Found this[0] some while ago on reddit. It shows the mess that is the USB-C cable market in a spreadsheet with every feature each cable supports.
It’s crazy.
[0]:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vnpEXfo2HCGADdd9G2x9...
How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
21–30 of 210 posts
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#22[deleted]
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#23I've had a USB-C capable device (MBP) for a few years now, and it originally was extremely annoying. Needing dongles for _everything_ was annoying, and getting rid of Magsafe meant a lot of my existing chargers that I'd accumulated no longer worked. My work laptop (at the time) didn't use USB-C, so I had to keep two chargers around, and I couldn't charge my iPhone from my laptop at all. Fast forward a few years and I…
[deleted]
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#24Much like TB3 ports that have a small lighting icon, all USB-C ports and cables should have an icon that explains what type of cable you are expected to plug.
It would not completely solve the problem, but I think it would reduce it considerably.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#25Does anybody know how USB4 will impact this? Will any cable that will be labeled as USB4 need to be full spec, or will there be a similar situation of cables with varying degrees of compatibility all labeled USB4?
If we assume that USB4 is basically Thunderbolt 3 that means full spec cables will be too expensive so they will definitely allow lower-spec cables. And if it keeps using the USB-C connector then all the bad old cables are still there.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#26I have never encountered a C-to-C cable with only USB 2 support. Are they are really a thing?
Absolutely. They're often used as charging cables, e.g. on cell phones and Apple laptops, where engineering a high-speed data cable of the length required would be costly, difficult, and unnecessary.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is used for charging laptops. Personally, I love having a single cable for power, USB, and DisplayPort.
You ever wonder what the purpose of keying connectors is? I'm curious, because it's one of those time-tested ways to ensure that things get plugged into the correct ports and avoid costly accidents. Really simple too. Why on earth is a standard as ridiculously complicated as USB-C a better idea? What is the practical value of an "everything" connector when its spec is so complicated that it really doesn't support "ev…
because when it does it's magic. you connect one cable to a dock and your laptop becomes a desktop.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is used for charging laptops. Personally, I love having a single cable for power, USB, and DisplayPort.
I personally also really love that I can charge my phone and my laptop with the same cable (I have a phone with USB-C that uses PD along with a 2016 MacBook Pro). It makes cable management much simpler, and I find it invaluable that when traveling I only need to bring one single charger with me.
Yep, it's great - my laptop, headphones, tablet and phone all have the same charging port. Even more, I can use many of the same MacBook dongles on my phone (including HDMI and mouse) to connect it to TVs.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#29I've had a USB-C capable device (MBP) for a few years now, and it originally was extremely annoying. Needing dongles for _everything_ was annoying, and getting rid of Magsafe meant a lot of my existing chargers that I'd accumulated no longer worked. My work laptop (at the time) didn't use USB-C, so I had to keep two chargers around, and I couldn't charge my iPhone from my laptop at all. Fast forward a few years and I…
With a MacBook Pro it’s not so bad, because rather than try to save a few cents Apple wired every USB-C port for everything that it supports, so there’s no real distinction between ports (but you still need to distinguish between very similar looking cables that handle, say USB 3.0 in one case and an active TB3 40 Gbps in another)
It’s at the low end of the market that USB-C is an entire mess. This port on your laptop can connect to the charger, but this one doesn’t. All of them do 3.0, but this one does 3.1. This one does DisplayPort but not that one. None do Thunderbolt 3 but you had to read the specs twice and guess that from the fact it’s just not mentioned. Hard for regular consumers to understand, and remember, when it all looks the same.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
You ever wonder what the purpose of keying connectors is? I'm curious, because it's one of those time-tested ways to ensure that things get plugged into the correct ports and avoid costly accidents. Really simple too. Why on earth is a standard as ridiculously complicated as USB-C a better idea? What is the practical value of an "everything" connector when its spec is so complicated that it really doesn't support "ev…
because when it does it's magic. you connect one cable to a dock and your laptop becomes a desktop.
Maybe I'm just old, but having worked in IT for pretty much my entire working life I've come to the conclusion that "Magic" is not a good thing.