I want to hug Lisa sooo much right now. Sending you tones of love!

Thanks Lisa. This cleared up a lot. I thought I was the only one confused about type c

Why is this woman so cool?! I'd like to go shopping for a new computer with Lisa.

That's the problem with the new USB Type C port. I think that people got used to the idea that the physical appearance of the port correlated with abilities. So a VGA port was for video, HDMI was for digital video and USB ports were for peripherals. But at the moment, the same physical port can have so many subtly different features behind it, it's honestly a pain. I knew about the USB transfer speed differences (5 vs 10Gbs) but didn't know there were differences within Thunderbolt 3 too. Nevertheless, I am hoping that after the transitory period we are in, Thunderbolt 3 will become more ubiquitous. I'm really excited about the prospect of having an office at work where all I have to do is plug in a single Thunderbolt 3 cable my monitor into my laptop to not only charge my laptop but also connect it to peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, printer and hard drives, which would be connected to the monitor. As things are right now, settling in with my laptop or taking it with me is such a chore. So I have a very specific use-case in mind for Thunderbolt 3 and it is a feasible one, but might take a few years before it can happen, once all the dust has settled.

I've never seen someone explain something so well without any cuts in between

So in summary, currently a USB-C connector can be: USB 2.0, USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1), USB 3.1 (USB 3.1 Gen 2), thunderbolt 3 x4 40Gbit or thunderbolt 3 x2 20Gbit.

Office work can be so boring. I’m under pressure. The man will never ever get me down!!!

Even exceeding the 5 minutes, that's fifteen minutes of content in an eight minute bucket. So very information dense! I feel a little more informed, but like I need to go away and process all of this. I'd definitely like a longer and more detailed video on the same topic. One that really gets into the nitty gritty of the function of each connector, why a device maker might choose one over another, and why a consumer would care.

Thanks for an awesome and informative video! This just goes to show how much room for improvement there is for tech companies to simplify and name things in ways that the average person can understand!

What's more amazing is that you managed to articulate all those USB specs and stuff... Still lost though

8ish mins, because that's what it takes to explain all the tech for this episode... That's why we watch you, love you and support you, Lisa. Keep it up this way! P.S. "* minutes of tech" for a title, just to keep some of the trolls happy ;)

So what happens when you plug two laptops together over USB-C? Will they try to charge each other, or is the protocol smart enough to figure out if the devices should receive charging or deliver charging based on the circumstances?

your face reminds me of my cute grandmother who passed away recently. i can watch your videos all day.

You are running at an upload speed of 28 gbps. I almost couldnt keep up. Bravo!

I'm back again to refresh my memory on this confusing subject. GO LISA!

As a visual learner, I would really appreciate some sort of diagram for future videos like these.

3 years later and this is still the best discussion on USB-C and TB3.

Thank you. Now I am more confused.

Lisa is THE person that i always go to when looking for reviews. She is the best far and away. great humor...(laughed so hard when she talked about failed first attempts when inserting the USB cables!) Being a cartoonist and graphics guy,...she knows what we want to see ( pen pressure, latency, diagonal response etc) Thanks Lisa!!!

An oddly confusing topic, but this helped clear some things up. Thanks!

