What are the differences between the new variants of USB-C 2.1 cables, with 240W power supply

USB-C 2.1 is the name of the new standard that will allow you to power your devices at high power through this universal jack. Although no high-power USB-C chargers or compatible devices have yet appeared, information has already appeared about the first such cables, produced by Club3D. They are not yet available on the market, but they serve as an example of what we can expect from the USB-C 2.1 standard in the future. Basically, there will be three types of cables compatible with charging up to 240W, with various performance thresholds when it comes to transfer speed.

Club3D has listed three versions of USB-C 2.1 cables with 240W charging. These are differentiated primarily by the adjacent USB-C symbol, which specifies the level of performance for data transfer. In terms of power transfer, all are equal, being able to provide charge at 240W.

Club3D provides details on the first USB-C 2.1 cables

The first Club3D model is the CAC-1573, it has only the 240W symbol and can provide power transfer up to 48V / 5A via USB Power Delivery. The cable is bidirectional, so it can transfer power in both directions, and the data transfer is done at 480 Mbps speed. This means that it can only provide USB 2.0 speed transfers, being a power cord rather than a universal one to connect a laptop to a monitor and connect to high-performance accessories. The cable is 2 meters long, which suggests that there will be no such long cables.

The average model, the CAC-1575, comes with the USB symbol indicating power transfer at 240W and data transfer at 20 Gbps. Club3D lists this cable as a USB4 Gen2x2 cable, the new name for USB 3.2 Gen2x2 cables from the past. While the power transfer is similar to the base model, in terms of data transfer, the 20 Gbps can either provide data transfers at this speed for copying files from an external storage unit, or it can serve as a video cable to a monitor with a maximum resolution of 4K at 60 Hz. Of course, this cable is EPR (Extended Power Range) compliant, meaning it can provide both power and data transfer or connection to a monitor through the same connection.

Finally, the CAC-1576 is a high-speed transfer cable. It is listed as a Gen4x2 USB4 cable, meaning it comes with a double transfer rate, at 40 Gbps. However, it is shorter than the other models, at 1 meter. Dual bandwidth allows for both faster transfers at USB 4 speed and the ability to display video at 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 120 Hz.

There are no prices for these cables yet, but we expect all the companies that produce such cables to offer similar models, with different transfer speed thresholds, but with the possibility of powering at high power. With any luck, next year we will see both high-performance laptops and monitors that allow USB-C power supply with USB-C 2.1 cables, thus being closer to a reality in which we have a single connector power supply for all electronic devices.

source: Android Police