USB C is ridiculously flawed

[sidiculous]

USB C is a mess. Here's why I think that:

1. Every company uses a different voltage, current and wattage, there's no way to have one charger that will charge all phones at maximum efficiency.

2. The port and plug, both are poorly designed. The hollow port and plug attract debris and lint in both, every now and then, you need to clean them out with a toothpick, otherwise they will not work.

3. USB C ports are not as durable as micro USB ports. The ports failure rate is much higher on USB C. 

4. All cables are not equal. Cheap cables will not transfer or charge as fast as original ones, which are ridiculously expensive. The cheapest Type C cable that lives up to spec is an original Samsung cable costing ₹ 599, and that one, too, doesn't support 45W charging, which requires the other Samsung original cable costing ₹1,299. And when you buy the ridiculously expensive 45W charger, they don't even give you a cable, so you have to spend more on that. You can pick up a cheap micro USB cable for ₹ 90 and safely assume that it will charge with maximum safety and efficiency on any micro USB device.

5. Good quality cables are hard to find, with a lot of **bleep** cables in the market. These knockoff cables, even the so-called 'Nylon braided' reinforced ones, wear out within a few months. When that happens, charging will not work properly without jiggling it in both ports, switching sides, flipping connectors or cleaning the ports with a toothpick. Any decent cable will cost you several times the price of a micro USB, and even original high quality ones tend to fail after 12 to 24 months. 

6. Due to all the different charging standards, cable types, **bleep** and cheap cables, a layman will almost certainly not be able to find the optimum cable unless he buys an original one from a brand store. 

7. Car chargers that support the fastest charging your phone supports can only be procured from the manufacturer of your phone. Anything else will not charge efficiently enough. In my case, if i wanted the fastest charging car charger, my only option is the Samsung Original 45W car charger, priced at ₹3,999. Even the 25W one costs ₹2,499. It used to be that any car charger could charge any phone was long as it was reasonably good quality. A decent 2A USB charger for micro USB devices can be purchased for under ₹199. 

In the current scenario, every manufacturer uses different standards, such as Quick Charge (QC) 1, 2, 3 or Power Delivery (PD) 1, 2, 3 or Adaptive Fast Charge, or Lighting charge, or Superfast Charge and a million other standards. If you have a particular brand phone, you have to buy matching chargers and cables, universal ones are unstable and not the fastest option. If you switch brands, you need to buy all new chargers to support your charging standard. 

This is even more concerning because the new trend started by crApple of not including chargers in the box is catching on. So you buy a phone, you need to be very very careful selecting the right charger and cable. And the chargers are ridiculously expensive since Type C came along. This too, after flagships have reached six figure pricing. You're paying more for less stuff purely for brand value, and that's just ridiculous. You buy a ₹1L+ phone and it doesn't even come with the best possible charger? Charger technology is still evolving, chances are your old Type C charger will not be the fastest option for your new phone. That's just stupid. For example, my Note 10+ charger shipped with a 25 watt charger, even though it fully supports 45W charging. Would it have killed them to put that one in the box instead?

A 45W car charger with PD 3.0, and the same Wall charger, including the best cables that support 45W charging cost as much as a mid-range phone! And you can bet that mid-range phone will have the fastest charger included in the box! So with all these expensive chargers and cables, the company will not develop longer lasting batteries because they obviously want you to buy their chargers. 

Ridiculous.

Thoughts?

[Sid_Karna]

So what's the solution, going back to micro?

[sidiculous]

In my option, the design of the hardware needs to be improved a LOT. Durability on type c stuff is very, very poor. That needs to be reworked. Even my original charger and cable regularly give me the error 'check cable', after which I need to pull out both ends of the cable, flip them, jiggle them, then it'll work. So I can't just connect my phone and expect it to start charging. I need to look at the screen, check if the error has popped up, see if it's charging reasonably fast, then go on.

Other than that, the USB Implementers Forum, which is the organization responsible for ensuring standards are followed, need to pick one single fast charging technology and make all manufacturers without exception use that tech, not their own. IP for fast charging needs to be shared and the most efficient and cheap standard needs to be managed for all manufacturers. This is totally within the USB-IF's powers, and I'm frankly pretty shocked it hasn't been done already.

The whole point of forcing micro USB on manufacturers was to ensure a parity of industrial standards, leading to standardisation. That has been negated by manufacturers today with everyone using different tech.

This needs to be fixed post haste. Until then, all manufacturers will foist their own standard of charging intellectual property on customers at extortionate rates. That needs to be stopped right away.

One USB, One Charging tech, One port for all phones. The original dream achieved by making Micro USB standard many years ago.

[Sid_Karna]

Good thoughts. It seems you spend some time thinking about the issue. 😇

[BVikram]

I think this is because of day to day new technology that not completely backward compatible.

[sidiculous]

Case in point, attachment. My phone has the ability to recharge at up to 2.5A. I'm in my car right now, using my original Samsung 25W charger, along with an original ₹1,200 cable. My phone is charging at an average speed of 464 mA, under 1/5th of the maximum capability. 70 to 100 percent will take 2h 37m. And my phone is supposed to do 0-100 percent in 70 minutes. If I fiddle with the cables and what not, i can probably do better, but only slightly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it won't, for no discernable reason.

I had my phone's USB port changed from the official service centre, along with the power IC and the battery, at a cost of ₹3,800 less than three weeks ago, so there are no problems with my phone. Whatever it is, has to do with cable / charger. The 25W original car charger cost me ₹2,699, the cable another ₹699. All purchased from samsung E-store less than a year ago. Accessories only have 6 months warranty. Once again, ridiculous.

[sidiculous]

Case in point again, original Samsung charger, original Samsung cable. This happens about 50 percent of the time. And charging is only full speed about 5 percent of the time.

[MannyF]

Just bought a Samsung A22, the phone itself is great, but the charging cable is bad. What happens is the metal shield of the Type-C end has very sharp edges around the perimeter of the tip. As a result, the connector catches on something (in this case the also sharp edges of the corresponding female Type-C connector on the device) when I plug it in, and basically it sometimes refuses to go in. The first time I tried to charge my new phone I noticed this and thought the connector was probably just a bit stiff as it had never been plugged in, but having owned the phone several days it's clear it happens all the time. Furthermore, the seam of the male Type-C connector, present only one one side of the connector, protrudes ever so slightly which brings the sharp edges outwards a little bit, and scratch the inner plastic faces of the Type-C receptacle on the device.

I have a nice Type-C cable by another brand where the tip of the male connector has rounded edges by design, and no seam. This ensures the male connector is guided into the female connector and it doesn't scratch anything as it's all nice and rounded edges throughout.

I wonder if all Samsung phones come with the rough-edged connector. In any case, I'll be returning my phone and buying it again (will use my nice cable instead of the included  one) and reporting this to Samsung, though I doubt they'll do anything about it, and yet it'd be very easy to fix as all they have to do is use a different cable.