Very good video but there is STILL A LOT of confusion. On Amazon there are sellers (3rd party) that are advertising their USB-C cables as USB-C Gen 2 cables. In this video I learned that USB-C is just the shape of the connector, but the standard is in the port you are connecting it to. But these Amazon listings (I'm sure elsewhere too) make it sound like its the cable that is determining the capability of the speed. That's the most confusing thing about this all as a consumer. I see sellers listing their cable as having an "E-marker chip" in it and saying that's "USB 3.1" while other sellers are selling "USB-C 2.0" cables and they are often cheaper. Furthermore you have someone like Benson Leung (a google USB-C engineer) saying that there are in fact two different kinds of USB-C cables seen here: plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/HBWyVBmdVzw This is not explained in your video and is critical to teaching people and having them understand this mess that is USB-C. If your device has a USB 3.1 port (Gen 1 perhaps) you should probably be buying a USB-C cable that uses all the features of USB 3.1. If you were to buy just any USB-C cable (a USB-C 2.0 cable) even though the connector is the same (the USB-C standard) the wiring of it prevents you from fully utilizing the USB-3.1 standard. Consumers, when they go online are looking for the cheapest USB-C cable that they can find, and the USB-C 2.0 cables are the cheapest that will appear. Lastly, according to Benson (in the link above) a USB-C 3.1 cable is completely backwards compatible with USB-C 2.0. So if you have a device that uses USB-C 2.0 (lets say like one of those car chargers with USB-C Power delivery.. yayyy more confusion!) you can simply buy a USB-C 3.1 cable and it will operate at USB-C 2.0 operation. But that same cable can be used for all the benefits of USB-C 3.1. It makes that cable more versatile. The problem comes when looking at two USB-C cables and trying to differentiate the two! haha! The solution according to Benson is that the USB-IF (the compliance organization that creates USB-C) mandates that these USB 3.1 cables display a SuperSpeed USB Trident logo on the top of the connector with the "SS" designation written on it like you see on all modern day laptop ports when looking at USB ports. But lets add more confusion... the USB-IF actually names these cables "USB Full-Featured Type-C cables" rather than "USB 3.1 cables" but I don't see all sellers calling it that. If this info helps someone, give it a thumbs up. I literally wasted HOURS today trying to fully understand this... and I'm a computer power user. I never fully understood the USB-C standard until today.

Thanks very much for the quick and knowledgeable run down on what the differences and naming conventions are these days...very helpful.

Thunderbolt 3, contrary to TB 1 & 2, is officially supported by Microsoft. One of the best use of Thunderbolt is for music production, with Thunderbolt audio interfaces, which will offer the lowest latencies and the best throughtput (as good as PCIe). Most TB audio interfaces on the market today are TB 2, and let's hope producers won't take too many years to offer native TB3 audio interfaces. But, because of the TB3 support of Windows 10, the best solution to use a TB2 audio interface on PC isn't a PC with TB2 support, but it is to have a TB3 compatible PC, and a good TB3 to TB2 adapter!

Very, very handy video. Thank you.

I like the way you make things clear. To non tech person or semi tech it would be of HUGE value to offer a visual display of what you are saying, maybe split screen. And something someone can screen shot for later remembering. Gave you a thumbs up and would give you 2 thumbs up with some visuals. I find so few you tubers are doing this. There are auditory, tactile and visual learners. A visual display allows time for people to integrate the information. Thank you.

About Dell XPS laptops. They need 100w (or some 120w) only for heavy tasks like gaming. But for all other things you can charge them with any PD usb-c, like chromebook charger, without any issues. In fact you can charge them with slow charger even during the game, but laptop will be slowly discharging (which is much slower than unplugged, so you can play game for more time than unplagged).

I always appreciate your clear and concise videos. Keep up the great work!

Very informative. I wanted a laptop with a Thunderbolt 3 port, now I won't bother!

Your explanation is great but just to be sure that I am on the same page as you are, I have the following question: 1. USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (on Lenovo Yoga C740) means it can be used for data delivery with 5 Gbps + Power Delivery + Display Port (if specified)? 2. And had it been USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (let's say on some laptop) means it can be used for data delivery with 10 Gbps + Power Delivery + DisplayPort (if specified)?

Lisa: thanks for your incredible videos, always so concise. Hands down the best tech reviewer/teacher.

Thanks Lisa, for a lot of great information in a short period of time on a very confusing subject. Glad to run across your Channel and wish I had found it earlier. There are a lot of people on KZfaq claiming to be high level operating system techs. I have subscribed and unsubscribed too many of them. But this one video shows made that you are no Pretender, and I am looking forward to watching more that you have done.

Great explanation. This is quite a great channel discussing different types of product and the video quality is very good. Honest and very relevant reviews. Certainly one of the best tech channels of youtube!

