Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
One problem I've seen with some USB-C cables is they are slow and you don't know this until after you've bought it. I bought a while ago a multifunction cable that has USB-C, micro-USB, and two lightning connectors.
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Micro-B and the even older mini-A can only do USB2 speeds. No faster. So if you see one of those connectors on your cable, it will never be "fast". A multi-function cable with more than one connector on one end of it could theoretically be wired so that the micro-B connector is slow but the other connectors are fast. I don't know if multi-function cables are actually wired this way or not, but they theoretically could be. I would guess that unless the multi-function cable is an expensive high end one, that it is probably just wired so all connectors run at the speed of the slowest connector.
There is a variation of the micro-B connector, called "micro-B AB" I believe, that can do USB3 speeds. It is bigger than a standard micro-B connector. You used to see this type of connector on external USB3 hard drives. I guess they named it this weird and confusing concoction of letters because a male micro-B connector can plug into a female micro-B AB receptacle, but not the other way around. So the female micro-B AB receptacle was backwards compatible with the original micro-B male plug.
USB-A connectors can be USB2 or USB3. Ditto for USB-C connectors. The USB-A connectors that can do USB3 speeds are usually blue in color, or marked "SS" (for "Super Speed").
USB connectors are a mess for determining speeds they can handle. It's (currently) either 480 Mbps (USB2 speed), 5 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or 20 Gbps (USB3 speeds). Or it could be 40 Gbps or I think even 80 Gbps if it's Thunderbolt or USB4.
You can see on the little micro sized PC I just bought (pics below) that on the back it has both 10 Gbps and 5 Gbps USB-A ports. The 5 Gbps ones are labeled simply "SS". The 10 Gbps ones are labeled "SS10". On the front panel it has one USB-A "SS10" port and one USB-C "SS20" port (20 Gbps).
At least the above labeling method tells you something in an obvious way. Other companies label their 5 Gbps ports "USB3.2 Gen1", their 10 Gbps ports "USB3.2 Gen2", and their 20 Gbps ports "USB3.2 Gen 2x2". And then for good measure, they throw in alternate designations for these speeds using USB3.1 or USB3.0 rather than USB3.2. Some companies just call all the different USB3 speeds "SS". Other companies don't even label them anything, they're just blue in color and you get to guess the speed. Some might mention, or might not mention, that it's actually a Thunderbolt port. But then they don't mention whether it's Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4. Often times the user manual or system spec sheet will tell you what the heck kind of port it is, but not always.
It's a mess trying to determine port speed these days. But if it's micro-B or mini-B, it is no faster than USB2. You know that for sure.
I wish all cables were labeled like the one in the third pic below. You know the speed for data transfer, and the wattage for fast charging. But very few are.