Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Benson here with another review of USB Type-C legacy cables. Today, I am reviewing TechMatte’s USB 3.1 Type-A to USB Type-C cables, of both 3ft and 5ft lengths. I purchased (but didn’t review right away) an earlier version of the 3ft cable from TechMatte and found that it was not Type-C compliant (used a 3A identifier resistor), but TechMatte informed me right away that the cable was out of spec and refunded my original order. I then purchased two cables from their new batch for testing. These are the cables that I am reviewing today. My test laptop today is a Chromebook Pixel (2015). I am using the following Dell 10W charger : Dell 10W Adapter Spare Wall Charger for Venue 8 Pro/8/7 (XDN34) For a debugging tool, I am using the Chromium team’s USB PD Sniffer, available here from plugable: Plugable USB 3.1 Type-C (USB-C) Power Delivery Sniffer I’ve plugged the TechMatte USB cable into the Dell 10W charger and the USB PD sniffer, which is acting as a passthrough. I’ve plugged that into Pixel. Lets check Pixel’s command line : localhost ~ # ectool --name cros_pd usbpdpower Port 0: SNK Charger DCP 4820mV / 2000mA, max 5000mV / 2000mA / 10000mW Port 1: SRC Good result! Pixel has determined that the charger is a 2A DCP charger, which is what the Dell 10W charger is. It’s drawing 2A right now. Let’s see what twinkie says : > tw cc CC1 = 15 mV ; CC2 = 429 mV This also looks good! The voltage on CC2 is 429mV. Referring to the USB Type-C Specification Table 4-25 Voltage on Sink CC pins, this voltage falls right in the middle of the range allowed for vRd-USB, meaning that yes, this cable has the correct 56kΩ pullup resistor! This cable also supports USB 3.1 Gen 1, meaning it supports SuperSpeed 5gbps operation. This is important for MacBook users especially who want to use this cable for Target Disk Mode, which requires a SuperSpeed cable to work. I tested MTP file transfer with a USB 3.1 compatible tablet, and this cable works great for large file transfers. As for some more subjective judgment of these cables: the USB Type-C connector on this cable is unique because the plug is one continuous piece of metal all around. That means it’s made with the same deep-draw extrusion process that the Google Type-C plugs use, rather than the stamped parts of a lot of other plugs (which you can tell when there’s a “seam” on one side of the connector). This makes for a stronger connector. In conclusion, Techmatte’s Type-A USB 3.1 Type-C cables have the correct spec required 56kΩ termination resistors, and are fine choices for your new Type-C gear. These cables will safely charge and transfer data for MacBook, Nexus, Pixel, and any other Type-C devices at SuperSpeed if your device and host support it. This cable is futureproof for Type-C devices to come! TechMatte as a company has been very responsive especially in updating their cables and adapters to spec when it came to light there were problems with them. Good work!