Next month will see the return of Microsoft’s WinHEC conference, and the newly published schedule for the event includes a session entitled “Enabling New USB Connectivity Scenarios in Windows 10.” This presentation will see the company officially announce support for USB 3.1, according to a report from Neowin.
USB 3.1 boasts a wide range of advantages, being twice as fast a USB 3.0 and much more efficient. It’s also backwards compatible as far back as USB 2.0 and can provide a mighty 100 watts of power to recharge devices quicker than its predecessors. However, it’s perhaps its simplest feature that’s the most appealing of the lot.
Related: USB 3.1 blazes forward in early speed tests
Ending years of user frustration, the new Type-C cables introduced alongside USB 3.1 are reversible. That means you’ll never again have to suffer the aggravation of attempting to plug in your cable the wrong way again. The long-running joke of it taking three attempts to plug in a USB cable — despite there being only two ways to do so — is about to come to an end.
Microsoft support seems to suggest that USB 3.1 will become widespread sooner rather than later. This might spell doom for its major competitor, Intel’s Thunderbolt 2. However, given that Thunderbolt is more expensive to implement and can’t be used as a charger, it never looked to put up too much of a fight against the widely used USB.
More information on Microsoft’s plans to support USB will likely come at the aforementioned WinHEC session, which is set to take place on March 18.
