Why Was Mini USB Deprecated in Favor of Micro USB?

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18552/why-was-mini-usb-deprecated-in-favor-of-micro-usb

by liyanage • 7 years ago

292 210 7 years ago

electronics.stackexchange.com

ChuckMcM2• 7 years ago

And for those who disbelieve the 'it isn't reliable' story, I've got some worthless evaluation boards you can have where the mini-USB plug will no longer reliably hold on to a USB cable. Not a data set I realize, but I was glad when people switched to micro which has proven more reliable for me.

Of course lightning was better still but alas Apple wasn't going to share that with the world so we have USB C.

pathartl• 7 years ago

Yeah I recently moved to a Galaxy S10 which is my first device I use on a regular basis that has a USB-C port. The size of the connector, reversible nature, data throughput, and power throughput are excellent.

The interconnect itself though leaves a bit to be desired. I still think that lightning is more satisfying from a tactile standpoint. I think USB still has the issue of the floating spade in the female connector. When inserting a cable, I will sometimes catch the spade and I often worry about if this degrades the life of the connector.

neltnerb3• 7 years ago

I've found my biggest issue is that over many months it gets a thin film of grime deep inside that I have to pick out with a needle to make it work again properly. Micro and C both, but with C it's way easier to break the contacts while cleaning.

GordonS2• 7 years ago

The size of the connector, reversible nature

The non-reversible nature of USB A connectors drives me crazy - is it only me that ends up turning them and failing at least 3 times before they slot in?!

iforgotpassword2• 7 years ago

I don't have issues believing that, but I still kinda need an ELI5 of why micro is more durable. The accepted answer on SO briefly addresses it but I'm not really any wiser, maybe in part because I'm not a native speaker.

Kliment2• 7 years ago

For the mini, the wobbly springy bits are in the device, for the micro the wobbly springy bits are in the cable. The cable is cheaper and easier to replace. The springy bits bend out of shape over time and fail.

mc322• 7 years ago

USB-C usability on laptops for peripherals and especially power is bad. The connectors become loose and come out with little resistance. For charging even barrel connectors were better, but prefer the magnetic connectors.

aeternus• 7 years ago

Magnetic really seems great for connections, I wonder why it isn't used more.

crazygringo2• 7 years ago

The connectors become loose and come out with little resistance.

Seems to me on laptops that's a good thing, so if you trip over the cable the connector is more likely to come out, than the laptop crashing down?

I don't really ever move my laptop around while anything is plugged into it, so I think that's the right tradeoff.

neltnerb3• 7 years ago

I agree, I now have my first laptop with a USB-C and within months I'm terrified of someone coming by and grabbing the cable just hard enough at just the wrong angle to rip the connector off of it's contacts.

I looked into it a little since this seems like a ridiculously obvious design flaw (rely on SMT contacts for mechanical strength against yanking?) and I think at least the reasonable ones use a chassis mount USB receptacle there. I hope. I very much hope.

gumby4• 7 years ago

Of course lightning was better still but alas Apple wasn't going to share that with the world so we have USB C.

Apple was a major contributor to the Type C design, and learning from the limitations of lighting were reflected in its design.

Like you I really like the small profile of lightning, but the design of the Type C connector does have two important advantages thanks to its shell/shroud design:

1 - The "springy" piece that deforms is the cable not the receptacle. That means when the connection becomes flimsy this is more likely to be the replaceable cables (though some of the cables can be pricy, it's likely still cheaper than replacing the device)

2 - the shroud is ground and is longer than the pins, thus you have a ground connection before you get to any signal or power (like the longer ground pin in UK and Schuko connectors. This doesn't matter much for a USB2 cable but is a safety issue when you have 100W on the cable.

And back to Apple: much as lightning is good for them, it isn't really an instrument of MFI enforcement; they can enforce that just as well with type C. They already have type C iPads so I expect they'll gradually abandon lightning. The iPod 30-pin connector lasted about 9 years and lightning is 7 years old so this isn't unreasonable. And I believe it would make the EU happy.

DannyBee• 7 years ago

"Apple was a major contributor to the Type C design"

Citation?

As far as i know, it was created almost entirely by a team at Google, and the agreement to get Apple on board was to not publicize this fact. Which is really sad, because then John Gruber then went off and credited their work to Apple without bothering to fact check it.

