Ask Lemmy

Now that I upgraded to an iPhone with USB-C, I enjoy the convenience of having one cable for everything. Charging, connecting a display temporarily, data transfer, one cable. Never had a Mac so I didn’t get in on the Lightning to Lightning shenanigans, but I do prefer Lightning over USB-C. At least a Lightning port is easy to clean.

A little disappointing.

I had been pretty well consolidated to just lightning cables for everything. It did what I needed, the connector is small, reversible, easy to use, and it fit most electronics for my family of four. I had built up a nice stable of accessories like power banks and charging blocks that fit everything and hadn’t needed to buy anything new in years.

The switch to USB-C came with great fanfare and seemed like a good idea. However it really doesn’t give me any direct benefits and I have to buy all new accessories. Now I’m in a transition mode for a few years where I need usb-c, usb-a, and lightning cables and chargers. Worst of all the market that I kept being told was leaving behind still has more support for usb-a - my laptop has mostly usb-a, even new model motherboards for building my kids gaming computers are mostly usb-a, I don’t see a good selection of usb-c chargers, power banks are still mostly usb-a, keyboards and mice are usb-a, kvms are usb-a, etc

Trying to switch to usb-c has meant more cable types rather than fewer. It has meant buying duplicate chargers and it has meant less convenience where usb-c is not really mainstream yet. Hopefully the market will more fully adopt usb-c quickly but I meant to be a late adopter to this transition and feel almost like an early adopter

Now I need to deal with USB-C to micro USB and USB-A for my old devices. Things will be better eventually, I guess, but it's just shifted the annoyance around for now.

My phone is slightly easier to plug in though.

Wasn’t a game changer but I’m finally happy to really only need one cable.

Except maybe some devices (like IoT) that are powered up by an always plugged micro-usb, my cellphone is USB-C for a long time now, and my laptop has 3 USB-C/TB (no A), so it's easier for a couple of stuff. But I have a usb-c hub with multiple USB-A outlet because I still have a couple of devices to plug like keyboard, trackball, webcam, headset, UPS, FTDI stuff, etc.

No more micro-USB plugging/unplugging for phones.

The prob with usb-c is mainly for powering hungry devices, you need 60W cable, 100W cable, 240W cable, etc.

The good things:

• It really is an advantage over normal USB, that I don't have to trun the plug three times while trying to connect it, as it can be plugged in either way.
• I find the extra protection also cool, so in case you accidentally try to plug in something you are not supposed to, it just simply won't work instead of, I don't know, supplying too high voltage or something.

So far it caused a lot of headaches though:

• Way too often I found myself in a situation, where I couldn't use some devices, because I didn't have the necessary adapter. This issue should be temporary though, so I'm not complaining.
• Some cables are not compatible with some devices, and it can be really confusing. Before I knew this, I was certain that a monitor and a laptop of mine weren't compatible for a long time, until someday I read about this and tried it again with a different cable.
• In most cases this is not an issue, but rarely I find that the USB type-c plug is not as robust as a micro USB for example. On my girlfriend's Samsung S8 it always slipped out, so the contact was terrible, while a micro USB plug does have some clamps to properly attach. Again, in most cases the type-c plug is clicking in properly, so it's not an acute problem.

It's pretty cool but like all connectors, it fails eventually.

To me it mostly just meant having to buy more cables. The old ritual of trying a USB connector one way, then the other way, then retrying the first way never took all that long and was actually kind of amusing. And I still use the old cables because I haven't thrown away my old devices that still need them. I only have a few new things that need type C.

I bought a high quality USB C charger with a couple nice cables to keep plugged in in my living room. I use it to charge my phone, my girlfriend's phone, my tablet, my laptop, my Switch, and my vape pen. I never have to go looking for another charger and it charges all of those things at a very acceptable rate. I'd qualify that as a game changer.

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.

I despise micro-USB with a passion. Even more than mini-USB. It is so flimsy, it's always been the first thing to die on my wireless devices, including my older phones.

If a device charges through USB, I consider not having USB-C to be a deal breaker. Right now I'm waiting for a USB-C socket breakout panel because I want to convert my Xbox One controller from micro to C.

I like it, but not enough stuff uses it yet to be a true game changer. I still have to keep multiples of different types of cables to charge everything.

Not much of a game changer for me. I have a couple portable battery bricks that use micro USB to charge, so I just plugged lightning and USB C adapters in those ports and now lug around lightning and USB C cables as opposed to lightning and micro.

These 'between cycle' points of time where half the old stuff still has old ports, adapters help for me

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.

Game changer? Literally not at all. It's a bit better.

I like it, I was a USB-micro B cable guy for almost all my electronics. It was a yearlong transition for me to phase it out in favour of USBC, but it was just with upgrading electronics, not because I wanted to ditch the cable format specifically.

Charging and data transfer aspects weren't much of my concern, until I learned about USB-PD and video via USB, that was pretty cool. I like the reversible connector, too many times I jammed the cable in the port the wrong way.