Technology
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Interesting find that the cheapest cable is actually not the worst. Too bad the USB-C spec allows such a mess of speeds and charging standards.
I wouldn’t mind the various levels of there were a simple, consistent marking standard for speed and power rating.
Same feeling honestly but don’t forget that it still would take research to buy the right one. Think about SD cards and their various speeds. You still need a chart to make an informed purchase.
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.
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.
Yup, the only time I buy stuff from AliExpress is from a recommendation from a friend with a direct link. There are great deals to be had, but tons of crap. Sometimes it's worth the gamble.
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.
They do have standard icons for them, but it’s not required to use them. Companies like Apple are a problem case there since they value a clean look over information, random Chinese brands sometimes use them.
That is part of it, but I kind of feel like PCs and phones need better reporting to the user, if adequate data is accessible to the host.
If I'm being bottlenecked in thoughput by speed or in power by the PD capabilities of a cable, I'd like the host to tell me if it can figure that out.