Ordered a set of rechargeable AA batteries and charger. They’re well reviewed and a decent brand. Specifically wanted the charger since it has USB input rather than 120v so I could top the batteries off from my laptop / power bank as they’ll be used for my wireless KB/mouse. The product description only said “USB input” and didn’t specify what flavor. Being 2025, you expect USB-C.
Received them today, and they use micro USB input. Now I have to keep yet another cable in my bag. Day mildly ruined.
Easy negative review and a return for me in that situation. If they cut corners on the charging port where else did they cut corners?
Whether or not a product is usb c is make or break for me now. I bought a more expensive mouse to not have to carry around another charger.
Same. I went all-in on USB-C about 3 years ago. My house is still cluttered with cables, but at least I can grab any one of them and charge any device.
What pisses me off is how even usb type c cables have different types like power only, only certain amount of wattage, hdmi but not 4k, etc., and I can’t keep track of it all.
Yeah, that’s annoying for sure. I just bought a handful of cables of known specs that “do it all” and it’s been pretty smooth sailing.
They’re all 3ft or 6ft, 100 watt e-marked, and video capable The only one that’s not is my 10ft one - it’s “only” 100 watt rated but doesn’t do video and is limited to USB 2.0 speeds. I only use that one as a power cord for my laptop, though, and it’s bright red so it’s not like I’m gonna mistake it for anything else.
So far, I haven’t had a need to upgrade anything to the new 240 W spec since I rarely use more than 65W.
Ugh… just bought some new Bluetooth headphones and my god i wish they’d let these little chargers just die already.
Somewhat unrelated, but I recently realized, my micro USB devices have never “worn out” the way my USB-C devices have. I remember having to rig things up, just to get one last charge into my USB-C phone that stopped holding a connection to the charging cable. It actually made me nostalgic for the “plug it in, flip it, plug it in again, realize you still don’t have it and flip it again” approach 🤷
Micro B port broke on my JBL charge 3, de-soldered and replaced, works like new.
Usb-c is really susceptible to dust building up in the port, especially on phones on pockets. They often need to be scrapped out to get rid of the lint.
Removing the phone’s belly button lint is oddly satisfying
A real throwback to cleaning ball mice
@SkaveRat @brygphilomena Do you keep it in a bag like me so I can one day commission a knitted cardigan?
I’ve had many micro cables get broken, requiring the perfect angle, but never the ports themselves as far as I could tell. I’ve never had a C port fail either and rarely have cable issues. However, any time the C ports require a specific angle to work, I have found they’re packed with lint. It goes with the “click” getting weak as well. Paperclip, Sim card pick, compressed air, a good cheek puff, usually all good after.
@XeroxCool @Entitle9294 I often read of people claiming to have broken many ports and/or cables. I can’t understand how they do it.
Micro was weak and largely people’s first experience with frequent-use plugging. Cheap cables don’t last long. Car use is abusive, even using the phone while charging is harsh. Moving the phone by the wire. Hard cable angles to keep the phone upright in stands, cup holders, cups, whatever. Rolling the cable tight for storage or travel. Pulling by the cable to unplug instead of by the head. Accidentally tripping on cables or otherwise yanking them. It’s death by 1,000 papercuts for the cable. Shit happens.
Hmm interesting. I work with a bunch of older machines that use micro USB. They are all going on 10 years without a broken port. But my phones USB C port broke recently at about 4 years in.
My Pixel is going strong for 4 years and the USB-C port works like on day one. Comparing that to my old Samsung J7 which I also had for 4 years, that port struggled 3 years in. I think most of my microUSB devices had worn out ports after a year or two of charging.
My pixel was the USB-C phone that I was referencing above 🙈
I’m glad it works for at least some folks :)
I just bought an ONN 4K steaming box and the charger is micro USB. Short cable too. Copper is expensive on a $20 box I guess.
What does it steam? Buns? What does the 4K stand for?