IIRC, Apple was not even at the USB meeting where it was first presented.

I'm sure post coming on board Apple contributed, but yeah.

(Various xooglers and others have confirmed all this publicly now, AFAIK)

jasonhansel• 7 years ago

I suspect that Apple is planning to move to wireless charging; instead of replacing Lightning with USB-C, it will just ship a phone with no physical ports whatsoever.

ksec2• 7 years ago

Agree on the MFi, Apple could just enforce MFi for USB-C as well. ( People don't like this idea and I often get called out for even mentioning it )

But I don't think Type C is heading towards iPhone for a few reason.

1. The iPad needed 10Gbps connection and possibly more in the future with USB 3.2 2x2 ( Or what ever it is I cant remember ), that is something lightning will not provide. ( Technically I don't see Lightning missing out any pins to do it, assuming they use pin from both sides, but my guess is Apple don't want to complicate things )

2. The USB 3.2 2x2 Controller is way larger, I doubt Apple is going to put 10Gbps on iPhone.

3. They want you on iCloud, not backing up on your Mac / iTunes. ( It is sad I wish they could at least give me the option of iOS Time Capsule )

4. What is the point of replacing Lightning if they are going to enforce MFi on USB-C?

If anything I really wish they make lightning 2.0 spec that is more durable.

oceanghost• 7 years ago

To add to your post. I was part of an effort to develop several remote controls for a company. The micro USB was always the first thing that died. Like you, I had a graveyard of broken remotes. Dozens.

kalleboo2• 7 years ago

Oddly enough I've actually had much worse reliability with Lightning than with MicroUSB. Our home has suffered bad from corroded power pins[0].

What happens is you have one lightning cable with a bad contact, and that causes electric arcing to corrode the power pin in the phone, and now the phone will have bad contact with any new cable you bring in, causing arcing on that cable. Now if you have multiple devices in a household sharing the same charging cables, the "plague" spreads. The only solution is to buy all new chargers, iPhones and iPads all at the same time.

[0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/lightning-cables-failing-due-t...

sbierwagen• 7 years ago

I would be very surprised if you were getting arc damage with five volts at two amps. More plausible would be some electrochemical/galvanic corrosion effect.

gowld2• 7 years ago

Arcing and corrosion isn't contagious. Humidity causes arcing and corrosion; corrosion would prevent arcing for the same reason it would prevent charging -- it increases resistance.

rstuart4133• 7 years ago

Of course lightning was better still but alas Apple wasn't going to share that with the world so we have USB C.

And for me USB-C has been the most unreliable connector by far - I've had more of them fail that any prior sort of USB connector. But that comes with a caveat - it's always the cables that fail. Replace the cable and it's all good again. I'm coming to accept the fact that any USB-C cable used daily will have to be replaced within the year, which is really annoying. The USB micro A connector is far more reliable.

ebg132• 7 years ago

I'm skeptical. Hands up anyone who hasn't had dozens of micro USB cables fail on them because of the connector?

jpm_sd• 7 years ago

That's the new trade-off. The cable plug fails instead of the socket on the device. Cables are cheap.

opencl• 7 years ago

The cable plug is supposed to fail instead of the socket on the device. Actual testing[1] demonstrates that the microUSB socket on the device does not last the rated 10k cycles and also that the cable lasts longer than the socket on the device.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqtNleXhTRE

TL;DW- Repeated insertion and removal led to the socket on the microUSB SSD failing after 8000 cycles, cable was still fine. USB-C still worked after 8000 cycles.

jandrese2• 7 years ago

I've suspected this myself, but I think they went too far. Even minor incidents are prone to breaking a micro-USB connector where a mini-USB would tough it out. But there's a bigger chance of damaging the mini-USB port. All in all I think the micro-USB connector could have been made a little sturdier without excessive danger to the port.

On the other hand, I've never fatally damaged a Lightning cable OR port, despite some fairly bad accidents (drops that land on the connector for example). The only failures were a couple where the outer coating started to come off right past the strain relief, the connector itself was always solid for me.

The jury is still out on USB-C for me. I just don't have enough datapoints, but it does seem more robust on the surface and finally (finally!) the cable can be inserted in either orientation.

zwieback• 7 years ago

I've had zero failures with mini, dozens of failures of micro cables and two failures of micro sockets. All the micro failures were in the early days, though, these days micro cables from the dollar store seem to last.

