The reign of the Lightning cable is over, and the USB-C era has begun — leaving us wondering what sets one charger apart from another. We do a teardown of Apple's Thunderbolt 4 and its competitors.
Sure. I think they could get a lot of mileage out of color/dashed bands to mark things on the cable like:
supports display out
voltage for charging
high speed data
Each of those has a spectrum of support and could be marked separately. Maybe they put it on the connector, or maybe on the head, IDK, but something on the cable somewhere so you can find it in a box.
Then repeat for your device, either next to the plug or in software. That way you could go look for the markings you need from the device on the packaging of the cable. I’m sure someone can devise an intuitive UX here.
That should be a hard requirement for advertising USB compliance, not an optional thing.
It’s also obvious, not sure why it isn’t a thing. For example:
orange band means it supports “fast charging” and a number indicates the voltage supported
black indicates “high speed” data, and a number indicates the speed
green indicates display out, and a number indicates resolution
So you’d have a colored band always at the same spot (for color blindness), and a number on either side of the plug in the color band. Maybe use Roman numerals so it’s easier on the eyes. No color band would indicate basic features (5v charging, slow data transfer, no display out).
Previous USB standards also used colors on the plug to indicate speed, so it fits right in.
AliExpress products will always lie, that’s a constant. The important thing is for people buying stuff from reputable brands. If there’s an issue, people will usually blame the sketchy brand, regardless of the claim.
To be fair to AliExpress reputable dealers are plenty, they’re just hard to find amongst all the rubbish. I had an amazing experience buying from some dealers, with significantly better follow-up support than what you’d receive in the west.
Sure. I think they could get a lot of mileage out of color/dashed bands to mark things on the cable like:
Each of those has a spectrum of support and could be marked separately. Maybe they put it on the connector, or maybe on the head, IDK, but something on the cable somewhere so you can find it in a box.
Then repeat for your device, either next to the plug or in software. That way you could go look for the markings you need from the device on the packaging of the cable. I’m sure someone can devise an intuitive UX here.
That should be a hard requirement for advertising USB compliance, not an optional thing.
Colored bands is brilliant.
It’s also obvious, not sure why it isn’t a thing. For example:
So you’d have a colored band always at the same spot (for color blindness), and a number on either side of the plug in the color band. Maybe use Roman numerals so it’s easier on the eyes. No color band would indicate basic features (5v charging, slow data transfer, no display out).
Previous USB standards also used colors on the plug to indicate speed, so it fits right in.
In a world of honest actors this is brilliant.
In a world of AliExpress that’s just another way to lie.
AliExpress products will always lie, that’s a constant. The important thing is for people buying stuff from reputable brands. If there’s an issue, people will usually blame the sketchy brand, regardless of the claim.
To be fair to AliExpress reputable dealers are plenty, they’re just hard to find amongst all the rubbish. I had an amazing experience buying from some dealers, with significantly better follow-up support than what you’d receive in the west.