USB 3.0 (also known as super speed )has MAXIMUM transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s, which is 10 times faster than USB2.0 the new generation laptops and desktops are now equipped with USB 3.0 and there are more USB connected devices compared to 3 years ago the question lies is it worth considering a upgrade to a USB 3.0 , We decided to give it a test on a DELL laptop with comes with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports and transfer a 55 GB of files from an external hard disk.
How to differentiate between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports?
For beginners USB ports look the same only difference is USB 3.0 connector is blue in colour or look for the super speed logo shown below.
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How fast is USB 3.0 compared to USB 2.0 ?
As I said before the target file is 55 GB movie folder
USB 2.0 data transfer started at 12:58 pm data transfer ended at 1:23pm time taken: 25 minutes.
USB 3.0 data transfer started at 1:36pm data transfer ended at 1:45 pm time taken: 9 minutes.
That’s way fast compared to USB 2.0 ,So it worth upgrading to USB 3.0 now?
- Apart from data transfer speeds USB 3.0 will charge more devices, quicker A USB 3.0 device can get up to 50% more power through the port than through 2.0.
- USB 3.0 will be more power efficient won’t have their power drained by the host controller as it looks for active data traffic.
- Backward compatibility: You can use USB 2.0 devices with USB 3.0 port and also all USB 3.0 devices will work on USB 2.0 ports.
So if you don’t have USB 3.0 dosent mean you are dead with no way to use new devices ,you can still use it with new devices only thing is you have to spend more time and having a USB 3.0 port is definitely future proof.
