With the amount of different cable types it is very easy to become confused with what you may need to connect your device.
New laptops and phones may require a different connector to its previous model, as an example with Apple iPhones when the model was renewed from iPhone 14 to iPhone 15 the charging cable was changed from Lightening to USB-C, therefore we may find that asking for an "iPhone Cable" may not be helpful.
To make it more confusing the cable end that connects to your laptop may not fit unless you can identify what port you have built into your laptop hardware. Do not worry, this article will help you.
This article will focus on what you are most likely to need.
How to identify cables used for your device.
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
USB Type A
The difference between the black and blue in the image is that the blue port is USB 3, which supports a data bus of up to 4.8Gbps compared to 480Mbps with USB 2, note that the ports are cross compatible with any USB type A cable and device, however in the case of some hardware like USB3 Hard drives performance may be impacted.
Mini USB
Mini USB is used in some older cell phones and other devices such as dash-cams.
Micro USB
Micro USB is common with some Android Phones and Tablets as well as other devices such as Bluetooth headsets for charging.
USB-C
USB-C is now very common with modern laptops. In addition to data transfer USB-C can also power and charge laptops however pay attention to the USB-C cable as all can charge but not all can transfer data. USB-C is use by new Android models as well as iPhone 15 > . USB-C also supports display output and is ideal for graphic intensive applications due to the data transfer speed of USB-C (up to 10Gbps).
Lightning
Lightning cables are used by Apples iPhone 5 to iPhone 14.
For clarity although the ports look similar the cable connectors do not.
USB-B
Some home printers may also use a USB-A to USB-B cable.
Ethernet
Ethernet, Cat5, Cat6 or Network cables all refer to virtually the same thing. There are differences in standard such as Cat5 and Cat6 however both will connect you to a network. Network engineers are interested in the cable standards and it can have a big impact on structed cabling within a building however to connect a laptop or PC it generally works with any.
HDMI (High Definition Media Interface)
HDMI is used to connect with displays such as a TV or Monitor.
iLogix Computer Solutions hope that this has helped you. If you ever have any broken ports reach out to us for a repair.
Saving the planet one repair at a time.