That is what that you must find out about USB port colours

It is a widespread joke that the “U” in USB is a mistake. The format is hardly common. There are a number of connector varieties — principally USB-A and USB-C, today — and irrespective of which one you are coping with, it is typically arduous to inform what kind of data speeds you may be getting, not to mention energy supply. Contemplate that 2025’s entry-level iPhone 17 has a USB-C port, however can solely transfer information at USB 2.0 charges, even supposing the two.0 spec initially launched a quarter-century in the past. Hope you have got an hour helpful when you’re attempting to backup your telephone, or switch giant quantities of 4K video.

As if that weren’t complicated sufficient, a few of the ports on laptop computer, desktop, and pill PCs (together with their equipment) come in several colours. That is one thing I by no means paid a lot consideration to till not too long ago, if I am sincere. However as I’ve realized, it may probably type out a few of the chaos on older machines. That is not the case on newer ones, as I will illustrate.

What do the totally different USB port colours imply?

A naive however well-meaning effort

The colours are the brainchild of the USB Implementors Discussion board, or USB-IF, an trade group that oversees all USB requirements. Its members embody firms like Apple, Intel, HP, and Microsoft — some fairly heavy hitters. This explains why Macs are sometimes on the vanguard of port expertise, even when Apple needed to be dragged kicking and screaming into adopting USB-C on iPhones as an alternative of Lightning. In the end it took new rules from the European Union, however I digress.

Again on matter, the colours are principally meant to sign what information switch speeds a port is able to. In some circumstances, they’ll point out energy capabilities as nicely, if not all the time the precise wattage you may be coping with. That is extraordinarily essential with regards to tablets and laptops — whereas some merchandise can cost through USB-C as an alternative of a devoted energy brick, you will not be capable of cost a 240W gaming laptop computer that means if its ports max out at 100W.

There are six colours you would possibly discover within the wild: white, black, blue, crimson, yellow, and orange. These are all progressively changing into irrelevant, although, for causes that may grow to be clear within the subsequent part.

• White: You are unlikely to see this anymore, because it’s tied to USB 1.x — a regular that was solely round for 4 years earlier than being fully eclipsed by USB 2.0. 1.x ports are solely able to 1.5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps), which at greatest would take over 11 minutes to switch 1GB of knowledge. Energy is capped at 2.5W, which is barely sufficient for a mouse or keyboard.
• Black: As initially meant (extra on this in a minute), black alerts USB 2.0 speeds as much as 480Mbps. Charging is unaffected. When unsure, assume {that a} black port will not do any higher than 2.5W.
• Blue: This is among the commonest colours you may see, flagging USB 3.0 information speeds as much as 5 gigabits per second (Gbps). Since USB 2.0 is more and more a relic of the previous, you may typically see it on equipment that don’t have anything to do with information, like moveable battery packs.
• Yellow: This can be used for each USB 2.0 and three.0 ports, which is a useless overlap, for my part. In any occasion, the principle function is to point out assist for always-on capabilities in addition to passive energy supply. A telephone related to a yellow USB port ought to be capable of proceed charging even when your PC is asleep, as an example.
• Orange: I’ve by no means seen this shade in particular person, and it isn’t arduous to grasp why — this means the identical energy expertise as yellow, however solely for USB 3.0 connections. The three.0 commonplace remains to be very a lot round, however any fashionable {hardware} maker that cares about each information and energy might be going to make use of a more recent commonplace.
• Purple: This factors to both USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB 3.2 speeds between 10 and 20Gbps. For a measure of how fast that’s, think about that 1GB switch instance I pointed to earlier — with a 20Gbps connection (together with a appropriate cable), you may copy the identical information in about 0.4 seconds. A crimson port additionally tends to indicate always-on capabilities, however this can be moot, since that and passive energy supply are sometimes de facto on fashionable PCs.

What about USB 4 and Thunderbolt?

An indication of the occasions

In the event you’re comparatively new to the PC house, you could be questioning if I am hallucinating these colours. Certainly, on the Lenovo gaming laptop computer I purchased not too long ago, all the USB ports share a single shade — black — even supposing they’re rated for no less than USB 3.0 efficiency, and one among them is a USB 4 port I take advantage of to connect a Thunderbolt 4 dock. The identical is true of many different computer systems, together with Apple’s Mac lineup. It does not matter when you’ve got a 13-inch MacBook Air or a decked-out Mac Studio.

What offers? The reply is that the USB-IF and producers have largely deserted shade coding, presumably as a result of few individuals had been conscious that it had any significance. There’s been virtually no promotion — I have been in tech journalism for many years, and I nonetheless needed to exit of my method to be taught the issues offered right here. It is as if the USB-IF opened a brand new retailer on the town, then puzzled why nobody bothered to point out up when the one promoting was a tiny garden signal.

Another excuse for the shift is the accelerating transition to USB-C connectors, normally related to USB 3.1 or later. It isn’t a lot that USB-C ports are tiny — it is that they have been multi-purpose from the beginning, so there is no must flag one as constructed for charging or high-speed information. Some ports will certainly carry out higher than others, however in that regard, colours could not probably cowl all of the totally different velocity and energy configurations with out changing into much more head-scratching.

As a substitute, the transfer has been towards one thing apparent: labels. My laptop computer’s 10Gbps port has that in writing, and its USB 4 connection is topped by a lightning icon, representing Thunderbolt assist. All of the USB 3.0 ports are marked with the USB SuperSpeed (“SS”) brand. I should must test my system’s official specs to see how a lot energy USB-C equipment can faucet, however for each different state of affairs, there is no want to have a look at paint swatches.