Introduction
Thunderbolt is a high-speed data transfer interface standard that Intel has developed. It has now reached its fourth-generation and can achieve a transmission speed of up to 40Gbps. As an increasing number of manufacturers choose to incorporate Thunderbolt ports into their products, many brands in the market are offering related accessories that revolve around Thunderbolt ports.
Today, ChargerLAB has introduced the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable, which supports a maximum power transmission of 240W and features a full pin design, thereby allowing for more functionality.
Product Introduction
The HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable uses a PC outer material that offers high flexibility when bending. It also features two steel wire coils bundled on the outside.
The USB-C connector of the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable has an extended injection-molded terminal with micro openings that reveal the luster of the aluminum alloy port. The logo of "40Gbps" transmission rate is printed on the outer casing of the connector. However, it does not bear the latest USB-C cable certification logo released by USB-IF. Therefore, it can only be roughly inferred that it is 40Gbps.
The USB-C connector has a 24 full pin design internally, and specific support functions need to be tested.
Using the POWER-Z KM003C to get the E-Marker chip information of the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable. It is found that the cable supports a power transmission of 50V5A 240W and USB4 Gen3 (40Gb) data transmission capability, thus confirming that it is indeed a Thunderbolt 4 coaxial cable.
The diameter of this cable is 4.75mm (0.19 inches), and it also adopts thickened wire core.
The length of the cable is about 100cm (3.3 ft), which caters to daily charging and data transmission needs.
Performance Test
The testing of cables primarily focuses on two major aspects, functional testing and the quality testing of the cables themselves. The former mainly tests which functions the cable supports, such as fast charging, data transfer, and video transmission; the latter mainly tests the internal quality of the cable, with specific testing items including voltage drops.
Fast Charging
Firstly, let's take a look at the performance of the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable in terms of charging.
First, using the UGREEN 140W charger to charge the Xiaomi 11, the input power at the phone end is 8.44V 2.95A 24.95W, which means that the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable can support a current transmission of 3A.
Next, let's look at the Apple side. Using the same UGREEN 140W charger to charge the fourth-generation 11-inch iPad Pro, the input power is 14.85V 2.06A 30.60W. It is evident that the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable can support 2A current transmission.
Increase the testing pressure even further by charging the 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max 2021, with a power of 19.49V 4.64A 90.48W. Therefore, the cable can transmit a current of 5A.
Moreover, the cable is tested for even higher charging power by connecting one end to a power supply and the other end to a load. The results showed a charging voltage of 28V and a current of 4.954A.
On the load side, an output power of 135.971W is transmitted, while the display screen on the load side showed a power of 135.289W.
In summary, actual testing confirms that the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable can support power transmission of up to 28V5A 140W for charging performance. The cable can cater to various charging scenarios for smartphones, tablets, and laptops equipped with USB-C charging ports.
Data Transmission
In addition to fast charging, let's test the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable's capabilities for high-spec data transfer.
In this Lenovo notebook with a Windows system, a USB4 hard drive enclosure equipped with a solid-state drive is connected to the thunderbolt port of the notebook. The hard drive model is KIOXIA RD20 with 500GB capacity.
The transfer speeds were then measured using the CrystalDiskMark speed testing software. The results were impressive, with read speeds of up to 2917.58MB/s and write speeds of 1270.28MB/s.
Further testing is conducted on the macOS system using Disk Speed Test, which yielded a read speed of 2450.8MB/s and a write speed of 1874MB/s.
In summary, due to the different system and testing app algorithms, the read speed on macOS may be slower than that on Windows. However, in this scenario, the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable can achieve the Thunderbolt 3 transmission specification, while the hard drive specifications and port specifications may become the bottleneck for transmission speed.
Video Transmission
Lastly, let's see if the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable supports video transmission.
The cable is connected to the Thunderbolt port of the fourth-generation 11-inch iPad Pro and the USB-C port at the bottom of a 4K resolution display. The display is successfully turned on, indicating that the cable supports video signal transmission.
After revealing the display resolution, the display had a resolution of 3840x2160 60Hz, which is commonly known as 4K 60Hz.
Voltage Drop Test
Voltage drop test is an important factor to measure the quality of the cable. During daily use, when the charger outputs the voltage and current to one end of the cable, it passes through the cable to the other end, which creates the voltage drop.
Connect the cable to the power supply and the electrical load, respectively. And we will test the voltage drop value under different voltage and current. Here is the result.
Drawing a bar chart can clearly show that the greatest difference occurs under the 20V5A voltage level, which is 0.68V. When conducting a voltage drop test with a current of 3A, the difference is between 0.40-0.41V. When conducting a voltage drop test with a current of 1A, the difference is in the range of 0.12-0.14V.
Summary of ChargerLAB
The HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable boasts an industrial-styled design with its sleek and modern pure white and grey color scheme. What makes this cable stand out is its remarkable performance when it comes to charging, data transfer, and video transmission. It can support charging power of up to 28V5A 140W, and it can also provide high-speed data transfer with Thunderbolt specifications at an impressive rate of 40Gbps. Furthermore, it can transmit video signals of up to 4K 60Hz.
As a vital link between computers and displays, the actual tests conducted show that the HP Thunderbolt 4 Cable meets Thunderbolt 3 specifications for both reading and writing speeds. Moreover, it has a data transfer specification of USB4 Gen3 (40GB), which proves to be a reliable and accurate measure compared to some false standards. The voltage drop test was also used to evaluate the quality of this fast-charging cable, which showed that it has a relatively average overall difference with stable charging as the voltage gradually increases from 5V to 20V under the same current.
In today's world where more and more electronic devices such as tablets and laptops equipped with full-featured USB-C ports are becoming commonplace, a high-performance Thunderbolt cable can provide users with the necessary flexibility to expand and meet different needs in various scenarios.
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