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The life changing, reversible USB Type-C cable is official

For years technology enthusiasts and noobs alike have been vexed in their attempts to correctly insert the humble USB cable into a computer but no more.

The USB-IF (USB Implementers Forum) have finalised the next generation of connector for the peripherals of the world and the good news for us all is that the USB Type-C connector is completely reversible.

Having been finalised we now know all of the details of the USB Type-C connector, and without even having had the chance to use one yet, many of the members of team htxt.africa have already expressed their approval and, dare I say it, even excitement at the new standard which promises to change the way that most people use gadgets in the future.

We’ve scoured through the USB Type-C specifications list to find the best enhancements that you can expect to see when the connector starts to hit the main stream in the near future.

New design

The new USB Type-C cable will have an all new design that will see the same small connector, roughly the size of the current micro USB cable used in most smartphones today, being used on notebooks, tablets and even smartphones. This design change will mean that cables will no longer have a large connector on one end and a smaller micro USB connector on the other, instead there will be a USB Type-C connector on both ends. More importantly than that, the new cable will be reversible so there will no longer be a correct way of inserting the cable.

New_USB_Cables

Backwards compatible

There’ no need to fret about all of your past USB cables becoming completely obsolete as backwards compatibility is built into the Type-C connector from the get go allowing you to simply attach a converter to the end of the older cables.

usb-type-c-cable-to-original-type-a-640x173 usb-type-c-adapter

More power

The new USB Type-C connector will be able t supply up to 5A of current while the cables will be able to carry 3A of that and deliver up to 100W of power to the connected peripheral or smartphone. To put that into perspective, the current fastest standard, USB 3.0 cables are limited to a maximum power draw of just 1.5A which means that your smartphone and tablet could charge in half the time as it takes now.

On top of that the ability for USB 3.1 connectors like the USB Type-C to deliver power at both 5V and 12V should mean that power-hungry desktop hard drives that currently require external power supplies to be able to operate could become USB powered peripherals.

More data

Speaking of external hard drives the new USB Type-C connector is certified for USB 3.1 data rates or 10 Gbps which  means that all of your data synchronisation and transfer will be taking place faster and also allowing the like of video editors to work with larger files off of an external drive as opposed to having to transfer it across to the system drive which could affect the performance of the machine.

[Source, Images – USB-IF, via – Anandtech]

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