Nowadays, the USB Type-Ch interface has achieved the overall dominance of the Android mobile phone ecosystem, but the iOS ecosystem next door is struggling.
Even if European Commission has proposed a proposal to unify the charging interfaces of consumer electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, portable speakers, gaming handhelds, etc. into USB Type-C, but Apple (in the mobile phone field, iPad has switched to a dual USB Type-C interface data cable) just won’t buy it.
Apple even said bluntly— EU This behavior is killing innovation.
The EU's explanation for this is that a unified charging interface is more beneficial to consumers and the environment. The same is true for
. Almost all new smartphones support USB PD charging protocol, and USB PD is one of the exclusive functions of the USB Type-C interface, which means that any USB Type-C interface charger and data cable can charge all smartphones (as well as tablets, cameras, etc.) devices and use them for ready use.
Now Apple's data cable is USB Type-C+Lightning
The reason why Apple rejects USB Type-C is mainly due to economic interests - using Apple's exclusive Lightning interface requires MFi authorization. If you fully replace the general-purpose USB Type-C interface and data cable, who will subsidize Apple?
Let’s briefly talk about the main features of the USB Type-C interface that “kills innovation”.
USB Type-C interface form
Although the size of the USB Type-C interface is very small, it has 24 sets of pins inside, so it can identify more protocols, perform higher power transmission, and have richer functions.
Type-C pin definition
USB Type-C interface does not need to distinguish between front and back, and supports blind insertion, which is also one of the factors that can quickly replace the MicroUSB interface standard.
USB Type-C supports forward and reverse insertion
USB Type-C speed standard
Data transmission is one of the basic functions of USB Type-C, and it supports almost all USB speed standards, including USB2.0, USB3.0 (USB3.1 Gen1, USB3.2 Gen1), USB3.1 Gen2 (USB3.2 Gen2), USB3.2 Multi-speed standards such as Gen2×2 (USB4 20) and USB4 (Thunderbolt 3/4) correspond to 480Mbps, 5Gbps, 10Gbps, 20Gbps and 40Gbps respectively.
In the mobile phone field, the USB Type-C on most products only supports USB2.0 transmission speed, and a small number of models support USB3.0. In the laptop field, USB Type-C starts at 5Gbps, and some models support high-speed standard of 10Gbps. Many 11th-generation Core notebooks are equipped with Thunderbolt 4 with a transmission rate of up to 40Gbps.
USB Type-C optional functions
In addition to data transmission, USB Type-C also has DP and DP functions.
Among them, DP, namely DisplayPort, is a video transmission protocol. USB Type-C that supports DP function can connect display devices such as monitors, projectors, TVs, etc.
DP is USB Power Delivery, which is a general charging protocol. The current mainstream DP protocol is PD3.0, which supports 5V~20V voltage, 2A~5A current, covering the power range of 10W~100W.
This year, USB PD has also ushered in a standard update of 3.1, adding three fixed voltage levels: 28V, 36V and 48V and three adjustable voltage levels, which can achieve up to 240W of charging power, which can meet the charging needs of gaming laptops and even some electric bicycles.
Google once required that all new phones with pre-installed Android 7.0 (or updated) system must be compatible with USB PD, which means that nowadays, almost all new phones support PD charging of around 18W.
In the notebook field, if a USB Type-C on a note itself can support data transmission, video transmission and charging at the same time, it is a "full-functional USB Type-C".
On the other hand, USB Type-C is also the interface standard for the final implementation of the Lightning Protocol. The difference between Lightning Interface and the full-featured USB Type-C is mainly reflected in the higher transmission speed (40Gbps), supports a full-blooded 100W charging power, and also supports desktop graphics card docking, which can be connected to almost all interfaces.
USB Type-C cable mystery
It should be noted that the special functions of the USB Type-C interface must also be equipped with an exclusive data cable.
Simply put, if the USB Type-C data cable wants to achieve USB3.0 or higher transmission speed, 5A charging current or video transmission capability (any one), it must be equipped with an E-Marker chip. The full name of
E-Marker is "Electronically Marked Cable". We can understand it as the electronic identity tag of the USB Type-C cable. Through this chip, various attributes of the cable can be read, including power transmission capabilities, data transmission capabilities, video transmission capabilities and ID. Based on this, the output terminal (such as a charging head, notebook) can adjust the matching voltage/current or audio and video signals according to the device connected to the output terminal (such as a mobile phone or monitor).
In other words, the more speed, current and functions the USB Type-C data cable carries, the higher the cost of matching E-Marker chips and internal copper wires. For example, the data cables exclusive to lightning are rarely less than 250 yuan (or 50cm in length). For comparison, the most common data transmission + charging data cable costs only 10 yuan.
In addition, there is another thing to note that the interfaces of the USB PD charger are all USB Type-C, so they need to be used with a dual C-head charging cable. Of course, iPhone users can use USB Type-C+Lightning data cable for PD fast charging.
Xiaomi has made magic modifications to the USB-A type interface. Through the widening of the current contacts on both sides, a CC contact with the USB PD protocol is added in the middle in front. It is paired with the original special USB-A to USB-C cable, which can provide PD fast charging for USB PD devices.
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