My new phone is USB-C, yay!

ashleyn• 7 years ago

I have plenty of tales of impatient boomer relatives who have jammed up the micro-USB port on their devices by forcing it in the wrong way. It was a lot harder to do this with mini-USB, and I'm glad the subsequent revision (USB-C) is largely foolproof.

jdietrich3• 7 years ago

My grandmother once jammed a USB-A plug into an RJ45 socket. I needed large pliers and no small amount of cursing to remove it.

Note to self: do not tell an elderly person "don't worry, you can't plug it in wrong, the plugs will only fit in the right sockets".

AdmiralAsshat• 7 years ago

Strange. My PS3 has been in regular use since 2011 or so (the console itself being a used launch model from 2008), and I don't recall the mini-USB port on the controller ever failing to charge. I suppose I'd have to check the serial number on the controller, though, to see if it's actually that one that came with the console--I may have switched it out with one that I bought later for multiplayer purposes without realizing it.

The controller only gets charged once every three weeks or so, now that I think about it, so it could well still be under that failure threshold.

merpnderp• 7 years ago

My ps3 has to have the controllers cocked at the right angle to charge. Mileage I guess varies.

alias_neo2• 7 years ago

I have to agree, again, anecdotally. I have Mini cables and devices that have been in use for well over a decade. I've never in my life had a Mini cable fail on me.

I've had countless Micro cables fail on me electro-mechanically. Usually either the latch fails, not a huge deal, but not great, or the contacts "flatten" or don't contact any more.

I've lost so many that I've taken to cutting the bad connectors off and soldering new ones on since I have the tools and the skills, and I don't buy cheap cables (in the hope they'll last longer) so the rest of it is usually worth saving.

dwaite• 7 years ago

The original mini-b port was rated for 1000 insertion MTBF (I swear one friend's cellphones were closer to 500, as they were going through 3 a year.)

It was revised to fail at 5000 MTBF, much more acceptable for something that may be plugged in multiple times a day.

Micro USB was rated I believe at 10k MTBF, and moved the faily bits to the cable.

The USB-IF obsoleted the Mini-A and Mini-AB plugs at that point (which are really only used for USB-OTG, which is rare). They still let the 5k MTBF mini sockets get certified on new devices, however.

Izkata• 7 years ago

I have an alternate theory, based on something the comments over there reminded me of:

Back in the mini-usb era, most of my family bought Razr phones. All of them broke in various ways in under a year (one actually snapped in half), because they weren't very careful about handling the phones. Nowadays, new phones last several years and are usually upgraded instead of needing replacement after breaking.

For most of my family, those phones were the first small electronics they had that they kept on them. But my dad had a Blackberry before that, and I had a GBA - we never had issues breaking our "fragile" phones.

I think mini-usb was deemed fragile compared to micro-usb because a significantly larger proportion of the population didn't know how to handle them, and the manufacturers/etc identified the wrong problem.

closetohome2• 7 years ago

But my dad had a Blackberry before that, and I had a GBA - we never had issues breaking our "fragile" phones.

I think this is a really interesting point. I see so many people complain about "fragile" smartphones, and whose phones always seem to have a cracked screen.

Really it just comes down to taking care of your things, and treating expensive electronics like expensive electronics.

zaat3• 7 years ago

Most expensive electronics are actually much more durable than smartphones, and you usually not taking them with you wherever you go. I can handle ceramics and crystal glasses just fine, but I don't take them with me when I go hiking.

neonscribe• 7 years ago

USB-C has its issues, but it is clearly better than any previous connector.

akvadrako2• 7 years ago

It’s not - I had the new MBP and every day had issues with USB-C devices coming loose and losing connections. A connector that comes disconnected with the smallest movement is not that good.

mprev• 7 years ago

Agreed. USB c is unreliable in that just a small movement is enough for it to disconnect while appearing to be plugged in.

SketchySeaBeast2• 7 years ago

Didja get lint in there? I'm incredibly impressed with the USB-based products I've dealt with.

ltbarcly3• 7 years ago

One of the big problems with USB-C is that both sides of the connector can get filled with lint. The good news is that it is pretty easy to clean out, just take a needle or safety pin and scrape out the lint. It will be extremely compacted from you trying to push the cable in all the way over and over, but if you keep scraping I will bet you pull surprisingly large lint chunks.

