During your computing or gadget exploits, you may notice that the USB ports in your devices are sometimes different colors. While it may seem like this is to give things a more artistic flair, the colors actually mean something. For example, when a USB port is blue, it means the port supports the USB 3.0 standard, also known as SuperSpeed USB. An orange USB port also indicates USB 3.0 but means the port is always on with passive power delivery. There are even teal-colored USB ports out there. But what does it mean when a USB port is black? Is that just to match the casing, or does it mean something special?
When you see a black USB port, that usually indicates the connector supports the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed standard, which, believe it or not, is older now despite using “Hi-Speed” in the name. It offers a maximum data delivery speed of 480 Mbps — which is much slower than USB 3.0, which offers up to 5 Gbps. You can plug any USB Type-A cord into these ports, but if you’re using a newer device, like a new smartphone, the data transfer and charging speeds will be slower. USB 2.0 was originally released in 2000, and while these ports are still around today, they’re much slower than USB Type-C and USB 3.0 and above.
USB ports are intentionally different colors
The Universal Serial Bus, which is what USB stands for, or the USB standard, has been around for a long time. Developed in the mid-’90s by several companies including Microsoft, Intel, and IBM, the port was designed to standardize plug-in peripherals for personal computers. The original, which is now USB 1.0, has been updated over time to improve performance, namely to speed up data transfers and communication. USB 1.0 ports are usually a white color. But since then, we’ve seen USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB 3.2, and USB-C (which is technically USB 4, but that moniker has been reserved for the cable standard versus the port).
With so many versions of USB available, you can see why different colors are necessary. The colors help discern the port types at a glance, especially since they all have the same universal design. That way, you can see a black port, or a blue one, and instantly know its capabilities. If you need a faster port, you can quickly plug in to the right one. The next time you use one of these ports, whether in your desktop, your laptop, or another device, take note of the color of the connector. It may be a different color than you expect.
