The Savior Of The TypeC Device – three Type C adapter cable test

The Savior Of The TypeC Device - three Type C adapter cable test

As everyone knows, Apple has abandoned the traditional USB Type A interface on its MacBook laptops after 2016, and has switched to USB Type C.

When the 16 MBPs were just released, they were pushed to the cusp of full-size C design. Some people say that daring to fully embrace the new technology (Type C) is a manifestation of Apple's innovation and pioneering spirit. However, it is also said that Type C, which is poorly compatible with productivity tools, is an erroneous product decision that Apple lacks. More conspiracy theory that Apple's move is to sell adapters, after all, Apple's line is as low as two or three hundred, up to a small one thousand ...

These opinions are not judged by who is right or wrong. But no matter what your opinion on the full adoption of Type C, an objective fact is that, due to being too advanced, Mac computers equipped with Type C interface do have many inconveniences in current use. Since this matter is a foregone conclusion, instead of debating whether it is a good product decision, it is better to think about how to solve the current problem (the best solution may not be to buy a Mac?...XD).

To solve the Type C compatibility problem, it is actually very simple, that is, using a patch cord. Due to the advanced features of Type C, it can be transferred to almost any interface: Type A, Thunderbolt 3, RJ45, HDMI, VGA, memory card slots, etc...

We received three patch cord products from STC-CABLE this time: Type C to Type A/RJ45, Type C to VGA (with power input), and Type C to VGA (without power input). Then we formally enter the evaluation process.

Appearance Appreciation

        Frankly speaking, as a transit device, the proportion of appearance design in the user experience is not large - as a line, what good is it to look good again? So here we just briefly describe their appearance and then we go into the performance testing session.

Type A/RJ45 and VGA (without power input) transition line design style is more uniform, the overall color is black, with a metal body, printed on the front of the LOGO of the product line. While the VGA (with power input) patch cord looks like another product line, the appearance of white plastic, more in line with our traditional impression of the "transmission cable", printed on the front Sapphire's LOGO and arranged similar to the speaker's Small holes, probably for heat dissipation.

The weight of the three patch cords is very light, and the two metal materials may be slightly heavier (compared to plastic), but the impact on portability is completely insignificant.

In addition, unlike the other two lines, the Type A/RJ45 line lights up white when used.

USB speed and network bandwidth testing

        The equipment used for this test is a 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro equipped with four Type 3 C models. It is worth noting that only the interface bandwidth of the 13-inch MBP is 40 Gbps at full speed, and the bandwidth of the right interface is reduced to 20 Gbps, so all devices in this evaluation use the left full-speed interface.

Next we will perform USB speed tests and network speed tests on the Type A/RJ45 patch cable. Official data shows that this data line provides the highest speed of RJ45 Gigabit bandwidth (125MB per second) and USB 3.0 5Gb (625MB per second).

        For the network speed test, we chose the open source cross platform iperf3 tool to test, the test method is to connect the MBP to the LAN through the RJ45, and then run a speed test with a desktop running iperf3 server, the test results are as follows.

It can be seen that, limited by the speed limit of the gateway device, the transmission speed is only about 100 megabytes, which is far from the upper limit of the transfer line. This means that in the vast majority of cases, you do not need to worry about changing the cable to become the bottleneck of the speed.

Next is the USB read-write test, we use the dd tool under Linux to test the mobile hard disk, the results are as follows.

As you can see, the read speed is 141,552,288 bytes per second (135MB per second) and the write speed is 127,651,662 bytes per second (121MB per second). Due to the speed limitations of other IO devices, we cannot measure the maximum bandwidth of the patch cord. However, this data can at least show that this switch is not a performance bottleneck in most of the time - I think you must not buy a U disk with a read/write speed of 625MB/s...

External monitor test

        The VGA adapter cable without power input provides 1080P at 60Hz output when converted to VGA analog signal, and up to 4k at 60Hz output when converted to HDMI digital signal.

 

The other VGA adapter cable with power input cannot be converted to HDMI digital signal, so there is only VGA analog signal output up to 1920*1200 at 60Hz, but the highlight of this line is that it also has a Type C input. I can connect the power cable to this input port to charge the computer at the same time. The power supply can reach up to 60W, which can meet the 13-inch MBP power supply requirement (15-inch may not be enough).

Evaluation Summary

For the new MBP users, the patch cord has become a de facto "living necessities", and the above three patch cords are one of such products that can be trusted. They are very fast and do not become the bottleneck of the IO system in normal use. In addition to fever is a bit severe (subjective feelings may be the highest 40-50 degrees), basically nothing can be Tucao

In addition to the three products participating in this evaluation, STC also introduced more Type C switching devices, including a sapphire thunderbolt 3-turn dual HDMI video output adapter that can support dual 4k 30-Hz output, supporting Type 4 C with 4k 60 Hz. To a single HDMI adapter, thunderbolt 3 dual DP video output adapter, USB-C (Type-C) 4-in-1 expansion base, Type-C to USB3.0 x4 converter, Type-C to USB3. 0x3+ GigaLan Converter... In other words, Sapphire's product line basically solves all your needs for Type C

 

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Post time: Jun-25-2018
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