Macha3• 7 years ago

They went the other direction for the 2018 model - my work MBP has a death grip on my non-Apple USB-C cables and I have to use excessive force to remove them.

sixothree2• 7 years ago

USB-C is better. I love using USB-C. But the ecosystem is so poor right now. Maybe it is the available chipsets people are using but the hubs are awful. Lack of devices using C is pretty apparent as well.

holidaygoose• 7 years ago

I'm not sure what devices you have now, but I've moved completely to usb-c and love it. I threw out all my other cables, and have usb-c charging on every floor of my house and car.

I have my macbook pro and Pixel 3 as my main devices. For travel I have the Sony 1000mx3 headphones, Aiwejay toothbrush, Xiaomi shaver, the Innergie 60W charger (way way smaller than the Macbook brick). And at home I have the A7iii camera and Sandisk external ssd. I even have some bonus devices like the Daydream remote is usb-c and my Logitech Brio webcam.

There's a couple of things I'm still shopping for (dashcam, presentation remote, flashlight, studio microphone, and 4-input audio interface) but those will happen over the next year I imagine.

csours2• 7 years ago

Slightly OT: why did it take so many iterations to get to USB-C?

silversconfused2• 7 years ago

There's probably something like moores law for consumer device attachment pin density...

jolmg3• 7 years ago

As I understand it, USB-C is considerably more complex than the first few iterations. The goal of the first few iterations was to become a standard cable and connector, and for that it needed to be simple, to lower the cost of implementation and have a good chance of widespread adoption.

jandrese2• 7 years ago

"Considerably more complex" is probably underselling it. A fully capable port has a withering array of signaling standards to support, as well as supporting very high data transfer rates. It's a seriously challenging port to implement. Not something where you can buy a $2 chip and support a dozen ports like USB2.

ars• 7 years ago

USB-C is way more complicated. It's not a passive cable like the others, it has a small chip in at least one side (sometimes both), that is used to define the specs of the cable.

cesarb• 7 years ago

Only the faster cables need a chip. A basic cable needs only a couple of resistors.

Zak3• 7 years ago

Slightly more OT: why is USB-C adoption so slow?

Sure, your non-Apple smartphone or tablet almost certainly uses it, and maybe your laptop, but anything else? Virtually any other random device that uses a small USB port is far more likely to be micro-B than it is to be C even though C has been common on smartphones for years.

jolmg3• 7 years ago

I think it's already insanely fast. If I remember right, it came out a little after USB-3 and it's already has comparable adoption. Of course, it's not going to go as fast as USB-3 since USB-C doesn't use backwards compatible hardware. With regards to random devices that are not USB hosts, it's still preferable to use USB-2 for greatest compatibility unless extra speed is needed like on external storage drives.

madeofpalk• 7 years ago

I think adoption has been pretty decent actually. My Sony headphones charge via USB-C - that's pretty good to me!

m45t3r• 7 years ago

In part because it is much more complicated, in part because until USB 3.0 which wasn't really needed: micro USB was fine, however after USB 3.0 we got horrible hacks like this one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/US...

ClassyJacket• 7 years ago

I'm surprised more people didn't complain about the Galaxy S5 charging port, which not only had one of those monstrosities, meaning you have to plug in a standard micro-usb connector into only one specific half (less even) of the whole plug, but it had a door on it that you had to open first.

TheGRS• 7 years ago

Scroll down past the accepted answer and you see what is likely the real one. A manufacturer came to the standardization board with a new design, asked for it, probably lobbied them for it greatly, and they eventually accepted it. Reasons for why the manufacturer wanted this aren't stated, I'm sure its a mix of engineering ideas, wishes, dreams and some mix of gaining an upper-hand in whatever market was there at the time.

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/927/

dmckeon• 7 years ago

The real longevity plan for plugs is not X,000 cycles, but “Will it work until I lose it?”

Macha3• 7 years ago

Depends on your use case I guess? I've never lost a micro usb cable but at this stage I've had tens of them fail on me.

joezydeco• 7 years ago

Mini/Micro USB also suffers from a superposition rule* much like the A connector: whenever you need a mini or micro cable, your drawer will be completely full of the opposite type.

