It can move up to 40Gbps, provide at least 15 watts of power for accessories, and support two 4K displays or a single 8K display. With USB-C accepted as the de facto connector today, the next step is USB4. This opens up the potential for laptop-powered projectors based on USB-C, but today it is mostly used for high-power chargers and external battery packs. But USB PD can deliver up to 100 watts of power, more than six times what USB 3.1 can. USB 3.1 ups this figure to about 15 watts. A USB 2.0 port can deliver just 2.5 watts of power, about enough to charge a phone, slowly. WhatвЂ™s more, USB-C supports the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) specification. It pays huge dividends for the ultramobile among us by allowing many recent phones and tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ and Note and Tab 6 systems, to directly plug into a monitor at home or a projector in the office. USB-CвЂ™s Alternate Mode (or вЂњAlt ModeвЂќ for short) for video enables adapters to output video from that same USB-C port to HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA and other types of video connectors on displays, TVs and projectors. With increased data-transfer speeds comes the ability to push video over the same connection. To show how far weвЂ™ve come, thatвЂ™s four times faster than USB 3.1 and more than 3,000 times faster than the original USB 1 spec of 12Mbps. A USB-C port equipped with Thunderbolt 3 can push data speeds to a theoretical limit of 40Gbps. More on that later.ДЄ big bonus is that on many laptops and desktops, the USB-C specification also supports IntelвЂ™s Thunderbolt 3 data-transfer technology. The good news is that thereвЂ™s a good chance that this spaghetti bowl of cable standards could disappear with the next rev of the USB spec with a universal USB cable. They will often have the SuperSpeed logo and a вЂњ10вЂќ on them to show theyвЂ™re capable of moving 10Gbps. To make sure the data gets through at higher speeds, always get high-quality cables. That might change in the coming year as new controller chips come out. So far, however, it hasnвЂ™t caught on with device manufacturers, so itвЂ™s hard to find it on any devices in the wild. The new spec thatвЂ™s actually noteworthy is USB 3.2 Gen 2X2, which has a pair of 10Gbps lanes of data traffic available for a total of 20Gbps. For instance, USB 3.2 Gen 1 and 2 are the same as USB 3.1 Gen 1 and 2. The key is to get devices that say вЂњUSB 3.1 Rev 2,вЂќ вЂњUSB 3.1 Gen 2,вЂќ вЂњSuperSpeed USB 10Gbps,вЂќ or вЂњSuperSpeed+вЂќ to get support for the faster spec.Д¬onfusing matters more, the current USB 3.2 standard is mostly a restatement of USB 3.1 specs. Most USB-C ports are built on the second-generation USB 3.1 data-transfer standard, which can theoretically deliver data at speeds of up to 10Gbps - twice as fast as USB 3.0 and first-gen USB 3.1, which both top out at 5Gbps. The Type-C USB port (second from left) on this Acer laptop is noticeably smaller than the two older Type-A USB ports to its right. This alone makes it a hit for me, but USB-C is closely linked to several powerful new technologies, including Thunderbolt and USB Power Delivery, that can change how we think about our gear and working in the office, on the road or at home. Because the USB-C plug is symmetrical, it can be inserted either way, eliminating the frustrations of earlier USB ports and putting it on a par with AppleвЂ™s reversible Lightning plug. USB Type-C, usually referred to as just USB-C, is a relatively new connector for delivering data and power to and from computing devices. Even the latest MacBooks and Chromebooks are part of the movement to USB-C. While many iPhone and iPad models stick with AppleвЂ™s proprietary Lightning connector, USB-C is now part and parcel of most laptops, phones and tablets made today. USB-C has taken over at work, at home and at school. YouвЂ™ve probably noticed something strange about many of the latest phones, tablets and laptops at your company: The familiar rectangular Type-A USB ports are gone, replaced by smaller oblong connectors.

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