My head's spinning after 3 minutes...hahaha! Glories of modern tech.!

Great breakdown and you kept my attention the entire time. Thanks for the solid review!

Thank you for knowledge dump awesomeness. Need to watch again.

On the topic of USB-C reversibility: I have a four port USB-C hub that will only be recognized by my DELL XPS 9365 if it's plugged in one way. Turned over and reinserted, it won't be recognized and it won't transmit power or data. Go figure that one out!

i love you,so friggin thorough , provided all the information i needed for my exact problem,your a tech angel really.

Man . . . am I glad I found your channel. I'm so happy to finally see someone cut through the bullshit and hype. So sick of seeing everyone act like having a thunderbolt 3 port is the most important thing and they will literally talk about laptops without one as if they'll give you cancer or something. it's so biased.

Hi, I’ve been watching several of your videos in the past few weeks since my laptop died. I really appreciated one you thoroughly explain things so that nonTechy people understand it. I appreciate how you consider needs of nonTechy people. Your videos on the LG gram and iPad Pro helped me make informative decisions for my own needs. Many reviews focus on people in the industry and on gamers. I’m a basic use person who is on the go a lot, and you address this. So thank you. And if you don’t mind me saying, you’re one of the really knowledgeable women in the tech KZfaq review world, and I just think you’re freaking awesome for that. Thank you!

Oh Thank you, Lisa! It's like you read the questions in my mind :)

Hey Lisa, is there a need for an update on this info "Everything You Need to Know about USB-C and Thunderbolt 3", 1.0 gen 2 version 1 lol

An amazing explanation; I answer this stuff all the time but never put it so well

Thunderbolt ports can run audio digital interfaces for music production, that previously were known as FireWire, but needs an adapter. They pass digital audio and midi

Thanks you Linda for the Thunderbolt 3 education.

I have a Dell 7530 on the way to me. I watched my one of your videos today and sure wish I had found you sooner. I did subscribe to your channel in a heartbeat. Lisa it would be so cool if you could do a review of the Dell 7530 (Precision laptop) ...any who, you are one of 3 channels I subscribe to at this point. Thank you ...

I still don't get the difference besides it's not time for Thunderbolt 3 yet. That was a big help for me.

Thanks for this amazing breakdown! I prefer hearing specs rather than a history lesson on USB, and this covered it! looking forward to future reviews on Thunderbolt from you (when it’s worth doing) 🙂

Lisa, can you do a video like this, but one that discusses the best configurations for a laptop or if we want to build our own desktop?

TMI (for me). Now I have a headache. But I do appreciate your efforts.

Interesting. The reason I like the idea of a thunderbolt / razer core is to extend a good portable ultrabook,which you might use for work, so you can play games at home with the core attached. Also, to extend the life of something with a decent graphics card like a 1060, say, four years down the track when the 1060 is getting a bit dated.

girl its spring! put some highlights in! we heart u!!!

finally, after searching for couple days... thank you, I can sleep well tonight

I wasn’t confused before... now I’m!

You can put low power gpus such as the 1050 and rx460 in the akitio thunder 3, they can draw enough power from the pcie slot itself without the need for a separate power supply.

Love these videos Lisa, thanks!

yikes.....I was left scratching my head after that one.

Thank you I’m beginning to understand more about what I may .

Lisa has the knack of explaining things. She should be a teacher, that talent could really benefit youngsters. Just my opinion.

Hi, I believe the video will help many people. Some notes: 1) The 15" macbook pro with touch bar do have 4 full bandwidth ports, but just as stated in the video the 13" has two at 40gbps, and 2 at 20gbps that is more or less the bandwidth of Thunderbolt2. That mean that they are fast enought for most HD arrays with 6 or less drives. 2) The AKiTiO Node for GPUs supports full lenght graphics cards and it costs 269$ from B&H for example. Keep the exelent work

Lisa! I just love your videos! simple, clear and even funny!

Thanks for your hard work, you really simplified the subject matter.

