[HTC 10 Questions & Answers] lagittaja:
There is no "Quick Charge 3.0" capable cable because QC3.0 doesn't care what cable you have.

The point of buying a "3amp capable" cable is to ensure that the phone can charge as well as it possibly can without wasting power as heat.

And I wouldn't bother paying too much attention to Benson's reviews.

All he cares about is whether or not that specific product follows USB Type-C specification to the letter.

If the product, for example a cable, does not follow the specification properly it can create issues.

Nexus 6P - bad cable - regular 5V 1A charger.

Bad cable does not properly tell Nexus 6P that the charger is 5V 1A > Nexus 6P tries to draw 5V 3A.

Guess what happens to the charger? It either lets out the magic smoke in spectacular fashion or just fails gracefully or continues working for a while and heats up considerably while the Nexus 6P is drawing a lot power from it > creating a possible fire hazard.​

The only things that matter when you're buying a cable

a) buy a cable that has the connectors you need, in this case I suppose you want UBS A to USB C

b) buy a cable that has thick enough wires. If the product listing in store and/or packaging and/or manufacturer product page and/or writing on the cable itself say what the AWG of the cable is, I would not buy it. There's plenty of cables out there with good specs and manufacturers who show those specs on their website or on the packaging.

For example, I think Monoprice was mentioned earlier in this thread, they have quality cables and they list the specs

USB 3.0 C-A (24 AWG power)

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13012

USB 2.0 C-A (24 AWG power)

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13002

And it seems I forgot to answer to your question regarding USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0.

It's the transfer speed. 3.0 is faster.

But do not confuse Quick Charge 3.0 with USB 3.0. Or USB 2.0 with QC 2.0.

They're completely different things.

You do NOT need USB 3.0 to use Quick Charge 3.0 for example.

Longer answer:

Sorry to confuse you with this but blame the USB organization for this.

Let's start with the easiest part.

This is BEFORE the USB 3.1 specification was finalized:

USB 2.0 = 480Mbps theoretical

USB 3.0 = 5Gbps theoretical

USB 3.1 = 10Gbps theoretical

Got that?

Now, when the USB organization finalized the USB 3.1 specification, they merged USB 3.0 into USB 3.1.

So now we have just USB 2.0 and USB 3.1.

USB 3.0 = USB 3.1 Generation 1 (or Gen 1 or G1)

USB 3.1 = USB 3.1 Generation 2 (or Gen 2 or G2)

The HTC 10 USB C port is "USB 3.1 Gen 1".

What that means it can support transfer speeds up to 5Gbps, the USB 3.1 Gen 1 port is essentially an USB 3.0 port.

Do you need USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 cable with HTC 10?

No, you don't need. The cable that comes with the HTC 10 is USB 2.0.

Do you want USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 cable with HTC 10?

That depends what you want and also does your computer have USB 3.0 or 3.1 port?

If your PC does not have USB 3.0/3.1 port, then there is NO benefit of having a USB 3.0/3.1 cable.

Having it does not hurt ANYWAY but there is no benefit from having it

If you transfer large files to/from the HTC 10?

USB 2.0 practically tops of at ~30-40MB/s transfer speed.

USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1

theoretical

limit is 5Gbps or 625MB/s but it's practically around ~4Gbps or ~500MB/s. Or even lower.

The HTC 10 storage sequential read/write speed is ~170MB/s and ~100MB/s respectively.

So that is the speed limit off the phone.

Much larger than USB 2.0 limit > you gain faster transfer speed by using USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1 cable + USB 3.0/3.1 port on PC

Transferring a 4GB file from HTC 10 >>> PC?

USB 2.0 2 minutes to 2½ minutes

USB 3.0 ~25 seconds

Transferring a 4GB file from HTC 10 <<< PC?

USB 2.0 2 minutes to 2½ minutes

USB 3.0 40+ seconds (+ because the HTC 10 has "SLC cache" with accelerate write speed, that cache is ~0.5-1GB in size)

This transfer time calculation of course assumes that your PC can FEED the data fast enough.

If you have a really, really slow hard drive, then the "bottleneck" is your hard drive, not the phone and not the USB 2.0 vs 3.0.

---------- Post added at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 PM ----------

Weakest link is your answer.

Hint: you'll still be limited to USB 2.0 speeds.

Think about a 2 lane bridge. That's your USB 2.0 cable.

With USB 2.0 PC and USB 2.0 phone, there's 2 lanes on either ends of the bridge.

USB 2.0 speed.

Think about a 2 lane bridge. That's your USB 2.0 cable.

With USB 3.0/3.1 PC and USB 3.0/3.1 phone, there's 10 lanes on either ends of the bridge.

What's the speed?