How much of a game changer was USB-C for you, compared to other cables?

Compared to USB-A, not really that much of a game changer (it’s still the most common for me). Though I do not miss the three rotations to get it in.

Compared to Micro-USB? Holy fuck, I almost refuse to buy anything still using Micro-USB ported now. Mainly because I can’t never find the fucking cable for it.

Though I do not miss the three rotations to get it in.
The holes point up or to the right.
- But like.. not always. Wall adapters (at least US ones) can be plugged in upside down, so if that's upside down the holes face down. I have a 3d printer who's motherboard is mounted on the top of the chassis, flipping the USB port so that it's "upside down". A lot of cheap dual-USB chargers that have the two USB ports right next to each other have them mirrored, so one faces up and the other faces down.
  Granted, I've always found the "argh USB!!!" frustration to be more a meme than anything; when I'm plugging in a USB device, I likely know what orientation the male side is (flash drives and the like are usually oriented the same way), and it takes half a second of paying attention when going to plug it in to look at the female port to see what direction it's meant to go in.
- so many of my devices have the ports installed upside down

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).
I have that GaN brick it’s fantastic and makes the original Thinkpad one look huge.

Fucking awesome, it is. When I travel, I take 1 laptop power cord. Charges my phone, laptop, Switch, and backup battery. (The backup battery’s output ports are USB-A, but it’s got a lil converter cable that stays in the lil bag that the backup battery is stored in.)

It's the best. So much so that not having usb c, has become a deciding factor if i buy something or not. It also seems a bit of a quality insurance, even if it's just a little. But electronics with micro or even mini usb is usually just some cheap shit or that old and they are still selling it.

So far it's a mess.

I still have Micro USB devices, so I need two cables or USB-C→Micro USB adapter.

I have PCs without USB-C ports, so another adapter needed USB-C → USB-A.

But, I can now "dock" my new-ish laptop with only one USB-C ↔ USB-C cable to a monitor.
Monitor gives power.

I’m still in the messy stage, but I’ve made preparations for C. Pretty soon I’ll get a newer used phone and tablet, and they’re both going to be type C.
Currently I have a few things that use C, so I’ve already got some cables and chargers for them. Once the transition is complete, I’ll get rid of a bunch of old cables.
If your PC has PCIE slots you can get a USB-C card for around $25
- Make sense, thanks.

Not at all, its slightly more convenient.

If all cables were created equal then it's kind of a big deal that laptops can now charge via USB-C. Proprietary chargers can suck my ass.

It’s been more of a pain in the arse than initially expected.

Most motherboards (for example) only have 2-4 USB-C ports, meaning that I still need to employ A-C and C-C cables for peripherals etc.

My main gripe is that the standard just tries to do too many things without clear delineation/markings:

Is it a USB 2.0 (480Mbit), 5Gbit, 10Gbit or 20Gbit cable? Can’t really tell from the plug alone.
More importantly, for charging devices: How the heck do I determine maximum wattage I can run?

For all its faults, at least the blue colour of a USB-3.0 plug (or additional connectors for B/Micro) made it easy to differentiate !

Now I’m eyeing up a USB Cable tester just to validate and catalogue my growing collection! 🤦🏻‍♂️

USB Cable tester
Great idea, and then:
- I was actually thinking coloured O rings to define specs, but that still means I’d need to have a colours guide somewhere too..
  ..yours might be a more practical solution. 🤔
It's even more annoying that there are different possible pinouts in the port itself without clear labling. So always use the one cable that came with the peripheral, or you have a chance to fry it
I wonder about this too. Can I plug my laptop's USB-C charger into my phone? Or is that a big nono
- Yes, you can. The charger and the device communicate between one another what they can support, and pick the highest one they both agree on.
  E.G. my laptop charger can charge at full speed (100W) for my MacBook, but only at 20W for my iPhone.
  That bit is pretty straightforward and transparent to end users (there are a few rare conditions where devices might not agree on the fastest, and have to fall back to a slower one); the issue is more with cables not having sufficient gauge wire, or missing connections that prevent the charger and device from communicating their full functionality.
- Should be okay, that USB-PD would detect the correct voltage and current.
- I charge by Bluetooth headphones ‘pod’ with my Steam Deck charger and it seems to be ok.
- Yes.
For the power matter, you don't. The device being charged, the charger, and cable does.
If you mean what is the maximum wattage that will actually be used, that should be the maximum possible between the charger, cable, and device. So look at their specs. Whichever has the lowest maximum, is what the others will match.
USB PD defines a protocol for the device and charger to determine max safe power. If the cable is replacable (not attached to the charger), it must be rated for PD and be able to tell the charger it can handle more than just the usual 5 volts at 2 amps.
USB PD chargers only output the maximum safe amount of power. That's why I can use my 65W steamdeck charger to charge my phone if I want to. It just outputs normal USB charger power if the device on the other end can't verify it can handle more.
It's also why my SteamDeck charger is what I use to fast charge my phone, because it can actually talk to it using the USB PD protocol to request the voltage and amps it needs to fast charge.
- To clarify; I have a 100W Ugreen Nexode 4 Port USB Charger that I use to charge my laptop (_{60W), Steam Deck (}40W), iPhone (_{20W) and AirPods (}5?W).
  The problem is if my original product cable has gone walkabout temporarily and I need to use a random one to stand in - there is no clear way of telling if I’m accidentally using a 5W-max cheap cable to try and keep my laptop charged while working.
  Obviously there are some context clues depending on cable thickness etc., but with how common cosmetic braiding is becoming a thing - even that’s getting harder to rely on.
Just recently I had a tech store guy gently but repeatedly insist to me that a certain USB cable was a USB 3 cable because it was type C on both ends. I didn't wanna argue with him, but the box clearly said "480 Mbit", so it was just a type C charging cable.
Of course the box designers were hoping you'd make that mistake so they didn't write USB 2 on there, just the speed. And most boxes won't even have that, you'll just have to buy it and see.
But I mean if someone who spent their whole life fixing computers can get something that basic wrong, then it's really a hopeless situation for anyone who isn't techy.
And of course once it's out of the box it's anyone's guess what it is. It's a real mess for sure.

