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Comment by mclightning | Hacker News Reader

I know what I should expect if I am paying a cable $5 vs $40.

Just because tip of the cable is looking like USB-C, you shouldn't expect it to support HDMI etc.

Most people are not looking for full set of USB-C features. Most people are just looking to charge their device.

I don't remember last time I wired up my phone to my computer for any data transfer, and I am a nerd who reads HN. Think about the average folk.

If we go further, a big chunk of people, don't even use anything like a file manager.

In short, biggest reason we have cables around these days is; To Charge Up. That's it.

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> I know what I should expect if I am paying a cable $5 vs $40.

Actually you know you shouldn't expect much from the $5 one. But the $40 is a lottery.

Even charging from cable to cable is completely different. But I do not believe at all that regular people do not ever have the need to connect their device to a computer. They might not most of the time, but that one time they do they'll be kicking themselves over it.

Also, $40 per cable is completely and utterly ridiculous. That's 5-8% of monthly salary of Bulgaria (EU country) for a short cable.

>> Also, $40 per cable is completely and utterly ridiculous. That's 5-8% of monthly salary of Bulgaria (EU country) for a short cable.

That's why you don't buy a $40 usb cable for charging. You don't need all the pins in usb-c standard for all purposes. You can have a few USB-C cables for various purposes. Fully-implemented ones are easy to identify, just by their weight difference really.

>> Even charging from cable to cable is completely different. But I do not believe at all that regular people do not ever have the need to connect their device to a computer. They might not most of the time, but that one time they do they'll be kicking themselves over it.

I wouldn't say they will be kicking themselves over it. If they really cared and knew about transfer speeds of different cables, they would be one to invest in a better cable ahead of time. If they didn't know about those details, they will have no surprises to begin with. Because it works on par with USB2.0 at least.

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