Fantastic job Lisa!!!

hey, just wanted to share my experience here. I got a XPS15 with the TB16 dock. It's a thunderbolt dock with 3 video outs that also powers the laptop. Absolute killer feature over USB docks is that no driver is required, it leverages the hardware (good bye DisplayLink virtual drivers).

Thanks I bought a laptop with USB 3.1 and it didn't work with USB hub and later on find out it should be gen 2. thanks a lot for your explanation.

I get it that things sometimes get harder before they get easier but if I apply that to the current connectivity situation I expect that somewhere in the distant future thunderbolt might help solve my deepest existential struggles.

Thanks for clearing all that up in a way that's nice and easy to digest. :)

Thanks very much Lisa, an excellent video, explaining everything in a very straightforward and natural way...Subscribed for more!.

Lisa. You are so likable. Glad to have found your channel. Thanks for all the good info :)

Hi Lisa, could you please do a video on how to install USB Type-C into a desktop front panel? I cant find anything explaining how we are meant to do this for the latest motherboards.

Very nice great explanation Lisa now if I could explain to hard heads but at I least i follow.Thanks again Deb

I think I left this video more confused lol will need to watch again and maybe take notes!

Very helpful video! Thank you Lisa!

I love the hp omen accelerator paired with my hp Spectre x360. Thunderbolt 3 x4 was absolutely a requirement for me when I bought the laptop in 2018.

Keep doing this kind of video, it's really useful! Thank you so much :D

Thanks Lisa, your reviews are great!

Hi Lisa, a year on and I just purchased a Universal Audio Arrow, music interface for the NUC8i7HVK and others. TB3 is starting to get traction.

I really enjoy these 5 minutes on tech videos. Slay Lisa!

It does get very confusing doesn't it. I think they do it on purpose to get us to buy things we probably don't need.

Hello thanks for the video...TB is used for pro grade Audio Interfaces...a niche market but that’s why I am looking all this up. Going from MAC to PC and would love to have a new AMD Ryzen with Thunderbolt 3 :-) all the best

As for the egpu hype... I think manufacturers need to focus on developing better cooling for cpu and gpu's in laptops imho.

Thank you so much for this video! I'm tired of explaining to people the differences....now I can just tell them to watch this....more diagrams would have helped understand better though; its a lot of info to take in. Anyways thanks again!

Great information! Clear and concise as always :)

What happens if you connect two devices that can charge and be charged via USB-C together? Like, just as an example, there are some phones (like the recent ASUS Zenfone 3 Zoom) that can act as a power bank and charge other devices, what happens if you plug those for instance, into a laptop? Or plug two Zenfone 3 Zooms together? Or even just two USB-C supporting laptops together? Who's charging who then?

Nice job explaining everything

Thanks so much Lisa, super helpful!

Great work yet again Lisa!

Oh My God! This is the best best best video on this. Subscribed.

News I can use! Thanks for explaining this. Always fair and informative.

Your videos make me happy. Especially when you show off your amazing t shirts!

Very clear video (thank you) except for one thing: when you say you can't recharge via usb c any pc with an high wattage charger. Why should it be impossible? I can understand it would take a lot of time, but I don't see any physical limit in that.

You're video was great. You really hit the facts. Thank you.

8 minute video in 5 minutes

I have no doubt that the lady Knows her stuff . However she is like so many on KZfaq not an instructor. Instructing is an art in its self. John

The only thing that really confused me is that some usb c cables are advertised as usb 2.0. I always thought they were 3.0 or 3.1

I got confused by about three minutes in. By confused I mean in the sense of when a person gives directions. We all have been in that position where real info gets lost in the chatter even though it's just right, left etc. There are times when a simple diagram does wonders.

thanks lisa! very helpful and informative little vid :D

That is all good to know about USB C vs Thunderbolt 3 ,,, ,but ,,,, Can be charged Laptops that have USB Type C (3.1-3.2) ??? or only if it is with Thunderbolt 3...

Thanks! Very informational.

great video very informative thank you

You are amazing Lisa. Thanks!