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USB gets simpler with new speed-focused labeling system replacing technical jargon
(www.notebookcheck.net)
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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It's actually different and better as the previous naming scheme was actually horrendous (trying to explain it to customers was a nightmare).
Cause previously if you wanted to figure out what speed of USB port you were getting you'd have to look up the table because me telling you that a port was USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 doesn't tell you jack shit.
Can you see how cursed this is for non-tech savvy people? Absolutely terrible.
Thankfully now the new naming scheme will be:
USB +
So the xkcd meme actually isn't relevant here.
Edit:
Revised grammar in the first sentence
Techies have a hard time understanding that just because you can look up some speeds easily doesn't mean jack shit for regular joe trying to buy an usb-c cable.
Having data speed and wattage indicated on the cable is important, but for most people simply the data speed is enough.
I can't remember the last time I cared about data speed for a USB cable, but charging speed is useful when I'm charging my phone before leaving the house.
Once again, you are probably at least somewhat technical and understand wattage, do you think joe schmoe does? Or do they just charge their phone more often?
Even non-technical people know 80W is more than 10W. They know that Watts usually refers to electrical power.
People have been buying lightbulbs of varying wattages, and understanding it just fine, for many decades now. Even my grandma who can barely operate anything more complex than a kettle has a good grasp of it.
I think you have it the opposite way around. The average person has a much better grasp of Watts than they do of data speeds in Gigabits per second.
The only thing changing here is the way cables are going to be labeled, the tech itself is staying exactly the same.
And on top of that, the author was generally correct for most situations, but usb (and especially usb c) truly has replaced a ton of separate connectors with a single standard. And it's very likely to continue to replace even more as time goes on
Huh? That's not at all how it would be in this instance. They're updating branding guidelines within an existing standard, not creating a new standard.