What A Blue Usb Port Really Means - And The Surprising Truth About All The Colors

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

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Have a USB instrumentality adjacent you? Look intimately astatine nan larboard -- do you spot a color? It turns retired that it really intends something. There's a standardized colour strategy that communicates accusation astir that device's capabilities.

Mind blown? If you ne'er noticed this, you're not alone. Most USB devices activity good connected immoderate compatible port, but they whitethorn not beryllium optimized for optimal performance. For example, if you've noticed a rodent seems to activity amended successful 1 larboard complete another, it's not successful your head. One astir apt supports USB 3.0, and nan different doesn't.   

There are 7 awesome colour that bespeak a device's procreation and what benignant of information transportation speeds you tin expect. If you person a uncommon instrumentality pinch a colour not listed here, fto maine cognize successful nan comments. 

• Black:Denoting USB 2.0, this is nan 2nd astir communal you'll spot connected devices of each types, supporting speeds of up to 480 Mbps.
• White: These are first-generation devices -- USB 1.x -- pinch nan slowest imaginable transportation speeds that don't typically transcend 12 Mbps. They're besides immoderate of nan astir common, recovered connected devices that don't require information transportation aliases precocious powerfulness delivery.
• Yellow: These ports tin support either USB 2.0 aliases 3.0, and are "always on", meaning they tin proviso powerfulness moreover erstwhile nan instrumentality they're connected to is off.
• Orange: Like yellow, but pinch support for USB 3.0. Always on. You mightiness spot these connected your brace of headphones.  
• Blue: Supporting USB 3.0 SuperSpeed exertion and above, bluish ports place a instrumentality tin of accelerated information transfer: up to 5 Gbps (that's 5,000 Mbps) -- a important jump from erstwhile generations. Besides laptops, you'll spot bluish ports connected thumb drives and outer storage.
• Teal: Just for illustration blue, but denoted arsenic USB 3.1, supporting faster transportation speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
• Red: These are nan newest and fastest devices available, categorized arsenic USB 3.1 Generation 2 and USB 3.2. They support different important summation successful information transportation speeds -- up to 10-20 Gbps. Red USB ports are besides ever on.

Blue USB-A ports bespeak transportation speeds of up to 5 Gbps.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The colors connected your laptop's USB ports tin besides bespeak astatine a glimpse what procreation of USB exertion it supports. For example, nan Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 features 2 identical USB-A 3.2 ports, tin of transferring information astatine speeds of up to 5 Gbps. If your laptop's USB ports don't person a color, it simply intends nan shaper chose not to usage a colour for creation aliases fund reasons. 

When buying a caller laptop, see nan speeds your USB ports support, arsenic this is 1 facet that astir consumers thin not to analyse closely. Lower-priced aliases older laptops whitethorn person ports pinch much constricted speeds, while newer laptops whitethorn forgo USB-A connectivity altogether successful favour of faster USB-C ports. 

Also: What is Thunderbolt, and really is it different from USB-C?

The bottommost line

So what does each this mean for you? I urge looking astatine your laptop's spec expanse to find nan differences (if any) betwixt nan USB ports connected your laptop. If 1 of them is faster than nan other, it will beryllium specified, and you tin expect amended capacity by connecting nan correct devices to nan corresponding ports.