I stopped trusting USB-C cable labels and started testing them

Related discussion “The USB Situation” (3 months ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47950993https://randsinrepose.com/guides/usb/usb-guide.htmlApple carries these $30 Thunderbolt 5 cables: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/hs9d2zm/a/

LTT has created true spec cables with the actual spec mentioned on the cables but they can not keep up with demand despite being expensive get sold out as soon as new stock comes in.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfovjw7Ts_U&t=974s reply: They are not TB5 compatible though, and if you are going to drive monitors through it, or connect external GPU, 120Gbit (TB5) is much better than 40Gbit TB4 gives you. If you are willing to pay a bit more, consider TB5 cables from CalDigit, StarTech, CableMatters, or Apple.

Interestingly, I have found a very mixed bag of USB-C cables I've collected over the years to generally just work for all my use cases. I can charge my various USB-C laptops at 65W with all the USB-C cables I have on hand. Maybe it's just my habit of just buying cables from known brands (Belkin is normally my go to) but I also have random cables that came with various devices of varying quality and all these also work just fine. I have a 6-port charging hub so I can see the charging wattage and I can easily get 65W to various laptops and a high capacity power bank, regardless of the cable being used. All cables also work fine for data transfer, although I confess I use USB-C for data transfer rarely so it is possible there is some variability there. YMMV but I wonder how much of this issue is just crappy low-end cables? reply: Every not-broken USB C cable allows for 480Mbps USB 2 speeds and 60W charging. In USB C terms, it doesn't get any more basic than this; that's as low-and-slow the specification tolerates.The issues come into play with going beyond that. USB 3 speeds? USB 4? Thunderbolt? DisplayPort (4k uncompressed video!) alt modes? 240W charging?...

As always, these testers (the affordable ones) are capable of testing continuity, and, I guess, the cable chip report.If you want to test bandwidth, that's a five- or six-figure bit of gear. reply: It’s much cheaper to just buy your cables from Apple or LTT knowing they tested them on a 6 figure testing rig.I throw out every usb cable that comes bundled with devices because they are literal junk.

Verge recently posted this (free) app for testing on Mac's: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/963759/whatcable-usb-c-cabl... reply: This effectively only tells you what the E-Marker reports though, the actual capabilities of the cable are still unknown.You can say the cable can do whatever you want on the E-Marker, its not the source of truth.The problem is, to actually benchmark everything, voltage drop, resistance, actual bandwidth (especially at Thunderbolt 5 speeds) requires a lot of hardware.Using a USB-C Test Controller ($13,000), connected to a Pro Keysight Infiniium oscilloscope ($258,809) is the proper way to test it. https://www.keysight.com/au/en/product/N7018A/type-c-test-co...

The whole space is so scammy that I'd pay for a good USB-C cable tester reply: But how can we know which tester is good and which one is scammy?

I'd like a HDMI cable tester as well, I can't seem to find one that works well with my high refresh monitor.

Is there a cheap, reliable tester that someone can recommend that will test multiple USB cable types (A, micro & C)? reply: $45 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYJL5Z67This is the one I use and I quite like it. I've had it for a little over a year and a half. I used it to sort (or trash) all my cables and to test new incoming cables.

Started using whatcable.uk app. Been amazing at finally knowing cable speed, but also device max speeds, and everything in between, without having to carry around one of those digital dongles with more limited use.

The Anker Prime 160W power brick shows the maximum wattage of the cables you plug in. It is also surprisingly small.

If you want a super fast cable and high power thats where they get pricey. "Charge only" cables can often be fairly cheap and perform well even for laptops and high draw devices.

Just measuring the power info is limited use. I'm sure there's value for some people, but I only need to keep track of 0-2 high power cables.> Your no-brand 480Mbps USB 2.0 cable is indistinguishable from the super-fast USB 4 cable that can move 40 gigabits (around 5 gigabytes) of data every single second.One of those is way thicker than the other, at least.I would love for something to force a speed and power rating on USB-C plugs.

Isnt this what "USB-IF certified" is supposed to guarantee?

Instead of using a dedicated device, on Macs you can also use the WhatCable app:https://www.whatcable.uk

hmm, how about just being able to infer the features of a cable by it's physical form factor? oh wait...