Difference between USB and USB-cable
Imagine that you are in a cafeteria waiting for an important call, but your cell phone is about to run out of charge and you forgot the charger at home. You feel a wave of panic and you only have two options. Either you drive home and find the charger or buy a new one. Difference between USB and USB-cable
USB-C Difference between USB and USB-cable
In the photo above are all the ends of the standard cables for recent Android smartphones. When you start looking for hard drives, printers, and other devices, it expands to a larger list, but for the sake of this post, we’ll limit ourselves to the differences between USB-C and Micro USB.
The main benefit is that the connector is reversible. This means that you no longer have to twist the connector to try to find the correct way to plug it in. This is especially useful in the dark.
USB
Throughout the history of the USB cable, it has been common to always have a USB-A connector on one side of the cable. So as new types of USB connectors were introduced in the past to connect to smaller devices, the USB-A connector remained constant so that we could continue to connect to the same ports. However, with the new USB-C, the USB-A port is being replaced and eventually USB-C will be the new standard for all devices. And USB-C cables (eventually) will no longer have a USB-A connector. This is a great transition to the way consumers use USB cables!
The new USB-C can be used for very high-bandwidth use cases where previous generations stuttered that fast, such as when watching 4K video and performing incredibly fast file transfers. It also safely supports much higher voltage performance, which will help make it ubiquitous for all of our portable devices, not just cell phones.
People don’t like abrupt changes and most of the controversy stems from manufacturers abruptly removing other ports because they understand that USB-C is very capable. Some devices, like Apple’s new laptops, come with only USB-C ports. Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Huawei have phones with USB-C ports.
In the not too distant future, we will see new laptops and we will see the big old USB ports as a sign that that laptop is out of date because we won’t have anything connecting to those ports. For now, however, there are so many older USB cables still in use that the transition to USB-C includes adapters so that the old ports can continue to be used.
USB-C is easier to use, handles more power and data throughput. We can expect it to stay as long as USB-A did. Hopefully children born today will be adults when there is a better standard.