Question Two questions about charging using "USB Basic Type-C"

[zzzhhh]

I have a HP EliteBook 840 G3 Notebook. The Specifications here says it has a "USB Basic Type-C" port. I need to use this port to charge my Adroid phone. For some reason, I can only use this port to charge. The problem I wanna solve is what cable to choose to connect my laptop to the Android phone. Specifically:

1) The spec says this port is "basic". I don't know for sure what it implies. Can this "basic" port charge my phone in addition to transferring data?

2) It seems that the port is differentiated by "male" and "female". Since the spec does not mention that, I don't know whether the "USB Basic Type-C" port on the HP EliteBook 840 G3 laptop is male or female. I inspected the port but I cannot tell due to my lack of related knowledge. Do you know the gender of USB type C on this laptop, or usually on a normal laptop? By the way, the gender of the cable should be the opposite to that on the laptop, right?

Thank you.

 

[hedwar2011]

(1) The basic here is likely just wording for a standard USB Type-C port. Both the specs and the service manual give no indication that it's anything but standard as they would call out if it was a newer, higher-class USB-C port.

(2) The port itself for any USB is typically going to be "female" because you have to plug the "male" end of the cord into it. With USB-C there isn't a distinction of a physical port being male or female except for like I just mentioned.

 

[Misgar]

Ports built into computers and laptops are usually classified as "female".

Connectors on the ends of computer cables are usually classified as "male".

I avoid charging any devices directly from the USB-C port on my laptop, preferring to use a standard AC mains adapter. My laptop has a single USB-C port, so charging a phone depletes the laptop battery unnecessarily. There's also a chance that charging a phone with a faulty lead could damage the expensive laptop.

N.B. I do not classify powering a portable USB SSD as "charging".

I'm guessing HP's description of the port as "USB Basic Type-C" implies it does not include PD (Power Delivery) support to speed up charging external devices. Then again, I could be wrong.
https://www.howtogeek.com/769888/what-is-usb-power-delivery-usb-pd/

If the laptop's USB-C port is the only means of charging the computer, I would expect it to support PD with an external USB-C charger, but I would not expect the same port to support PD charging of other devices, when the laptop is acting as the power source. I hope that's not too confusing!

The speed at which a phone (or other device) charges depends on the USB-C cable and the "negotiation" when connecting. My smart phone will charge at 1820mA with one USB-A to USB-C lead from an AC power brick, but only 300mA with a different lead that looks exactly the same.

Some USB cables can only be used for charging, i.e. they are useless for data transfer. This has caught me out on several occasions so now I label all my cables to avoid confusion.