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.

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.

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?
- 12 in USB-C (1).
  4 in previous USB specs. (2). If the device just needed power, no data transfer, you would just use 2 of those 4.
- 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.
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?

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.

Its convenient and superior to Micro. But mostly its just nice that both mine ans my wife's phone uses the same cord.

Last week I found out that there are off-brand batteries for my DSLR cameras that can be charged directly through USB-C so I don't have to pack a different charger for every camera. Let that sink in!

Overall pretty great, in a pinch I can charge my laptop on a Nintendo Switch power supply. Now if I could just upgrade the last few remaining Micro-USB and Lightning devices without spending a fortune...

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.
- 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.
- Not really, can't plug a type a into a c port
- 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 at all a game changer, for me.

I mean, it's just another and one more type of cable. Sure, in theory it's simpler than many various cables and it's even less stupid than the previous USB types, but it's still a mess.

At least, for non-geek me, those cables are a mess as I need to be able to distinguish between the exact same cable to find which one is USB-C or Thunderbolt, between the various versions of USB-C itself, and then between USB-C that comes with or without power delivery, and with what power limitation? And then, despite USB-C supposedly being a standard there are still too many cables that just won't work with certain devices because reasons.

Add to that the many USB-C docks (and dongles) that work... more or less reliably and more or less as marketed (even more so under Linux, but those issues exist under Mac and under Windows as well).

Older cables and ports were cumbersome, and thick and whatever but, as far as I'm concerned, for the most part they just worked like they were supposed to. And I never had an issue knowing which cable to plug into which port as they all looked, you know, different.

Nowadays, I have to label each one of my USB-C cable with some masking tape so I can identify it in a glimpse without wasting my time trying them all one by one.

Edit: some clarifications.

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.

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.
- The short end of a cable tie also works supprisingly well if you've got any around.
- 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.

It changed my economy game.

Now I have to buy an USB-C to USB-A adaptor to plug USB-C stuff into my already standing devices. Honestly, no idea why didn't they make it connector-compatible. Wasn't that the entire point of the "U" in "USB"?

- They did make USB-A cables that had a universal (up and down) connector near the end. Got one with my JBL Flip. There is a middle piece that moves to one side or the other depending on how you plug it in.
- Wow hadn't seen that image in a good while!
Because USB-A sucks donkey balls and needed to die in a fire.
- Sure, if you want; as long as whoever does that retrofits all my USB-A devices.
Wasn't that the entire point of the "U" in "USB"?
Nah, the point of the “U” in “USB” is so that devices communicate in a standardized way through a standardized bus. The port itself doesn’t need to be universal—after all, USB-C is I believe the first time that the host port and the device port are the same, previously there was always an A for host and B for device, even with mini-USB and micro-USB.
Pretty much no way to do so without losing most USB-C benefits.
- What are those benefits? The only potential one I have direct experience with (besides speed) is that the connector is reversible, but even that's small-time and a flat out objective downgrade compared to the circular connectors of the 90s, which could be plugged in regardless of orientation.

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

Total game changer. Plug all my peripherals into my monitor. USB C from my monitor to my work laptop. After work I plug it into my home desktop. Also just having one charger and one cable for my phone, steam deck and laptop is amazing especially for work trips.

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

USB-C is pin-compatible with every single other USB plug, so you should be able to get away with all USBC cables and some adapters for whatever plug type you're trying to plug in.
There are only 3 types of pin sets, USB-C(USB 3.0 pins + 3 extra pins), USB-3.0(USB 1.0 + 5 extra pins) and USB-2.0 and lower. Everything else version wise is the controller on the actual board, not the cable.
Cable-wise you only need one to get the benefit of every other plug on the market.
- Adapters have their place, and I do have a few, but they’re no cheaper than cables and a bit annoying.
The failure of pc manufacturers to move to C quickly is sad. Apple has moved over quicker. That says a lot.

