These flash drives are 3.0 and 3.1, respectively, but we do not know whether the top one is 3.1 gen 1 or gen 2. Instead, manufacturers had to label their products according to the transfer rate they were able to achieve, 5 or 10 Gbps.

The USB Implementers Forum wanted the generations to be named SuperSpeed and SuperSpeed + but they never caught on. Just these two sub generations made a huge problem for OEMs and companies making products that support 3.1 gen 1 and gen 2. USB 3.1 gen 2 was released not long after, getting speeds up to 10 Gbps. USB 3.1 gen 1 was released in July 2013 and it took over the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed transfer rate. With the subsequent gen 1 and gen 2 released, the difference doubled with each release. The USB 3.0 vs 2.0 speed battle was won on release, with 3.0’s 5 Gbps speed, compared to 2.0’s 480 Mbps speed. The first and most noticeable improvement was the difference in speed compared to the previous generation. USB 3.0 brought many improvements to the table. USB 3.0 And its Many Confusing Generations Note that USB 3.0 also has the SuperSpeed SS abbreviation next to the ports. USB 2.0 is gray and USB 3.0 is blue, as it should be.

Usb 2 vs usb 3 port