I'm confused. it says thunderbolt 3 but lists the speed at 180mbs which is closer to usb 3 speeds not thunderbolt 3 speeds. what is the correct speed?

There is a common misconception that a Thunderbolt connection is going to automatically provide amazing transfer rates measured in GB per second. That is theoretical only though, meaning only that the interface is "capable" of attaining such speeds. In real life, the drive itself is the limiting factor - it can only read or write data so fast, regardless of what the cable is capable of carrying. Inside the G-Drive housing is a single 3.5" SATA hard disk drive. Whether this particular HDD is mounted inside a computer with a direct SATA connection, or is mounted in the G-Drive external enclosure and connected via TB3 or USB-C, this HDD itself is only capable of moving data at about 180MB/s. That is the most you will get out of it, regardless of connection. The USB-C and TB3 interfaces will BOTH provide the same results, since both are capable of far greater speeds than the drive can deliver. Now if you go to something like a G-RAID unit which combines two drives together in one housing, then you will get faster rates (with either interface) up to 250MB/s. An SSD drive will be faster yet as is the nature of SSD. In fact, I just tested a G-Drive Pro SSD unit and got results in excess of 2000MB/s. All about the drive speed. Regarding this particular drive, it will also include a USB 3.0 cable and that will provide the same speed as the Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C cables, again because the drive speed is nowhere near what these 3 interfaces are capable of so they all handle it equally well. If you get into a super-fast drive like the G-Drive Pro SSD mentioned above, that is where Thunderbolt 3 can really deliver the goods!

Can the drive be powered by usb c alone, or does it always need to be plugged in for use?

High-capacity hard disk drives are not bus-powered. They need to be plugged into your building's electrical sockets.

If this is Thunderbolt 3, why is the data transfer only 240 Mb/s?

A single spinning hard disk drive (HDD) can only deliver up data so fast, regardless of the interface used. You will get the same performance from this drive whether using Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, or USB 3.0 interface. To really take advantage of fast interfaces like USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, you need RAID units that combine multiple drives together for higher throughput than a single drive can offer. SSD drives are also faster than HDD. The drive itself is the limiting factor and not the cable used.

Brand	G-Technology
Product Dimensions	21.01 x 13 x 4.55 cm; 1.24 kg
Item model number	0G05363
Manufacturer	G-Technology
Series	G-DRIVE
Colour	Gray
Form Factor	3.5-inch
Hard Drive Size	4 TB
Hard Disk Description	Mechanical Hard Disk
Hard Drive Interface	USB 3.1
Hard Disk Rotational Speed	7200 RPM
Hardware Platform	Mac
Are Batteries Included	No
Item Weight	1.24 kg
Guaranteed software updates until	unknown

G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE with Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Desktop External Hard Drive, Silver - 0G05363-1

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