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Even for older Android devices like my Nexus 9, or wireless headphones, I'm now only buying USB-C wall adapters and using them with USB-C to Micro USB cables (l

Even for older Android devices like my Nexus 9, or wireless headphones, I'm now only buying USB-C wall adapters and using them with USB-C to Micro USB cables (like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WJSPW8Q https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WJSPW8Q). If you have an older wall charger that dies consider spending a few extra bucks and moving to USB-C, it'll futureproof your purchase.

Someone1234 10y ago
USB-C has so many compatibility problems (and safety issues) I don't legitimately believe we buy today will be futureproof. Buying anything USB-C today is a minefield. At the very least you'll want to check that Google engineer's spreadsheet but even that only assures safety, not future proofness. I don't think we'll see the USB-C connector change again soon, but everything else about the standard seems somewhat in flux. There's already competing standards for fast charging over USB-C. Once Apple hits the market with a USB-C iPhone, that's going to tip the bucket over.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ardit33 10y ago
  Did you read the article? They said they had major problems last year, but now things are getting much better. See chart: http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2017/02/usbccharging_state_2017-100709054-orig.jpg http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2017/02/usbcchar...
  - peterwwillis 10y ago
    That article doesn't really mean anything. It's just a test of some laptops and their adapters, which is a small subset of the world of charged/charging devices. There are at least 10 different official USB power specs, the latest being from last year, called "USB Power Delivery revision 2.0 version 1.2". Each spec may have multiple revisions, and versions of revisions, and each revision version may have up to 6 power profiles. There are more unofficial specs that are hacked by vendors. Fast charging has even more variations and incompatibilities. And then some ports get some other standard tacked onto it, which may have their own incompatible power spec. We keep getting new specs and new devices with new uses. Laptop vendors can only push out new hardware supporting new specs after a lot of R&D, and at considerable new cost. Because of this, in order to support some new feature without as much time and money spent making it compatible, it is vendor locked so it doesn't catch on fire. We saw the same thing with wifi. So are things getting better? Yes, we finally have support for enough of the baseline standard so at least most new things will charge now. But will they all continue to work compatibly in the future? Probably not as long as vendors continue to make their own power adapters.
- abritinthebay 10y ago
  You can solve that by buying a trusted brand. Everything you just said applies to normal power adapters (USB or not) the issue is that USB-C is newer so less market saturation of quality, cheap, goods. It'll happen - until then go with already proven products in the market.
- EddieRingle 10y ago
  I haven't had any problems myself, yet. If you buy something USB-IF certified at least, you're fine. From https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LQ5df94bERb https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LQ5df94bERb: > One trend I will highlight is that more cables are getting USB-IF certified compliant. In fact, I see a number of cables on Amazon that not only claim to be USB-IF certified, they list the TID (Test Identifier) assigned by USB-IF for the cable in the product description. Also, as for > There's already competing standards for fast charging over USB-C. Not really. There are proprietary options, yes, but USB Power Delivery is THE standard. Google even strongly recommends OEMs not implement anything besides Power Delivery (https://source.android.com/compatibility/android-cdd#7_7_usb https://source.android.com/compatibility/android-cdd#7_7_usb): > * Type-C devices MUST detect 1.5A and 3.0A chargers per the Type-C resistor standard and it must detect changes in the advertisement. > * Type-C devices also supporting USB host mode are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to support Power Delivery for data and power role swapping. > * Type-C devices SHOULD support Power Delivery for high-voltage charging and support for Alternate Modes such as display out. > * Type-C devices are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to not support proprietary charging methods that modify Vbus voltage beyond default levels, or alter sink/source roles as such may result in interoperability issues with the chargers or devices that support the standard USB Power Delivery methods. While this is called out as "STRONGLY RECOMMENDED", in future Android versions we might REQUIRE all type-C devices to support full interoperability with standard type-C chargers. Were there issues early on? Yes. Will there be many issues going forward? I don't think so.

Someone1234 10y ago

USB-C has so many compatibility problems (and safety issues) I don't legitimately believe we buy today will be futureproof. Buying anything USB-C today is a minefield. At the very least you'll want to check that Google engineer's spreadsheet but even that only assures safety, not future proofness. I don't think we'll see the USB-C connector change again soon, but everything else about the standard seems somewhat in flux. There's already competing standards for fast charging over USB-C. Once Apple hits the market with a USB-C iPhone, that's going to tip the bucket over.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ardit33 10y ago
Did you read the article? They said they had major problems last year, but now things are getting much better. See chart: http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2017/02/usbccharging_state_2017-100709054-orig.jpg http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2017/02/usbcchar...
- peterwwillis 10y ago
  That article doesn't really mean anything. It's just a test of some laptops and their adapters, which is a small subset of the world of charged/charging devices. There are at least 10 different official USB power specs, the latest being from last year, called "USB Power Delivery revision 2.0 version 1.2". Each spec may have multiple revisions, and versions of revisions, and each revision version may have up to 6 power profiles. There are more unofficial specs that are hacked by vendors. Fast charging has even more variations and incompatibilities. And then some ports get some other standard tacked onto it, which may have their own incompatible power spec. We keep getting new specs and new devices with new uses. Laptop vendors can only push out new hardware supporting new specs after a lot of R&D, and at considerable new cost. Because of this, in order to support some new feature without as much time and money spent making it compatible, it is vendor locked so it doesn't catch on fire. We saw the same thing with wifi. So are things getting better? Yes, we finally have support for enough of the baseline standard so at least most new things will charge now. But will they all continue to work compatibly in the future? Probably not as long as vendors continue to make their own power adapters.
abritinthebay 10y ago
You can solve that by buying a trusted brand. Everything you just said applies to normal power adapters (USB or not) the issue is that USB-C is newer so less market saturation of quality, cheap, goods. It'll happen - until then go with already proven products in the market.
EddieRingle 10y ago
I haven't had any problems myself, yet. If you buy something USB-IF certified at least, you're fine. From https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LQ5df94bERb https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LQ5df94bERb: > One trend I will highlight is that more cables are getting USB-IF certified compliant. In fact, I see a number of cables on Amazon that not only claim to be USB-IF certified, they list the TID (Test Identifier) assigned by USB-IF for the cable in the product description. Also, as for > There's already competing standards for fast charging over USB-C. Not really. There are proprietary options, yes, but USB Power Delivery is THE standard. Google even strongly recommends OEMs not implement anything besides Power Delivery (https://source.android.com/compatibility/android-cdd#7_7_usb https://source.android.com/compatibility/android-cdd#7_7_usb): > * Type-C devices MUST detect 1.5A and 3.0A chargers per the Type-C resistor standard and it must detect changes in the advertisement. > * Type-C devices also supporting USB host mode are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to support Power Delivery for data and power role swapping. > * Type-C devices SHOULD support Power Delivery for high-voltage charging and support for Alternate Modes such as display out. > * Type-C devices are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to not support proprietary charging methods that modify Vbus voltage beyond default levels, or alter sink/source roles as such may result in interoperability issues with the chargers or devices that support the standard USB Power Delivery methods. While this is called out as "STRONGLY RECOMMENDED", in future Android versions we might REQUIRE all type-C devices to support full interoperability with standard type-C chargers. Were there issues early on? Yes. Will there be many issues going forward? I don't think so.