Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.)

Usbc-pd is an absolute game changer as an off grid person. The fact a 100w charger can act as a dc to dc converter with up to five output voltages, at up to 100 watts is crazy. And that the protocol automatically detects and communicates the proper voltage is very convinent. The problem is that usbc-pd 100w chargers are expensive and you need to know what you are doing if you want to diy power appliances with it.

Its really nice to have a standardized cable that just works and can be plugged in both ways. We really are approaching a Universaal Cable after a quarter century of RnD.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Not at all, its slightly more convenient.

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:

1. Is it a USB 2.0 (480Mbit), 5Gbit, 10Gbit or 20Gbit cable? Can’t really tell from the plug alone.

2. 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! 🤦🏻‍♂️

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

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....

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.

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...

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 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)