* https://imgur.com/gallery/kYGTLjc

m4632• 7 years ago

My cheap lightning cables are not commutative. If it doesn't work, flip it over and it might work.

gumby4• 7 years ago

I people have been voting this down, but I have seen this very occasionally in the wild. I don't have a good theory; my guess is either some tolerance combined with gunk on a pin or gunk on a bin that is dislodged by removal and re-insertion. But it doesn't happen enough for a good controlled experiment.

city41• 7 years ago

mini usb is basically extinct in my house. But now I’ve got the same conundrum with micro and usb-c. Oh what I wouldn’t give for one connector to rule them all.

tty23002• 7 years ago

Currently my desktop keyboard, ereader and OP-1 have mini USB. Guess I'll be stuck with it for a long time

majewsky• 7 years ago

There are still new devices being sold with Mini-USB sockets, e.g. the handheld audio recorders by Zoom. (They plug into USB to function as external sound cards.)

glenneroo• 7 years ago

I've been using 2-in-1 Micro/USB-C cables found on AliExpress for about a year now and have been giving them out to all my friends as gifts. Haven't heard of any going bad yet. The ones I picked have "leashes" so that the USB-C cap doesn't get lost.

itsaidpens3• 7 years ago

Reminder that Apple designed the USB-C connector, which is why it's so friggin' user friendly!

daxterspeed2• 7 years ago

Got a source on that? I'm genuinely interested to hear about it.

itsaidpens3• 7 years ago

Yep! Here's one - it's light on specifics but the gist is that Apple was heavily influential on the actual connector design, not anything related to spec/bus etc.

https://9to5mac.com/2015/03/14/apple-invent-usb-type-c/

gruez• 7 years ago

Maybe, but it’s definitely worse than lightning when it comes to retention. Usb-c comes loose with very little force.

Shorel• 7 years ago

I find that a good feature to have.

Much better than dropping my phone or headphones to the floor as it happens with the micro-USB cables.

AcerbicZero• 7 years ago

This is a great answer, but for some reason the author left out the most obvious of reasons. Mini-USB put the mechanical strain of the connection on the socket side, while Micro-USB puts that strain on the cable side. Since its much easier to toss a cable vs remove and solder in a new socket connector the average cycle lifetime became much less critical in general.

favorited• 7 years ago

For a few years I was bringing my Happy Hacking Keyboard to and from work every day, meaning (at least) 2 plug/unplug pairs per weekday. I'm kind of surprised it still works because it's pretty old.

I eventually got a second one which I leave at the office, but was kind of surprised that years later they hadn't replaced mini with micro. There are some mods people are building to replace the mini port with type-c, and I expect I'll try something like that when it eventually starts to fail.

megaremote3• 7 years ago

I don't see how that can be true: https://i2.wp.com/www.cheapharddrivesstorage.com/wp-content/...

rasz2• 7 years ago

Electro mechanical connection requires springiness action to be reliable - one side of the connector needs to work pushing pins together. In full size and mini USB elastic pins are inside sockets, plugs have rigid contacts

http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/image/cache/data/rapid/mini-us...

Micro swaps that around, moving prone to failure (bend/pushed pin etc) elements into the cable.

duskwuff3• 7 years ago

The photo below "Micro USB" is not Micro USB. The connector shown there looks more like a USB Mini-A socket.

A real USB Micro socket looks like this: https://cf.ydcdn.net/latest/images/computer/_MICUSB.GIF

grosswait• 7 years ago

That is not a micro USB socket shown in the picture

metaphor2• 7 years ago

The receptacle shown above "Micro USB" is incorrect; it's a Mini-AB receptacle.

xattt2• 7 years ago

What about the fact that mini-USB was mandated as a connector standard (1) in the European Union to standardize phone charger connections?

(1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply

Godel_unicode• 7 years ago

Except it wasn't. They standardized on micro-usb.

Edit: from your Wikipedia article - "A common EPS must include a cable with a micro USB-B connector for connecting to a mobile phone."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/06/10-companies-agree-t...

naikrovek4• 7 years ago

This was true of the first revision of Mini-USB, I'm told, but not subsequent revisions. The wearing components were moved to the cable while retaining compatibility with the older design.

The rumor of socket-side wear persisted well after the design change (all the way up to today, as evidenced by your comment, and many others) so Micro-USB was created to work around the confusion regarding Mini-USB entirely by simply creating a new connector.

tjoff• 7 years ago

I truly hope micro-USB wasn't created to avoid that confusion.

