I think the real game changer here is the USB-PD. I now only bring a single charger for both my laptop and my phone. Also, a lot of different laptops now charge with USB-C, getting rid of the need of different plugs.
Props to the Thinkpad USB-C retrofit hack. Granted they only work with 65w, but it is still great! My Anker Nano GaN charger is only a little bit larger than an ice cube, definitely smaller than most traditional USB charger, yet it packs 65w.
What does GaN stand for in that context?
Galium Nitride. It makes high current DC stuff more efficient (i.e. generates less heat) and requires less circuitry (i.e. smaller devices).
Thank you
I have that GaN brick it’s fantastic and makes the original Thinkpad one look huge.
A big one. No more brittle micro usb, which would eventually become loose and start falling out when charging. Being able to charge my laptop using my phone charger is also good.
That’s impressive, how many watts is your phone charger? I would have assumed you could do the opposite but thought the laptop would have laughed when you attached a small stream to it.
I use an old phone charger, when working outside my home. My goal when using it is to keep the charge/uncharge ratio positive. Tho when at home my devices share a 100W charger.
Really hasn’t been much of one. I still own devices that charge from MicroUSB, a lot of peripherals are still USB-A, there hasn’t been any significant movement by the industry overall to move everything to C, so mostly it means I just need to carry more cables.
Nitpick, there are no devices that charge with an USB-A port. USB-A is the side that supplies power, the side receiving power is USB-B.
USB-C did away with the distinction.
True, but keyboards, mice, wireless adapters etc. haven’t moved to C yet. I use PCs and desktop peripherals and industry adoption if USBC has basically stopped 1/4 of the way in.
I have a flashlight/sd card based mp3 player/bluetooth speaker/FM Radio/backup battery that charges with an A->A cable.
It’s this Product, with a different branding: https://a.co/d/94y3lxc
Not really, can’t plug a type a into a c port
And how would you describe a wired keyboard or web cam with a hard wired connection to the device and only a USB-A end?
Your nitpick is not warranted. He never said charge with A.
It’s pretty convenient. Now I can take my soldering iron and my power tool battery (with SN USB-C adaptor) and solder wherever the fuck I want
Not at all, the “biggest change” was with fast charging, but Li-ion batteries hate being at 0 or 100% all the time and fast charging makes it too easy to ovrtcharge to 100, and I’ve only got 1 device that can do “fast charging speeds” (over 9w). Most of my electronics are a mix of type c and micro to type a. A c - c cable is like with my fast charger is overkill for my application and is inconvenient when the vast majority of charging bricks and plugs have type a charging.
With a laptop and phone which both can use it my backpack while travelling is so much lighter and less bulky. For me it absolutely was a game changer, I just don’t like that I need to carry a USB a to C adapter for all the legacy USB A ports.
Works great, rarely have issues with the port breaking unlike prior small usb standards, it’s nice how ubiquitous it is so I have way less random cable connectors around.
So much harder to solder, making repairing my stuff more difficult :(
Also, a USB cable is no longer a USB cable. Now I have to guess what the rated wattage was, if it’s power only/data only/mixed.
All in all, a step back in my opinion.
Thats interesting - how many wires are in the actual sleeve, compared to an older USB?
The receptacle is the issue - it can have up to 24 pins (though usually it’s 12ish), all bunched up in just a slightly larger space than on a micro usb receptacle which has 4 pins. So it takes some good skill to replace.
Oh wow, yeah that must indeed be a pain to solder. Though I guess there’s some redundancy built-in, such that if one wire goes down the cable can still deliver something?
Though I guess there’s some redundancy built-in, such that if one wire goes down the cable can still deliver something?
You guessed wrong! If one is misconnected the whole thing breaks down :) It’s a nightmare for repairability, as the plug is often the first thing to fail
Power only/power and data already existed with Micro USB, so that part didn’t get too much worse.
Power only USBC cables are super against the standard and i don’t think data only cables can exist at all?
Not as much as going from coax to RJ45, or from PATA to SATA, or from PC/AT to PS/2 to USB or Bluetooth, or from D-SUB to DVI to HDMI or Display port, or from the old serial and parallel ports to USB or Bluetooth (I mainly skipped SCSI), and I sort of miss having to turn the connector 360° around for it to fit…
I went through all of these, and honestly plugging in a single cable into your laptop and having power, external display, network and input peripherals all connect instantly is pretty damn cool.
I don’t think I’ve had a single USB-C cable/connector/socket fail yet. Which can’t be said of Micro-USB.
But other than that, meh.
The stability of Mini USB I liked most. Plug a PS3 controller in 100 times and it always seemed solid. Micro USB was flimsy, but I wish the would have done usb-c like the lightning connector and made it solid. I would think it would last longer that way, but I never owned an iPhone so I could be wrong. Those could be more prone to snapping, like palm trees vs pine tree.
