That is what you’ll want to learn about USB port colours

It is a frequent joke that the “U” in USB is a mistake. The format is hardly common. There are a number of connector sorts — principally USB-A and USB-C, today — and irrespective of which one you are coping with, it is generally arduous to inform what kind of data speeds you will be getting, not to mention energy supply. Take into account that 2025’s entry-level iPhone 17 has a USB-C port, however can solely transfer knowledge at USB 2.0 charges, even if the two.0 spec initially launched a quarter-century in the past. Hope you’ve an hour useful if you happen to’re making an attempt to backup your telephone, or switch massive quantities of 4K video.

As if that weren’t complicated sufficient, a number 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 just lately, if I am sincere. However as I’ve realized, it may possibly doubtlessly type out a number of the chaos on older machines. That is not the case on newer ones, as I am going to illustrate.

What do the completely 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 embrace companies like Apple, Intel, HP, and Microsoft — some fairly heavy hitters. This explains why Macs are sometimes on the vanguard of port know-how, 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 subject, the colours are principally meant to sign what knowledge switch speeds a port is able to. In some circumstances, they will point out energy capabilities as effectively, if not all the time the precise wattage you will be coping with. That is extraordinarily vital relating 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 to cost a 240W gaming laptop computer that approach if its ports max out at 100W.

There are six colours you would possibly discover within the wild: white, black, blue, pink, yellow, and orange. These are all steadily 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 — an ordinary 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 finest 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 indicators USB 2.0 speeds as much as 480Mbps. Charging is unaffected. When doubtful, assume {that a} black port will not do any higher than 2.5W.
• Blue: This is without doubt one of the commonest colours you will see, flagging USB 3.0 knowledge speeds as much as 5 gigabits per second (Gbps). Since USB 2.0 is more and more a relic of the previous, you will generally see it on equipment that don’t have anything to do with knowledge, like transportable battery packs.
• Yellow: This can be used for each USB 2.0 and three.0 ports, which is a unnecessary overlap, for my part. In any occasion, the primary objective is to point out assist for always-on features in addition to passive energy supply. A telephone linked to a yellow USB port ought to be capable to proceed charging even when your PC is asleep, as an illustration.
• Orange: I’ve by no means seen this shade in individual, and it is not arduous to know why — this means the identical energy know-how 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 knowledge and energy might be going to make use of a more moderen commonplace.
• Crimson: 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, take into account that 1GB switch instance I pointed to earlier — with a 20Gbps connection (together with a appropriate cable), you may copy the identical knowledge in about 0.4 seconds. A pink port additionally tends to indicate always-on features, 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 may be questioning if I am hallucinating these colours. Certainly, on the Lenovo gaming laptop computer I purchased just lately, the entire USB ports share a single shade — black — even if they’re rated for a minimum of USB 3.0 efficiency, and certainly one of them is a USB 4 port I exploit to connect a Thunderbolt 4 dock. The identical is true of many different computer systems, together with Apple’s Mac lineup. It would not matter when you have a 13-inch MacBook Air or a decked-out Mac Studio.

What provides? The reply is that the USB-IF and producers have largely deserted shade coding, presumably as a result of few individuals have 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 solution to study the issues introduced 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.

One more reason for the shift is the accelerating transition to USB-C connectors, often 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 not any must flag one as constructed for charging or high-speed knowledge. Some ports will certainly carry out higher than others, however in that regard, colours could not probably cowl all of the completely different velocity and energy configurations with out changing into much more head-scratching.

As an alternative, 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 verify 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 not any want to take a look at paint swatches.