A:Answer As you are aware it is a different type of connector than the original USB ports. It was made because laptops allow less and less space which required a smaller footprint for connectors. But along with this feature you get some enhancements not available to the old USBs. Instead of calling these gen 1 or gen 2 , which I am not sure what that means, let's look at the actual features; but it is backward compatible, I guess I would call it a type 3 if it is USB 3.1.
USB-C provides plenty to like. It’s reversible, so you’ll no longer have to flip the connector around a minimum of three times looking for the correct orientation. It’s a single USB connector shape that all devices should adopt, so you won’t have to keep loads of different USB cables with different connector shapes for your various devices.
USB Type-C ports can also support a variety of different protocols using “alternate modes,” which allows you to have adapters that can output HDMI, VGA, DisplayPort, or other types of connections from that single USB port. Apple’s USB-C Digital Multiport Adapter is a good example of this, offering an adapter that allows you to connect an HDMI, VGA, larger USB Type-A connectors, and smaller USB Type-C connector via a single port. The mess of USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, and power ports on typical laptops can be streamlined into a single type of port.
