Coloring appears to have worked for distinguishing between USB 2 and USB 3, at least in my experience.

The physical contacts are different though. You can look down into a USB 3 plug and see the new 5 contacts just as you can look at a USB 3 socket and see the new contacts right up front. Also I don't always see blue in new USB 3 cables and sockets, sometimes it's just black.

> Also I don't always see blue in new USB 3 cables and sockets, sometimes it's just black.

True, but if the cable is blue, that always indicates USB 3, at least in my experience—I've never seen a blue USB 2 cable. I think this is sufficient given backwards compatibility—how often do you specifically need a USB 2 device?

I very much doubt many "normal" people know to check the contacts.

Blue or Green if it's a Razer device, or Red to indicate Gen2 vs Gen1 ports on gaming motherboards.

With USB 3 isn’t the other end of the cable usually different as well?

USB-B for USB 3 is physically quite different, yes — looks like two stacked connectors.

It’s a micro usb plus another kind of adapter. This gives you backwards compatibility for devices if you want to expose usb 2 via usb-a -> micro

I was actually thinking about B rather than micro-B, though I guess both my description and your explanation apply either way!

Then buy from Walmart or best buy.

Amazon fraud is not the problem some people on HN make it out to be...

Okay... pull up a list of USB3 chargers and tell me which ones on the first page of results are not counterfeit or poor quality knockoffs, even with 4+ stars... now do it for cables, including those labelled as "Amazon Basic" ...

It's a pretty big issue. I paid a lot more and ordered a spare USB3 charger from Google it's so bad in my own experience.

You have found AmazonBasics that were counterfeit of fake? If so, that's a pretty big deal. Amazon is slapping their logo on those products and presumably doing QA. They are also the only company allowed to sell them on Amazon.

Not to be confused with Amazon's Choice. Which means jack squat.

I've had Amazon Basics cables that weren't up to spec, yes. In fact most Amazon Basics electronics products have been poor quality of those I've purchased (mostly cables and a couple sets of speakers) so much that I won't even buy anything labelled as such now.

Interesting. I've always found AmazonBasics to be fine. Not great, but usually gets the job done.

Not directly addressing your question, but Amazon did a recall on their own chargers included with UK and Ireland Fire tablets, and recalled over quarter of a million portable AmazonBasics chargers.