I certainly like it better, it's an improvement, but "game changer" is strong. I'm slowly replacing gadgets to USB C through attrition. The charge port has ceased to be the failure point for any of the gadgets I own. My pile of spare cables is still excessive, but moving further back in my storage closet because I need them less and less.

It was great!

I could get rid of a lot of "extra" cords. I can just keep one usb c and charge my phone, my mouse, and headphones with one cord. Shoot, I can even charge my controllers now too. I like that they're becoming like outlets. Like, this is just how you get power to the device(S). Without searching for the "right" cord all the time.

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.

I agree that lighting ports are easier to clean, but i feel like the connector should be a bit thicker to stop it from breaking.

Personally, I like the iPhone charging port better as there's less that can go wrong with it, but USB-C is pretty good too.

I like that I don't have to orient the cable plug-ins just right. I can flip it over and still plug it in just fine. That's why I don't like mini USB, micro USB, or USB-A

Yeah Lightning was really nice. I was surprised how much I liked it after switching from Android to iOS. If only it weren’t proprietary and had too few pins to be very useful outside of charging.
I still hated that my phone didn’t use USB-C though, since everything else I own does. Glad the new iPhones do.
Lighting’s port is fantastic for its positive fit and finish but USB-C is pretty close as long you don’t get super cheap cables and gear, then they just break after a bit. You get what you pay for.

I like its reversibility and faster speeds compared to MicroUSB. Being in the USA where everyone has iPhones though, it was hard to bum chargers from other people (before the iPhone 15 anyway)

Was strange that they had the USB c connector on the MacBooks and the iPads before the iPhones, making USB-C to lighting cables seemed frivolous

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 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.

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.

JSAUX makes a great 240W cable that’s fairly priced and has 240W printed on the ends. It’s stiff but that’s because it’s actually gauged for 240W. I just decided to buy those in blue for anything that required more watts than mobile devices. Then I get at least 30W rated cables in red for all the mobile stuff. Super easy to know which is which at a glance.
- I get my 60w and 100w cable at Ikea, they meet world standards and I trust them.

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

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.

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've seen multiple people snap lightning plugs. Never seen a broken USBC plug yet
- 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

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.

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.

Not a game changer at all. In fact most of my peripherals still use the older style usb connectors. I’m not planning to run out and buy new everything.

I would like to see appliance chargers switch to USB-C. All these stupid wall warts for electric toothbrushes and shavers are ridiculous.

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.

No more than any other cable.

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

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.

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.

I regularly, accidentally, grab a USB-C>USB-C cable instead of USB-A>USB-C. And then I think by myself, I've never had this many cables that don't fit.

Good thing is, I have plenty of USB-C cables of different lengths, most of which I don't know the origin. At least they're in a box in my home and not in a landfill.

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.

Not much. There was USB 3.0 even before the USB-C, so bandwidth-wise it's hasn't been a game changer. Over the years I've used a bunch of phones and other devices with Micro USB Type B and I've had one or two cables fail, but not at the connector. In fact the mouse I'm still using has Micro USB for charging and it's been fine.

Edit: I'm not saying it's not good; it is, but I consider it an incremental improvement, not a game changer. A game changer for me would be a standardised interface with a magnetic connector for example.

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

A lower strength more pinned Magsafe type of adapter would have been cool. They would be more costly though so I assume that's why we don't. Reversible, solid, and don't have lose pins to break

I like that I can plug it in both ways but it feels really insecure in my devices. I also don't like that people are trying to replace USB A with it bc the smaller, flimsier USB standards are only needed for small devices like phones. Anytime you have the space for the more robust version you should use it.

https://youtu.be/wGKxWatPkd0

Summer up how I feel about usb C now.

Reversibility and bandwidth are great. It's just too bad that it's the least robust port ever conceived.

My house has always lagged behind in the newest tech for one reason or another. Usually it's because I end up adopting everyone's old electronics, but sometimes it's because we have old devices for kids.

USB C is better for me because I'm no longer fumbling to connect the charger late at night. I also appreciate that the charger works for other devices, but that was common for me with micro USB. There were also devices I had that took mini USB.

Now most of the different mini USB devices are gone, but I still have devices that need micro USB. Right not, that's my third party Xbox controllers I inherited and use for PC games. Tandem's T-slim insulin pump was also behind when we got them. Charging the pumps or using the controllers now means we are scrambling for an "old charger."

With

Now i only have to flip the usb cable 3 times!

Depends on if it is still using USB 2.0 or 3.0+ standard for data transfer. I love the mostly plug it in way you like option Ivey micro usb, but trying to do photo file transfers from older/cheaper USB C with 2.0 is brutally slow if needed.

a bit, reversable charging.

But how to select "the charger" and "the load"?
- ??????????????????????????????????????????????????