I broke 1 mini USB on my Blue Yeti over a decade ago, but no port would have been able to survive that torque, lol. Other than that, it’s usually rock solid
I’ve seen multiple people snap lightning plugs. Never seen a broken USBC plug yet
I work in a school with a 1 to 1 Chromebook program. I see them pretty regularly, mostly they are just bent hard and stop working, but I’ve seen some pretty impressive destruction.
Yeah, nothing’s unbreakable. I once saw a kid shove a whole ham sandwich into a cd/optical drive. People do weird stuff. It probably would have worked afterwards too if someone cleaned the mustard off the lens. Never checked, as even back in 2006 it was rare to put CDs in school computers. The age of flash drives has already arrived.
I was pretty fucking disappointed how flimsy the jacks are.
I’ve had 3 phones and a laptop I had to replace because the USB-C jack started to wiggle and wouldn’t connect anymore.Is it the jack itself that’s wiggling, or the plug won’t stay in the socket and wiggles too much?
If it’s the latter, take a staple and bend it straight, and VERY GENTLY drag it round inside the port, avoiding contacts, scraping out the lint and dust that has almost certainly become impacted at the base of it over time. I do this whenever cables don’t want to stay in anymore and it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes.
I have had one example of the port itself becoming loose, but mostly I’ve run into the lint/dust problem.
Probably better to use a toothpick in that case.
Toothpicks aren’t usually thin enough in my experience, and I’m more worried about the tongue getting bent by the toothpick than I am about the bottom of the port getting scratched by a staple. But I agree a staple isn’t ideal, it’s just the common item I’ve found that works best. I’m sure there are better tools.
I find the plastic floss picks work really well because they are flatter than regular tooth picks. It has to be the type where the back part is a pick as that’s the part that I use.
The lint problem! The first time when my phone started acting up when charging I thought it was the USB jack that have worn out. Then I tried cleaning it with a needle. Still can’t believe how much lint can fit in a USB-C socket.
Right? It’s wild how much comes out!
The short end of a cable tie also works supprisingly well if you’ve got any around.
Like others, USB-PD is amazing. My monitor has 90W which is plenty for my laptops. Gaming laptop, not so much. The only device I have that isn’t USBC/Thunderbolt is the damn mouse. I rarely ever need a USB A port for anything other than charging. Even my flash drives are all USBC.
I have been able to use 1 charger for almost everything for several years now. Sometimes I have a finicky device that doesn’t like the high wattage PD chargers and will only trickle charge, but work fine with my other smaller charger. The GaN chargers are nice and compact. I break USBC cables a lot less often, but that is because I am a walking disaster most of the time. I would break micro USB cables constantly, or rip the ports to pieces.
One note though on USBC ports on a monitor. Beware using the really really stiff cables on ports that are positioned where the cable would be parallel to the table instead of the port pointing down. That port will definitely wear out or break entirely from the constant downward force and lack of support of the cable in the port. This is especially true if you use a monitor arm and the cable gets moved. Seen this on both Samsung and LG. My Dell points downward. I really like the pro PS5 controllers as it comes with a little cage that holds the USBC cable in place and protects the port from exactly that scenario. These monitors absolutely need something like that, especially with how expensive they are.
For charging, it’s fine, I have equipment to do some mid level testing of how much power a USB cable can transmit, I can also verify if a charger supports quick charge and other charging protocols.
For data transfer, it’s frustrating, you gotta find the cables that are not just USB2 with a USB-C connector.
Then you have thunderbolt, which is even more expensive…
USB-C has changed the entire game. It’s a completely different game now. It’s like Yahtzee vs Uno. Or like Call of Duty vs Microsoft Flight Simulator. Remember playing freeze tag or dodgeball? Well it’s not like that anymore. Now it’s like playing soccer.
It’s nice that my phone charges quickly, but otherwise I don’t notice. It’s just one more cable type I need to search for.
Charges faster, but also doesn’t break all the time!
I’ve actually had the opposite experience with USB-C. It seems to break all the time. I’ve talked about it online though, and it appears that I’m the only person experiencing that. Perhaps I just had a rush of bad luck with cables and devices.
USB-C ports are especially prone to dust/lint buildup that can prevent the plugs from seating properly in the ports. Worth trying to scrape them out if they stop working right. I like to use a staple that I’ve unbent, but it has been pointed out this probably isn’t the safest tool. Just avoid the contacts and only scrape the bottom and sides of the port. It’s amazing how much crap comes out if you’ve been using the device for a while.
I’ve done that using a floss pick, but nothing ever comes out. I think the cables are just crap, or this Pixel Phone has an issue with the port which shorts out all of the cables eventually. I had to exchange my first Pixel phone because the USB port completely stopped working. This one seems like it might have some other issue.
I buy mine on aliexpress … Whete do you get yours 😅?
Amazon
The jungle?
Jk ;-)
