The reign of the Lightning cable is over, and the USB-C era has begun — leaving us wondering what sets one charger apart from another. We do a teardown of Apple's Thunderbolt 4 and its competitors.
im fine with using any cable, be it 30 pin, lighting, usb c, etc. etc. As long as everyone uses the same cable. Keep it simple, convenient, and reduce extra waste.
But that’s not what we have with USB-C. Now, the situation is even more complicated than it was before. We still have a whole bunch of different cables, but now they all look the same and use the same connector. You can no longer easily tell them apart and there is no easy way to tell from the port on a device what features it supports and what cable it needs.
If I see a USB-C port on a device it tells me exactly nothing. Is it a USB host or not? Can the port be used to charge the device ? At what wattage? How big a charger do I need? What kind of USB data transfer speed does it support ? 12Mbit, 480Mbit, 10Gbit? Does the port support Thunderbolt? Displayport alt. mode? HDMI? Analog audio? MHL? HDMI? VirtualLink? What cable do I need ? a 5W, 10W, 30W? 60W? 100W?
A 40 Gbit 100W Thunderbolt 4 cable looks exactly the same as a 5W 480Mbit USB 2.0 cable. A cable that can carry a displayport signal looks exactly the same as one that can’t.
And shit is even more confusing than that. The USB-C spec supports an HDMI alt-mode. Cables with a USB-C connector on one side and a HDMI connector on the other exist. You’d think that to be able to use this cable your device needs to support HDMI alt. mode. Nope. HDMI alt. mode isn’t actually used, not even in USB-C to HDMI cables. Instead all such cables require DisplayPort alt. mode, as they all contain a displayport-to-HDMI converter chip.
So simple and convenient that we now have this USB-C standard.
I think the majority of phone users who are or are not tech savvy mostly care about charging and the fact that they can use just about any USB C cable is where we’re finally moving to. An Android user can stop lugging their charger to an iPhone users house and vice versa (not counting extended stay). It should have been this way from the get go is what I’m saying. The fact that USB-C cables are fragmented when it comes to features is messed up, i agree. Not sure who’s at fault there.
majority of phone users who are or are not tech savvy mostly care about charging and the fact that they can use just about any USB C cable
But that’s the problem, you can’t just use any cable. Use a standard 5W cable with a laptop that needs 100W and it will either not charge at all or charge so slow that it will take weeks to charge your laptop.
However, any USB-C charger and cable will charge moderns phones. Wether it be slow or fast, it will charge it. Everyone at home has at least one or two sets. Also, laptops that use a USB-C chargers can accommodate phones as well. We’re going in the right direction.
Exactly. I only need to care about the cable when doing something complex, like charging a high power device, doing display out, etc.
Those cables and ports should have indicators. The ports could have them in software (i.e. you plug in a sub-par cable and you get a pop-up with the appropriate cable marking), but the cables need them on the cable and/or plug.
But that’s not what we have with USB-C. Now, the situation is even more complicated than it was before. We still have a whole bunch of different cables, but now they all look the same and use the same connector. You can no longer easily tell them apart and there is no easy way to tell from the port on a device what features it supports and what cable it needs.
If I see a USB-C port on a device it tells me exactly nothing. Is it a USB host or not? Can the port be used to charge the device ? At what wattage? How big a charger do I need? What kind of USB data transfer speed does it support ? 12Mbit, 480Mbit, 10Gbit? Does the port support Thunderbolt? Displayport alt. mode? HDMI? Analog audio? MHL? HDMI? VirtualLink? What cable do I need ? a 5W, 10W, 30W? 60W? 100W?
A 40 Gbit 100W Thunderbolt 4 cable looks exactly the same as a 5W 480Mbit USB 2.0 cable. A cable that can carry a displayport signal looks exactly the same as one that can’t.
And shit is even more confusing than that. The USB-C spec supports an HDMI alt-mode. Cables with a USB-C connector on one side and a HDMI connector on the other exist. You’d think that to be able to use this cable your device needs to support HDMI alt. mode. Nope. HDMI alt. mode isn’t actually used, not even in USB-C to HDMI cables. Instead all such cables require DisplayPort alt. mode, as they all contain a displayport-to-HDMI converter chip.
So simple and convenient that we now have this USB-C standard.
I think the majority of phone users who are or are not tech savvy mostly care about charging and the fact that they can use just about any USB C cable is where we’re finally moving to. An Android user can stop lugging their charger to an iPhone users house and vice versa (not counting extended stay). It should have been this way from the get go is what I’m saying. The fact that USB-C cables are fragmented when it comes to features is messed up, i agree. Not sure who’s at fault there.
But that’s the problem, you can’t just use any cable. Use a standard 5W cable with a laptop that needs 100W and it will either not charge at all or charge so slow that it will take weeks to charge your laptop.
However, any USB-C charger and cable will charge moderns phones. Wether it be slow or fast, it will charge it. Everyone at home has at least one or two sets. Also, laptops that use a USB-C chargers can accommodate phones as well. We’re going in the right direction.
Exactly. I only need to care about the cable when doing something complex, like charging a high power device, doing display out, etc.
Those cables and ports should have indicators. The ports could have them in software (i.e. you plug in a sub-par cable and you get a pop-up with the appropriate cable marking), but the cables need them on the cable and/or plug.