For over a decade the EU has been pushing tech manufacturers to standardise their chargers and help reduce the 51,000 tons of waste that goes to landfill each year as a result of consumers throwing away their old chargers and cables. To achieve this, we needed a connector that not only outperformed anything else on the market but was also easy to use. Thus, the USBC connector was born.
USBC is the newest connector type out there and it’s here to stay. The replacement to the USB-Micro connector, the USBC is now mainstream on consumer devices from smartphones, tablets, laptops, speakers, headphones and even vape pens.
What does this mean for you?
For you, this brings several cool features that make your life easier.
- Bigger isn’t always better. A USBC connector is half the width and one-third the height of a standard USB connector and only slightly larger than Apple’s Lightning or Micro-USB connectors.
- It’s reversible. Gone are the days of fumbling round in the dark trying to plug your phone in or guessing which way the cable needs to go. With a USBC it doesn’t matter. You can insert it either way.
- It’s fast. Type-C connectors can charge up to 5 times faster than a standard Micro-USB connector, getting you back up and running in no time. Utilising the new USB 3.1 protocol, a Type-C can transfer data up to 10 gigabits per second! When it comes to charging, USBC can handle up to 100 watts, making it powerful enough to charge your tablet or MacBook.
- It’s flexible. Using adapters widely available on the market, users will be able to connect older devices to Type-C ports, even devices that use non-USB technologies such as: DisplayPort, VGA and Ethernet.
Should I throw away my old cables?
Although most large smartphone manufacturers have adopted the Type-C connector, they still offer USB-Micro on their budget models. We can expect to see these replaced with USBC in the future.
View our range of USBC charge cables here:
