
Sooo 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.
Also let me know what you think down in the comments section and give this video a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it.
And don't forget to subscribe I make new videos at least 3 times a week, tuesday thursday
saturday, and also maybe enable notifications as well.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you, and as usual thanks for watching, I'll see you
next time, have a good one.