It’s been almost a year since we told you How next-gen USB-C cables will double the amount of power they can carry to 240W, which is enough to let you ditch the proprietary power pack of all but the best gaming laptops. Now we see the first signs of life: the first USB-C 2.1 cables You have broken roof With power up to 240W and up to 40Gbps of data. They are from a Dutch manufacturer called Club3D (by Tone Devices) They don’t sell cables on their website, and they don’t seem to be available in retail stores either.
That doesn’t mean you necessarily want to buy one just yet, of course! There are still no gadgets designed to use 240W of USB-C power, nor 240W USB-C chargers, so these cables won’t give you anything new until the chicken and egg problem is resolved.
But that’s not the only caveat you should be aware of. As we feared last September When the USB Implementers Forum released their USB-C 2.1 branding guidelinesHowever, it seems manufacturers are still free to mix and match the features they will actually get from the cable.
Not only does Club3D have a 1 meter cable with 8K/60 video, 40 Gbps of data and 240 W of power, but it also has a 2 meter cable with only half the data rate. And – get this – there’s a third two-meter cable that carries only 480 Mbits of data. (This guy is stuck at USB 2.0 speeds for a reason.)
Fortunately, it looks like these cables will be clearly labeled so you know what resources they actually carry – thanks USB-IF for the labels! I hope other cable manufacturers will follow suit. And it’s good to know that a 240W cable can span at least six feet, although we expect to see longer cables as well. While 240W might seem like a lot of watts, a typical household AC outlet can produce thousands.
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