A Thunderbolt port and cable feature a small lightning symbol on the product. Standard USB-C cables are denoted by their USB symbol. USB devices can connect to a Thunderbolt port without issue.

If you're unsure of the differences between USB-C and Thunderbolt or between USB 3.0 and USB 3.2 (or is that USB 3.1?), ...

Thunderbolt and USB-C ports look identical, and they work in pretty much the same way. ... Sometimes, though, there might be a lightning symbol to identify a port as Thunderbolt-compatible.

USB Type-C cables with lightning bolts on the connectors are Thunderbolt cables, meaning that they work with Intel's Thunderbolt connectivity standard that's backward compatible with USB-C.

It's time to get to know the ports on your Mac, iPhone and iPad. Thunderbolt, Lightning, USB-C and the rest: what is each one called and what does it do?

Thunderbolt 5 Thunderbolt 4 USB4 USB 3.2; Data transfer rate: Up to 120 Gbps: 40 Gbps: Minimum of 20 Gbps, 40 Gbps is optional. 120 Gbps is optional with USB4 Version 2.0 ...

Apple’s Thunderbolt 2 to 3 display has a Thunderbolt 2 port in the main body, which looks identical to Mini DisplayPort, and a USB-C jack on the other end, which only works when plugged into a ...

Thunderbolt docks can massively upgrade your setup, ... (7440) with a Thunderbolt 4 port (see the lightning bolt), and on the bottom you have an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) ...

Thunderbolt 5 continues to be built in industry standards such as USB4 V2, DisplayPort 2.1, and PCI Express Gen 4, enabling it to be compatible with previous version of Thunderbolt and USB.

Those numbers need not concern you—just know that a Thunderbolt 5 is newer and faster than a Thunderbolt 4, and so on, but they work the same. What you need to know is how this differs from USB-C.