As everyone knows, Apple has abandoned the traditional USB Type A interface on its MacBook laptops after 2016, and has turned to USB Type C.
When the 16 MBPs were just released, they were pushed to the cusp of the design of the full Type C. Some people said that they dared to fully embrace the new technology (Type C), which is a manifestation of Apple's innovation and pioneering spirit.
However, it is also said that Type C, the most widely used and poorly-compatibility of productivity tools, is the wrong product decision that Apple lacks to think about; more conspiratorial suspects that Apple's move is to sell adapters. After all, Apple's line is low. To two or three hundred, up to a thousand...
Whether or not these views are right or wrong is not judged in this paper. Whatever your opinion on the full adoption of Type C, an objective fact is that due to being too advanced, Mac computers with only Type C interface do have many current uses. inconvenient.
Since this is a foregone conclusion, instead of debating whether it is a good product decision, it is better to think about how to solve the current problem (the best solution is probably not to buy a Mac?...XD).
To solve the Type C compatibility problem, it is actually very simple, that is, using a patch cord. Due to the advanced features of Type C, it can be transferred to almost any interface: Type A, Lightning 3, RJ45, HDMI, VGA, Storage Card slot and so on...
This time we got three patch cord products from Sapphire, Type C to Type A/RJ45, Type C to VGA (with power input), and Type C to VGA (no power input). Next we officially enter Evaluation section.
Appearance Appreciation
Frankly speaking, as a transit device, the proportion of appearance design in the user experience is not great - as a line, what use is good-looking, so here we just briefly describe their appearance, and then Enter the performance test link.
Type A/RJ45 and VGA (without power supply input) The transition cable design style is more uniform, the overall color is black, with a metal body, printed on the front of the LOGO of the product line.
While the VGA (with power input) patch cord looks like another product line, the appearance is white plastic, more in line with our traditional impression of the 'transmission line', with the Sapphire logo on the front and a speaker-like layout. Hole, probably for heat dissipation.
The weight of the three patch cords is very light, and the two metal materials may be slightly heavier (compared to plastic), but the impact on portability is completely insignificant.
In addition, unlike the other two lines, the Type A/RJ45 line lights white when used.
USB speed and network bandwidth testing
The equipment used for the test is a 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro with four Thunder 3 (Type C).
It is worth noting that only the interface bandwidth on the left side of the 13-inch MBP is full-speed 40 Gbps, and the bandwidth of the right-side interface is reduced to only 20 Gbps, so all devices in this evaluation use the left-side full-speed interface.
Next we will perform the USB speed test and network speed test on the Type A/RJ45 patch cable. Official data shows that this data cable can provide RJ45 Gigabit bandwidth (125MB/sec) and USB 3.0 5Gb (625MB/sec) maximum speed .
For the network speed test, we chose the open source cross platform iperf3 tool to test, the test method is to connect the MBP to the LAN through the RJ45, and then run a speed test with a desktop running iperf3 server, the test results are as follows.
As you can see, due to the speed limit of the gateway equipment, the transmission speed is only about 100 megabits, which is far from the upper limit of the patch cord. This means that in most cases, you do not need to worry about changing the cable to speed The bottleneck.
Next is the USB read-write test, we use the dd tool under Linux to test the mobile hard disk, the results are as follows.
As you can see, the read speed is 141,552,288 bytes per second (135MB per second), and the write speed is 127,651,662 bytes per second (121MB per second). Due to the speed limitations of other IO devices, we cannot measure the turn. The maximum bandwidth of the wiring.
However, this data at least shows that this switch is not a performance bottleneck in most of the time - I think you must not buy a U disk with a read/write speed of 625MB/s...
External monitor test
The VGA adapter cable without power input provides 1080P at 60Hz output when converting to VGA analog signal, and up to 4k at 60Hz output when converted to HDMI digital signal.
The other VGA cable with power input cannot be converted to HDMI digital signal, so there is only VGA analog signal output up to 1920*1200 at 60Hz.
However, the highlight of this line is that it also has a Type C input. Connecting the power cable to this input port can simultaneously charge the computer. The power supply can be up to 60W, which can meet the 13-inch MBP power requirement (15-inch may be Not enough).
PConline evaluation room summary
For the new MBP users, the patch cord has become a de facto 'living necessities', and these three patch cords are one of the trusted products.
Their speed is very fast, and they will not become the bottleneck of the IO system in normal use. In addition to the heat is a bit severe (subjective feelings may be up to 40-50 degrees), there is basically nothing to be said.
In addition to the three products that participated in this evaluation, Sapphire also introduced more Type C adapters.
Includes Sapphire Thunderbolt 3-conversion dual HDMI video output adapter capable of supporting dual 4k 30 Hz output, 4k 60-Hz Type C to single HDMI adapter, 3T dual-DP video output adapter, USB-C ( Type-C) Four-in-one extension base, Type-C to USB3.0 x4 converter, Type-C to USB3.0 x3+ Gigabit Lan converter...
In other words, Sapphire's product line basically solves all your needs for Type C.
