And outlined above, not every USB-C port supports the same display protocols, so you’ve got to purchase one that works with your device. There are more potential dongles for things like Ethernet and displays. This means keeping track of a couple of dongles, but it gets the job done quickly.īut that’s just USB. The second option is to purchase a couple of simple adapters, like these, and just use your old cables. This is tidy, but means potentially replacing a large number of cables. The first is to replace all of your cables with USB-C ones. Switching to USB-C means those cables no longer plug directly into your laptop. Most people have collected USB cables over the years for things like phones, hard drives, e-readers, printers, and so on. Switching to a device with only USB-C ports is a bit of a hassle. That’s my idea of a good time, but possibly not yours. And figuring out what things will work means spending some time plugging terms like “MHL” and “Thunderbolt 3” into Google. For most users, however, this is just confusing: cables and devices that fit into the plug may or may not work. You could argue that this is a good thing, because it makes the USB-C port flexible. There’s a lot of stuff a USB-C port might offer in addition to USB itself, and figuring out which devices and adapters work is entirely up to you. If you plan on connecting external displays to your laptop, you need to know which alternate mode your device supports and buy a display, or an adapter, that supports that mode. Your laptop has DisplayPort if there’s a D-Shaped icon next to your USB-C port, but it also might have it and not have that icon. There’s also DisplayPort, which is bundled with ThunderBolt 3 but also offered independently on some devices. There are a few other alternative modes: HDMI and MHL, for example, both allow certain kinds of displays to be connected. But only devices built to be compatible with Thunderbolt 3 can get those speeds, and even then only if you have a Thunderbolt 3 compatible cable. Thunderbolt 3, for example, is a collaboration between Intel and Apple that offers transfer speeds of 40 gbps-four times faster than the USB 3.1 standard-and support for two 4K displays connected to a single port. The complexity here is introduced by alternative modes, which use the USB-C form factor to offer additional features.
If you need to use them for anything else, like connecting devices or transferring data, they will either not work, or will be extremely slow. And most of the cables on the market support USB 2.0 rather than USB 3.0 or 3.1.Įditor’s Note: we can’t overstate that last bit enough-most of the USB-C cables on the market are USB 2.0 rather than 3.1 because they are only designed for charging. That’s not quite how USB-C is: adapters and cables may or may not work, depending on what features your device offers.
With USB-A, things were relatively simple: basically anything you could plug in would work.
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RELATED: Watch Out: How to Buy a USB Type-C Cable That Won't Damage Your Devices Not All USB-C Ports Are The Same Assuming a cable is fine because it fits is not good enough anymore-check out resources like to ensure your cable won’t cause any problems. But it’s important to keep in mind that not all USB-C cables are created equally, and it’s up to you as a consumer to make sure what you’re buying is compatible with your device. My colleague Chris outlined how to buy a USB-C cable that won’t damage your devices, so I won’t re-hash that too much here. The trouble is, it can be really hard figuring out which cables are good and which are not, unless you’re buying from a reliable vendor that provides good technical specifications. Now, to be fair, properly-made cables can have resistors inline to prevent this from happening.
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