Re:USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power b...
by jfkvktnrnr on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @06:01PM
(#27296654)
You're overthinking it. The average consumer will just read the big text on the package, ask a shop assistant or a friend.
You'll have different sections in shops, "fast charging cable", "fast transfer cable", or "fast charging AND fast transfer cable" (with a price to match)
Or stuff like "supports connecting a TV", etc.
People will understand that there are different cables for different jobs, because they understand that a universal cable will be way more expensive.
> In the old days, you could buy a USB-A to micro USB cable and have it work and charge your phone.
Some USB-A to micro cables charge way faster than others (thicker wire). So this supposedly new USB-C problem is actually not new at all.
The fact that in the real world, in 2021, it's still impossible to tell what standard a particular cable or device supports. I have several cables in my possession, and only through trial and error I can tell you which cable supports what, and I'm lucky enough that these cables are high-quality and fail "safely" but technically they don't have to.
Yes I know that technically the computer and USB-C controller knows which cable supports what, and yet so far no consumer-grade device has any kind of UI to tell me which cable supports what. I guess I can probably figure it out using the command line, but that would solve the problem for me but not the average non-technical user who just wants a cable that works.
In the old days, you could buy a USB-A to micro USB cable and have it work and charge your phone. You could buy an HDMI cable and have it work and send video to a monitor. With USB-C, you can't know which cable supports what until you've spent hours researching and understanding how USB-C works and the different alternate modes, and even then, cables might be mislabeled and you still can't be sure until you actually try it.
All the above is at least somewhat "safe" because the worst that can happen is that the device gets damaged, but if you suddenly start increasing power levels, non-compliant cables will start burning down houses.