The future of USB is C and A

If you want to stay ahead of the curve with USB stuff, use A + C charge ports.

Back in '21, a proposed rule by the European Commission stated that all phones must have a USB-C port. Since then, it's been becoming a reality that every single phone, tablet, camera or whatever-it-is that uses USB has a C port.

It's going to be a while until "everything is C" is fully realized, so what I'm doing in the home is purposely getting wall chargers that support A and C. There are a bunch of these out there. Some are all A, but the type I specifically seek out are A + C.

There are 5 types of USB ports I use in my life. A, B (the square one which 2 of my effects pedals use), mini (most of my Garmin GPSes use mini), micro (my phone uses this) and C.

I can get A-to-any-style USB cables and that's not a problem. However, it is sometimes a problem with C. All I need with C is a power port. As such, it makes sense to get A + C wall chargers.

On the computing side of things, type A is definitely not going away any time soon, or at least not in the US. There are tons of PCs out there with A ports for connecting things, and new PCs and laptops still have A ports as standard equipment. Type C is for anything mobile, meaning phone and tablet.

As C ports become more common, more stuff will be made that can be powered by USB-C cables - even for things that aren't computers at all. A simple example of that are these rechargeable 9V batteries that get charged via use of USB-C.

Again, if you want to stay ahead of the curve with this stuff, get a wall charger or two that supports USB A and C ports. Getting a 12V USB-C car charger also isn't a bad idea either.

Published 2022 Nov 8

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