Video file transfer: USB-C vs. Lightning cable

Kyle76 · Oct 11, 2020

Transferring video files to my iPad 6th Generation via the Lightning port can take awhile. How is the process on an iPad Pro via the USB-C connection?

THE CYBORG · Oct 11, 2020

Lightning devices transfer data at USB 2.0 speeds, which is 480Mbps while USB-C can transfer data at USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) speeds, 5Gbps. The default protocol with the USB-C connector is USB 3.1 which at 10Gbps (USB 3.1 Gen 2), is theoretically twice as fast as USB 3.0

anotherlab · Oct 11, 2020

THE CYBORG said:
Lightning devices transfer data at USB 2.0 speeds, which is 480Mbps while USB-C can transfer data at USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) speeds, 5Gbps. The default protocol with the USB-C connector is USB 3.1 which at 10Gbps (USB 3.1 Gen 2), is theoretically twice as fast as USB 3.0

USB-C is the standard for the connector type, not the data transfer protocol. There isn't a default protocol for USB-C, it can be used with USB 2, 3, 3.1, and Thunderbolt.

I couldn't find any specs on the USB chip set used in my Mavic Pro 2, so I did a few rounds of read/write benchmarks. With the Mavic directly connected to my PC, I saw read speeds of 64 Mb/Sec and write speeds of around 5.5 Mb/Sec. I took the card out of the Mavic used a card reader to connect to my PC. With the reader, the read/write speeds were 90 and 50 Mb/Sec, respectively. Your mileage may vary and different cards will have different speeds.

I can only speak for the Mavic 2 Pro, but it looks like it has a USB 2 chipset on board. The fastest way to get the images from the Micro SD card is to take the card out and use a card reader.

[Edited to fix some text that didn't make any sense]