logoalt Hacker News

avidiaxyesterday at 6:27 AM3 repliesview on HN

You also got a connector that supports much more than USB 2.0 speeds. It also supports high power charging, video, thunderbolt, etc.

Lightning was a dead-end connector that was only kept around to keep the Made-for-iPhone moat drawbridge up.

USB-C makes the right design choice in putting the springs in the cable. Those wear out over time. I've never seen the male part of the female USB-C break, but I'm sure it's possible. But reversing this would require that the springs on the USB-C cable are on the outside, and those are quite fragile, so that sounds like a worse idea.

USB-C is mostly a good design.


Replies

hbs18yesterday at 11:02 AM

> I've never seen the male part of the female USB-C break, but I'm sure it's possible

I know anecdotes don't mean anything, but I have. Every USB-C phone I've ever had, apart from my iPhone that I currently use, ended up with having completely worn out connectors after two-three years of use. They stop holding cables in firm enough and start only making the connection when holding the cable at an angle.

show 3 replies
Halianyesterday at 12:03 PM

Would that USB 2.0 Type-C were somehow outlawed, or even better that every device that used Type-C supported everything it can do.

show 1 reply
speledingyesterday at 12:33 PM

USB-C is decent for data transfer. It's pretty poor for power delivery: the pins are too close, so it's not rated for use in bathrooms or kitchens, and there are many more of them than needed for power delivery, making it relatively expensive to use in things like children's toys.

It was a mistake to conflate flexible power delivery and data transfer, you rarely need both at the same time. It's possible to design a better and cheaper 3 or 4 pin power delivery standard that can use higher power. But the law now says USB-C and good luck ever changing that.

show 1 reply