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Realized 99% of all my chargers are USB-C. This can only mean one thing. New USB bout to drop!
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Nah, USB-C is plagued by non-standard electrical configurations, non-standard charging protocols, and non-compliant cables. Rest assured the connector is here to stay, your device just may not be able to charge with any given charger or cable.
I dont get how so many people complain about broken usb c connectors. Im not saying your wrong, just ive used the same 2 chargers for my phone for the last 5 years and same 1 for my laptop for 3 years, and yeah theyve gotten slightly looser but not to the point of breaking and being usable
The USB type C connector itself is amazing. I've never broken the physical connector, the problem is electrical only. The connector is capable of delivering a very high 240W of power, but the device/charger negotiate the power and voltage requirements to find the highest both can support.
But there are actually four parts of the system limiting the negotiated power:
The problem ultimately comes from the negotiation as many devices don't use USB-PD (the theoretical "standard" for this) to save cost or allow different electrical configurations. This can lead to chargers incorrectly identifying devices as capable of accepting higher voltages than they can. Or devices can incorrectly identify themselves as capable of accepting higher voltage than they actually can.
If you're using reputable decides from reputable companies using the included charger/cables, this will never be an issue. It's only problematic when you want one charger for all your USB type C devices, as it now needs to support multiple communication protocols and voltage standards, hoping that no device identifies itself incorrectly.
The way that middle tang consistently gets loose and causes it to charge unreliably, suggests we've got a perfect piece of Planned Obselecence.
Are you sure it's the middle piece getting loose? I recently thought that was the problem with my phone before I tried to scrape out any lint that might be in it with a pin. Now the cable seats better and it works fine. I think that is a bit of a flaw of USB-C in devices that are expected to be put in pockets or thrown around in bags. It's easy for lint to get in and difficult to get it out without potentially damaging the socket. I wonder if we should have gone with something using a similar form factor to lightning but the speed and charging abilities of USB-C.
I have an iPhone for work purposes, the lightning connector does it too. I think the only way it would have been avoided is with something considerably less shallow, and then they'd have mechanical cable retention problems to solve
I wasn't saying lightning couldn't get lint. It's just with USB-C you have to find something narrow enough to fit between the sides and the center tab and you have to be careful not to damage the tab. I just feel the lightning port looks easier to clean out. It may be me just venting my recent frustration. I was seriously considering getting a new phone.
Fair enough, the lightning port is definitely easier to clean
Hadn't considered that. I'll give it a shot.
Thanks for the advice
yup!
People with a new phone every 2/3 years never need to use angled charger treatment, which i find i need to do too often these days
I've been rocking USB-C since the nexus 6p which was one of the 1st phones to have it. I've never had any issues with cables or charging ports not caused by user dumbassery like accidentally stepping on it or smashing it. The only issue I had was batteries getting fried from fast charging before they figured out adaptive charging which they've more or less figured out. The design is pretty solid imo and it's very versatile. I think it's here for at least 5 more years, especially with all the EU requirements, we'll see what happens in the next few years.
Build something fragile
Call user 'stupid' when it breaks
I'll never understand the zeal with which people defend the USB-C. It's a weird hill to die on
But at least they're dead
I also had the Nexus 6P, great phone, loved it. Had some phones after that, but a few years ago I "upgraded" to a Pixel 6 Pro. That phone was a lot shittier in many ways, like no headphone jack or SD slot. But also Googles own software felt kind of buggy. My Nexus had very little problems with USBC but my Pixel somehow was a magnet to dust. I needed to do a tooth pick cleanup every other month.
I feel like phones have just gotten worse over time. My 1st smartphones had so many more cool features like rf blasters, removable batteries, headphone jacks, expandable storage, etc. now we force everything to the cloud, accelerate e waste with irreparable Bluetooth everything, but oooh it has a fancier camera!
Or simply smoke with a wrong one
Yep I recently had this happen to me for the first time with a generic handheld gaming system and was shocked when the device let out smoke. I opened it up and sure enough the buck converter for the battery charging circuit was burnt, likely because the non-compliant device had somehow requested more than 5V from the charger... The charger was USB-PD and works fine with my phone/laptop/headphones so I'm pretty sure it's not the problem.
Is it a SteamDeck? It happened to me once and Steam replaced it even after warranty was expired
Nah a generic "K36" game system I bought for just under $20 in China. It played everything up to PS1 games flawlessly with a beautiful IPS LCD which was extremely impressive for the price. It even did one full recharge from a dumb charger without issue before I tried using my normal USB-PD capable charger on it, releasing the magic smoke.
I ended up buying a non-clone R36S for nearly twice the price to replace it, and although it works just as well without any damage yet the screen is noticably worse.
Lol, I never bought it. Just use PC emulators
PC lacks portability and battery life. The many generic ARM Linux game consoles fix both of those problems.
That's it re-stoking the internal combustion engine. It's perfectly fine