An Apple iPad uses USB-C to recharge, sync with your Mac or PC, and drive an attached monitor. A USB hard drive can't output a video signal it simply uses USB-C for power and data transfer. Not every device with a USB-C port can do all of these things, of course. (The port in question needs to support a standard called DisplayPort over USB (Opens in a new window).) In some cases, USB-C can also transmit DisplayPort audio and video signals for connecting your device to an external monitor or TV. The oval-shaped connector can transmit data at speeds up to 20Gbps (the exact ceiling depends on the port's specific USB SuperSpeed rating) and deliver nearly 100 watts of power to charge a phone's, tablet's, or laptop's battery. Thanks to its wide adoption and impressive range of capabilities, USB-C has quickly become one port to rule them all.

The standard cables also have the same connector on each end so you needn't wonder which end goes where. Unlike the rectangular USB Type-A, a USB-C connector has no right side up or upside down you just line it up and plug it in. The USB-C connector looks similar to the older micro-USB connector at first glance, though it's more oval in shape and slightly thicker to accommodate its best feature: flippability.

The Universal Serial Bus is an industry-standard connector for transmitting both data and power on a single cable. Instead of leaving you to guess, let's walk through the differences between Thunderbolt and USB-C, and explain which one you should use depending on which device you need to connect. But laptop, desktop, and device manufacturers don't always provide labels that help you easily tell which is which. These three specifications share identically shaped connectors and cables that are physically compatible with one another. That's because of the emergence of USB Type-C (usually called USB-C), Thunderbolt 3, and Thunderbolt 4 interfaces in recent years. In their newest iterations, however, choosing between the two-or just telling them apart-can be confusing. Need to charge a mobile device, or connect a peripheral to a PC or Mac? You'll probably need to use some flavor of USB port or a Thunderbolt port.

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