The USB C standards are certainly an improvement over the previous ones... but it also has issues with a lot of confusion about them because of the standards committee and how they have messed with the naming and even improperly following of those same standards by companies distributing the cables. Still, what it is designed for and is able to provide is a huge improvement despite the confusion.
The three biggest improvements are the connection can be connected in either direction so you can easily plug them in versus how the old connections were plugged in only one way. The second area is the amount of voltage or power they are capable of carrying. The original USB standard only supported 5v and up to around 2.1a, the new standard allows for much higher voltages and wattages as long as the device reports what it supports it and the if charger can provide it. See this page for a more technical discussion on the power side of what it's capable of
All About USB-C: Power Delivery
Then finally the way the connector mounts to pcb's has also been improved and should help provide a more substantial mount that should not fail as easily as the older mounts are known to. Of course, they won't last forever but should be better than before. That isn't to say some manufacturers won't cut corners, we know they will.
Most of the confusion will be with the data transfer rates and what the names mean... because the USB standards committee keeps changing them as the standards grow. Previously if there was an update they'd just name the update with an increase in the decimal after the main version... ie USB 2.0 to 2.1 etc ... The USB 3 naming started out that way but then changed. What is so bad about it is that the cables aren't marked as to what standard they follow and with the names being changed all of the time, if they had been marked then they wouldn't match the new names given to that standard. So instead of USB 3 ( the first one ) being 3.0 ... it's now called USB 3.1 Gen 1 ... the next is USB3.1 Gen 2 and then comes USB 3.1 Gen 2x2 ( two by two ) ... If you ask me, they should kick out the PR guy on that standards committee and just let the engineers handle the naming... lol
So much for my naming rant... What it means is the connection is more robust, easier to plug in properly and we do finally have a power supply standard that can use a single type of connector for most devices ... including up to higher end laptops with powerful cpu's and gpu's in them. You'd still need a supply capable of providing the kind of power that laptop needs... but that power supply could also charge all other devices smaller as well. Currently these PSU are commonly found to provide up to 65w of power ( at whatever combination of voltage amperage needed for those ) and higher end ones ( and higher cost ones ) supplying up to around 120w. These are able provide voltages in the range of 3.3v up to 24v typically at the high end.
Oh, almost forgot one other rant... They are still not marking the cables if they are power only or power/data just like before... some things never change
and of course, I don't have one. My question is if their different kind of type C USB cords. I don't want to purchase the wrong one and can I get it at Walmart or an electronic store like Radio Shack?
