How To Identify USB 3.0 & Charging Ports By Looking At The Symbols Next To Them

All USB ports are not built equally. USB as its name may sound might have become a universally accepted standard for connecting computer peripherals to your system but all the USB ports found on your PC are not the same. Some are made to do things while others are not for example; you must have gotten to know that your phone does not charge faster in a particular USB port and it charges faster on a certain USB port. While the reason for the slow charge might be a result of a problem with your data cable or it might be that you have probably connected your data cable to a slow charging USB port. To solve this issue, you need to plug your phone into a specific USB port built to charge a device. Here is a simple trick on how to identify the USB 3.0 and the USB charging port.

Now take a look at the below symbols next to the USB port which you are connecting your device to

You might notice that the two symbols can be at the same place i.e. you might see the USB 3.0 symbol and the USB Charging port located at the same port. What this means is that the USB port is meant for USB 3.0 and it can also be used to charge your device faster. The new model of a system will likely to have just one USB 2.0 port as people would prefer to have USB 3.0 because of it’s speed in that transfer and there will likely be only one USB charging port.

Another trick to identify a USB 3.0 port is by observing the colors. If the manufacturer didn’t provide the symbols, the manufacturer might instead make the USB port blue making it easier to identify compared to the squinting over the symbol.

USB ports that don’t have the lightning symbol will still be able to charge your phone. They do have the ability to charge your device but the power of the USB port is been limited which result in the slow charging of a mobile device.