Ham steamer
Old family recipe.
It’s a typo. Bring a fork for the steamy buns. Fork those buns. For-k.
Might be because the tech(charger) itself isn’t updated for years. I still get micro sometime for some cheapo stuff, that’s why i always have the cable on standby.
Probably, yeah. I was similarly disappointed when my Kobo came with micro USB, but considering I love everything else about it, I gave it a pass. That, and I typically only have to charge it once a month.
I’ve got USB-C to micro adapters, but I’ve only got 4 of them and either keep losing them or they get semi-permanently installed to a Raspberry Pi or something.
Yep.
Re-engineering is expensive, and so is the licensing of USB-C (along with the port cost, and revamping the manufacturing process, and sourcing, etc).
The device would no longer be inexpensive, and it has no need of USB-C capability.
There’s lots more involved than just the port connector itself.
Considering $10 disposable vapes all come with USB-C, I can’t imagine the cost difference is really that great.
If it’s just for charging, a USB-C port is just a different part. The charge controller and everything can stay “dumb” if it’s a low power device.
The USB-C spec is complicated and to take full advantage of it is expensive like you said, but I think just using a modern form factor isn’t expensive.
and so is the licensing of USB-C
Holup, they need licence to use it in their device?
That’s just for a vendor ID though for data, right? For basic 5V power (non-Power Delivery), they’d just need the socket and a couple of resistors. I’ve got some cheap-ass devices with USB-C, and even disposable vapes (yuck) have USB-C for charging.
I keep one of those little adapters…dont need a whole cable.
Also I have the impression that lifetime of products has increased again over the past decade or so.
Still rocking my Sony ebook reader from 2011 and a Samsung Galaxy S5 as backup and Whatsapp handy. Both are using Micro USB, so I have a small cable with me anyways.
Just clip a few USB port adapters to the end of one of your cords. Standard travel bag gear.
I have 4 of them, but they keep getting lost or semi-permanently attached to Raspberry Pis or ESP-32 boards. The rest of my micro-usb devices have largely been phased out.
If you want to talk about shitty USB standards, how about the Pi5 which requires 5V5A USB-C to run correctly, a standard that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
I have a theory that somewhere in China there’s a warehouse with a trillion of these damned things. Want to make a cheap product? Grab a truckload!
mini usb is superior
I could not disagree more lol. Everyone likes to shit on micro USB, but of all the form factor I’ve used over the years. the mini connectors always seemed to wear out the fastest.
okay yeah you’re right. USB B for the win
Micro USB also has an A and B connector
whatt? that sounds so cursed. was it just not widely adopted??
It’s commentary like this that leads to so much industrial equipment (printers, scales, barcode readers, PLCs etc) still having RS-232 on them.
And dammit, you’re right, that stone age shit just works.
If USB-A and micro USB had a child.
There is a type of magnetic usb cable that is easy to switch between different USB standards, you can even have the micro USB tip always connected and just connect the cable when you need to, might be a good solution? That way you can have one cable and just buy a bunch of “tips”
Plug USB-C in and return it as defective.
Yeah, that stinks.
I am using this charger https://www.liitokala.com.cn/charger/LiitoKala-Charger/324.html it is a few $ on AliExpress, it is USB-C and can basically charge anything, it exists in 1 channel or 4 channels too. For AA batteries I am using IKEA LADDA, made in Japan, by Eneloop.
get a cable with a dongle that is tethered to it, then you only have one cable with a silly thing hanging on it
I have C->Micro adapters though they aren’t tethered. I’m just spoiled by only carrying C cables in my bag and being able to just grab any cable without looking or digging (they’re all 100W and video-capable except my 10ft one).
My headphones are at least 10 years old (August EP650), I’d highly recommend them if they didn’t use micro USB. So does my portable mini-fan. Life ruined.
I appreciate the thought but I can manage and I’d rather avoid buying even more shit that’ll be entirely obsolete in a few years. :)