For one, the number of people that even knew about the issue with mini-USB was barely none.

And the massive confusion micro-USB has contributed to is just unimaginable.

justintoon• 7 years ago

I can speak to this. I have a Google Nexus 7 tablet with the mini-USB connection which I’m no longer able to use because the port simply will not hold a cable effectively enough to charge it.

ggm• 7 years ago

Apple isn't always that kind of company, but would lightning have been a mechanically simpler cable than USB-C? (I mean, wouldn't have given up the market and patent dominance in the interests of an industry wide non-discriminatory standard. They did some things as sensible cross patents but I don't think they always do)

rasz2• 7 years ago

No such thing as one standard Mini USB. I worked at PC parts&accessories supplier pre 2007 and we carried something like 5 proprietary variants of mini USB.

The only way to match "mini" USB was to ask for particular brand or make client bring the device with him. 5-pin, 4-pin, 8pin Nikon, 4pin Sony, etc. It was a mess.

metaphor2• 7 years ago

I suppose that partially explains the historical revisions of this spec[1] circa 2006, including new IP agreement and criteria for "mini" products.

[1] https://usb.org/sites/default/files/CabConn20.pdf

seaish• 7 years ago

If you replace Mini USB with Micro USB and replace Micro USB with USB C, most of the answer still makes sense.

Causality1• 7 years ago

I can only speak from personal experience, but Mini-B female connectors had a truly incredible propensity for breaking loose off the board they were soldered to, and the male connectors bent inward at the slightest pressure.

Granted type-C isn't much better in the latter regard, I've thrown out multiple cables after finding they somehow got squished flat.

kabacha• 7 years ago

The micro-USB connector was designed with these past failings in mind and has a rated lifetime of about 10,000 insertion cycles

I find it hard to believe that. Micro-USB in my experience has been the most unreliable cable type I've ever had. Doesn't matter if it's an expensive one that came with your premium phone or a chinese one from alibaba - something breaks with then within a year of casual use.

theclaw• 7 years ago

It’s the socket that’s rated, not the cable.

lostphilosopher• 7 years ago

After having two phones fail due to the mini connector I switched to only wireless charging and I love it.

I understand the charging performance hit, but that's much more easily mitigated than sketchy cords/ports.

equalunique• 7 years ago

I was involved in discussions and part of the decision loop. Then a very big and leading mobile phone maker asked for it, even designed most part with a leading connector maker. USB IF eventually bite the bullet and accepted. Probably 2B+ of these connectors are shipped to date.

Frank's answer, given in 2011, seemed most interesting to me. Scroll a little further and he names Nokia as the driving force.

Glyptodon• 7 years ago

My phones' micro-b ports pretty much become worn out in 1 year 10 months +/- every time. I hate to imagine how much worse it'd be.

shereadsthenews2• 7 years ago

Can we have a roundup of worst-ever computer connectors? I'll open with the stupefyingly bad SCSI VHDCI connector, which was a teensy little thing with a couple of tiny screws usually attached to a gigantic cable that weighed at least a kilogram. These things never worked right without extra mechanical supports.

tyingq3• 7 years ago

Ethernet "thicknet" AUI has to be the worst. Aside from being difficult to insert, it had a shit flimsy metal slider to hold it in place. I fixed a countless number of tickets of disconnected AUI connections in my career.

10BASE2/thinnet and coax/BNC was a godsend when it arrived. Mercifully followed by the current RG45 cables.

It's at least encouraging that the powers-that-be improved it over time.

Somewhat off, though, because the more complicated VGA connections, at the time, had almost zero issues. So we knew and understood the problem space, and just ignored the right solution.

shereadsthenews2• 7 years ago

The clip was bad, but some equipment came with screws instead. I wonder what the deal was with the clip. It certainly wasn't the only connector with clips. There was some SCSI generations with spring clips and the later, smaller VESA DFP had them.

sleavey• 7 years ago

Or the best connectors? Shout out to LEMO 0B. Love those things. They recently launched connectors with cool LED halos as well [1] - totally useless mechanically, but looks awesome.

