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.
majority of phone users who are or are not tech savvy mostly care about charging and the fact that they can use just about any USB C cable
But that’s the problem, you can’t just use any cable. Use a standard 5W cable with a laptop that needs 100W and it will either not charge at all or charge so slow that it will take weeks to charge your laptop.
However, any USB-C charger and cable will charge moderns phones. Wether it be slow or fast, it will charge it. Everyone at home has at least one or two sets. Also, laptops that use a USB-C chargers can accommodate phones as well. We’re going in the right direction.
Exactly. I only need to care about the cable when doing something complex, like charging a high power device, doing display out, etc.
Those cables and ports should have indicators. The ports could have them in software (i.e. you plug in a sub-par cable and you get a pop-up with the appropriate cable marking), but the cables need them on the cable and/or plug.
But that’s the problem, you can’t just use any cable. Use a standard 5W cable with a laptop that needs 100W and it will either not charge at all or charge so slow that it will take weeks to charge your laptop.
However, any USB-C charger and cable will charge moderns phones. Wether it be slow or fast, it will charge it. Everyone at home has at least one or two sets. Also, laptops that use a USB-C chargers can accommodate phones as well. We’re going in the right direction.
Exactly. I only need to care about the cable when doing something complex, like charging a high power device, doing display out, etc.
Those cables and ports should have indicators. The ports could have them in software (i.e. you plug in a sub-par cable and you get a pop-up with the appropriate cable marking), but the cables need them on the cable and/or plug.