2-Pack 6' Amazon Basics 60W Fast Charging USB-C to USB-C 2.0 Cable Expired

Ok, listen up people, I design USB stuff.

Granted it sounds like the labeling of the package might be unreasonably unclear, and I have no idea whatever else might be seen in the specifications
which could be unclear / wrong / problematic or what. I've never used these particular cables, and have spent zero time reading the reviews / specifications.

However a few of you seem to be misguided about some basic but important details of USB and electricity in general.

1: A cable, any cable, is rated to handle a certain current, Amperes / Amps. If you want to get technical that number could vary depending on stuff like frequency or temperature but to keep it simple a cable like a USB cable here is going to be rated for a certain number of continuous Amperes of current, period. It is orthogonal to / independent of other ratings on the cable in simple cases like this.

2: Similarly to the above in simple signal and IT equipment safety extra low voltage power / data cables like this the cable is going to be rated for use with a certain voltage value, DC for power in the USB case, (and DC/AC mix in the case of the data signals which isn't really relevant to my points here). So if you put 120VDC or 1000VDC or whatever on this cable you can expect it to be dangerous and not handle it. But USB-C power delivery is what we're talking about here, and USB power delivery in the way it is implemented these days sends DC voltage from a power source to a power consumer over the cable. The power consumer actually can talk to the power source (power supply circuit in the device it is plugged into whether an AC adapter charger or a computer) it is plugged into and the power consuming device actually ASKS the power source supply for a certain voltage and current. The default voltage is 5.0V backwards compatible with USB 2.0 not using USB-C power delivery. If the consumer asks and the source can provide it they can negotiate to switch the voltage coming out of the power source to some other value, typically 9VDC, 12VDC, 20VDC. Or if the source & consumer support USB PD 3.x PPS then they can negotiate other voltage settings between 3.3VDC and up to 20VDC in small increments. So although +5VDC is the default / backward compatible / initial value of VBUS on the cable, one of the whole points of USB TYPE C with USB power delivery is that the operating voltage can vary from +3.3VDC up to +20VDC in typical cases, though the neither the power source nor consumer HAVE to support other values besides +5.0VDC. But being a USB Type-C cable it is in theory designed to comply with the Type C cable & connector specification and hence it'll be rated to operate from 0 to 3.x Amperes current, and 0 to +20VDC voltage.

3: Power: At DC in cases like this power = current * voltage. So raise the voltage for a given current, power increases. 5V * 3V = 5*3 = 15 Watts (the unit of power). So if you have a cable that is rated for 0-20V and 0-3A what is the setting you can use to carry the most power within those limitations? 20V*3A = 60W. At 5V*3A = 15W. At 12V*3A = 36W. So if a USB Type-C device wants like 25W of power, for instance, chances are it's going to ask for 12V since it can get up to 12V*3A=36V or 20V and get 65W at 12V*3.25A = 65V. It's not going to be able to get 65W at 5V*13A because they don't standardize USB-C to handle 13A and the cables would start to get thick like car battery jumper cables as the Amperage increases.

So in short there is nothing wrong with a USB-C cable or charger that happens to be rated to handle 3A, or 5V, but that's not ALL it can handle in the case of voltage, in reality the voltage will be raised to up to 20V if you're charging say a laptop which is how a USB-C charger replaces all those old 19VDC "power brick" laptop chargers of previous generations.

So as long as the type-c cable can handle 3.25ADC for power, you're able to get 65W over it, as long as the devices negotiate up to 20V to do that.
Some cables (with e-marker chips embedded to tell the power source they can handle even up to 5ADC could handle 5ADC and therefore 20V*5A = 100W which is where you get into that higher level of charging capability with the extra special cables and source / consumer equipment).

For instance if you look at the way USB-C chargers are labeled / specified you should see something like this for example on one 65W one I have here:
``PD output:
5V / 2.4A (12W) or 5V / 3A (15W)
or 9V / 3A (27W)
or 12.0V / 3A (36W)
or 15.0V / 3A (45W)
or 20.0V / 3.25A (65W)''

another charger, 30W with PPS mode specifies their PPS mode like this: "3.3V-11.0V / 2.72A" to be capable of 30W output, but to get that, the voltage has to be set to the maximum 11.0V as well as the current at the maximum. A more powerful charger could be able to output both higher (to 20V) voltage and more current (to 5.0A) but this charger doesn't.

So in summary:
Buy cables rated at "3A" or to be more precise 3.25A but not everywhere is going to label it to three significant digits vs. rounding off if you want to
charge to 65W and you have a laptop and charger or whatever that can handle that. Or charge at 3A 5/9/12/15/20V or 3.3-20V and get whatever power
that ends up being if that's what your charger / powered device supports.

If you need more than 3.25A then buy an e-marked 5A rated cable and 100W class charger and powered equipment and you can charge / power 100W
running right up to 20V*5A or whatever lesser value than that your devices want to use.

There may be problems with this cable, but being rated 3A and 5V isn't one of them as long as it complies with USB Type-C cable specification.

ok ok. This requires some explainer. Now that USB-C can handle lots of power, the analogy is like extension cords. Some extension cords are meant for a lamp. They are light duty, thin gauge, and can't handle a lot. Some extension cords are meant to run your vacuum cleaner or your leaf blower - thicker cable, less flexible, more expensive, but handles a full 15 amps.

USB cables are just like that. You may not want to use a 60W capable USB cable to charge your phone - because it's less flexible so it's harder to handle and your phone will only negotiate 20W of charge even if the cable and charger is capable of more.

A laptop that uses USB-C to charge CAN use all of the 60W allowed by your charger. Or even more. But you need the cable that connects them to be thicker gauge - not the wimpy thing cable you use for your phone.

They're all USB-C still, just capable of different watts.

ffs...