What are the differences between USB 3.0 and USB 2.0?

Hinsung sums up five differences of USB Port and transmission speed between USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.

1. The Standard USB3.0 A Port can be compatible with USB 2.0/1.1, and in general, the inside of USB 3.0 connectors are blue.

2. USB2.0 only has 4 pins (metal contact) while USB3.0 has 9 pins. The front 4 pins are similar to USB 2.0, and the back 5 pins, known as superspeed, are used for acceleration.

3. The size of standard USB3.0 B Port is larger than USB2.0 so as to add new 5 pins.

4. The sign “SS” of USB3.0 stands for SuperSpeed, which is appeared on the most USB 3.0 Ports. In addition, USB 3.0 cable is thicker than USB 2.0 cable because USB 3.0 cable owns more cable lines.

The Sign "SS" of USB 3.0

5. Theoretically, the highest speed of USB 3.0 can be up to 4.9G/s, but the transmission speed of USB2.0 is 480MB/s, which means the transmission rate of USB 3.0 is ten times as fast as USB 2.0.

If you want to see some USB 3.0 cables, please check out here.