Frustrated with USB 3.0 speed on laptops

Hailed as the future of USB technology, practical testing shows that USB 3.0 is not all the expectations of users. Laptop users need to spend money on hardware upgrades to take full advantage of this technology .

PCWorld tested the actual performance of USB 3.0 with Freecom's XS Hard Drive 3.0 hard drive and a dual-core laptop using the company's new Express Card USB 3.0 card. PCW mainly experimented with the ability to copy and paste a large number of photo and video files from a laptop to the hard drive and vice versa.

Frustrated with USB 3.0 speed on laptops Picture 1
USB 3.0 card for laptops

In USB 2.0 mode, XS hard drives reach an average speed of 18.7MB / s (data read) and 11.1 MB / s (write data), much lower than the USB 2.0 theoretical maximum speed. Also tested in USB 3.0 mode, the speed was raised to 36.6MB / s (read) and 36MB / s (write). Meanwhile, the theoretical speed of USB 3.0 is 4.8 Gbps, 10 times faster than the current speed of USB 2.0.

The above test results show that USB 3.0 speed on laptops is only 2-3 times higher than USB 2.0. Even when using LG eSATA drive for testing, the speed is even lower. Specifically, when copying files to LG's external hard drive (via USB 3.0 port), the speed is only 32.5MB / s (read) and 29.7MB / s (write).

According to Freecom's engineers, the USB 3.0 standard is quite new to the technology specifications that laptops and internal hard drives are currently using. Because desktop computers use faster PCI Express Card interfaces, performance can be better. USB 3.0 will work if combined with a SATA 3.0 hard drive or an SSD.

PCWorld and Freecom 's advice is that PC users should upgrade to USB 3.0 if they need faster data transfer speeds; As for laptops, users should wait until the new generation of laptops comes out, USB 3.0 is really complete.