While USB 2.0 can only take 500 mA, USB 3.0 can take in over 900 mA power. To be exact, with USB 3.0, you’ll reach practical speeds of around 300 MB/s while the USB 2.0-speed peaks around 40 MB/s. I used the word theoretically because the transfer speed is highly dependent on your configuration and the data cable that you are using. In terms of speed, the USB 3.0 port can theoretically transfer data ten times faster (up to 5 Gbps/s) compared to USB 2.0 (480 Mbps). Manufacturers rushed to adopt this technology because it’s exponentially faster than USB 2.0.

There’s a good reason why USB 3.0 gained a lot of traction right from the start. Why does this happen? You might suffer from a classic case of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 confusion.

Or you might discover that just one of your ports will allow you to charge your phone while the computer is turned off. For example, you might have noticed that your phone charges faster when you connect it to a certain USB port on your computer. USB adoption was certainly encouraged by the adoption of the micro USB in the mobile realm, which annihilated any attempts at pushing for custom charging ports.īut even if today all USB ports look and behave the same way, there are some differences between them that are easy to miss.

Since then, USB became the universally accepted standard of connecting our peripherals. USB 3.0 was launched all the way back in 2008, but some of us still don’t spot the differences between this iteration and USB 2.0. Back then, being a technology person implied carrying a lot of different cables for your gadgets. 10 years ago, the tech world was only beginning to coalesce around a connection standard.

Usb 3 card for laptop