[1] https://www.lemo.com/en/products/new-connectors/halo-led-con...

martyvis2• 7 years ago

My new HP laptop has an RJ45 Ethernet socket where the key side is spring and hinged. It's basically to allow the laptop to be slimmer. I'm a network engineer so often have a need to connect to random patch cables. Half of the plugs don't readily come out when depressing their tongue and i have had to coax them out with a improvised tool.

eemil• 7 years ago

To a degree, I can forgive the use of slim ethernet ports. Now that dual-band wifi and widely compatible (USB-C) docking stations are common, it's not essential to have one at all, for the majority of users

tyingq3• 7 years ago

"had to coax them out"

I see what you did there...

RenRav• 7 years ago

A lot of my old devices have mini connectors, they work, as does micro. I think when the original iphone was released they just wanted something thinner, anticipating future thin smart phones.

donatj• 7 years ago

I've heard this many times. I have never had a mini USB plug or cable fail. I've had a couple micros fail on me in cheap devices.

The future I fear is far worse, my current phone, OnePlus 5t has the second failed USB-C port, my previous being a Google Pixel. USB-C cables connections in my experience become weak after maybe 50-100 uses.

I never had a single problem with a long line of micro phones.

shaklee3• 7 years ago

I've had a Nexus 6p going on 4 years. Used the same cable the whole time. Maybe you're using cheap cables?

meuk• 7 years ago

Broken mini USB connectors are a pet peeve of mine. I literaly threw away my last three phones for the single reason the mini USB port wouldn't hold on to any cable anymore.

This doesn't bother most other people, but I like to use my phone for longer than 2-3 years. I really don't see the point in buying a marginally faster phone every other year. It's wasteful for the environment and costs a lot of money.

icebraining• 7 years ago

Mini or micro? I don't remember phones with mini-USB ports.

Nextgrid• 7 years ago

Some early Windows Mobile-powered HTC devices did.

Lutzb• 7 years ago

My original Motorola Razr had a mini USB port.

duskwuff3• 7 years ago

Micro-USB was only introduced in 2007, and was uncommon before 2010 or so. Before it was available, most phones either used mini-USB or proprietary connectors.

deniska• 7 years ago

HTC Hero and many other phones from that era had a mini-USB port.

bentpins• 7 years ago

A fair amount of phones the charging port as a modular component or on a replaceable charging board. Makes fixing this issue cheap/easy

duskwuff3• 7 years ago

Are you sure that's the connector you mean? Most phones started using micro-USB around 2010.

peteri• 7 years ago

I've found that often it's pocket fluff at the bottom of the connector on phones. I've used a needle (something made of plastic would be better) to get rid of it and the connector then can hold the cable in place.

agapon• 7 years ago

Oh, wow! Thank you so much. I was about to take my phone for repairs because of what I thought to be a flaky micro-USB port.

dwighttk• 7 years ago

you had 3 mini USB phones?

Can_Not• 7 years ago

I'm not sure how you would use them for 2-3 years even if the charger was still good, my phones' batteries have always become too low capacity and unpredictable at the one year mark and I don't see replaceable batteries anymore.

gowld2• 7 years ago

A lot of words to say the obvious answer: micro is smaller, and phones are thinner now.

0b0001• 7 years ago

How likely is it to accidentally rip off the inner part of sockets?

It happens, I know that from personal experience. But how does compare with the wear during normal use?

Type C and Lightning nearly look like plug & socket components. I understand type C moved the springs to the plug. But how often do people rip out the socket?

RandomGuyDTB• 7 years ago

Mini's still on my TI-84+ and I can only speak anecdotally but I've never had a single cable die or have a socket go loose. I plugged and unplugged it probably ten times a day last year for six months so I could work on making my first calculator game.

I go through a micro-USB cable once a month. I buy them in bulk. I hate the standard with a passion. I don't like thin devices- if they could make thicker phones that have mini I'd buy them instead.

rightbyte• 7 years ago

Micro sockets get full with dust too and are really hard to clean. My last two phones usb sockets died on me.

I got this feeling the mini is more robust. It got way better metal support for the plug.

Edit: Couldnt remember which is which.

bni• 7 years ago

So in the time frame that Apple has switched connector once for the iPhone, there has been at least 3 versions of small USB connectors (Not counting the larger types here that are at least 2).

Usually Apple is the one scolded "for switching connectors every few years to suck out more money" How come?

Why Was Mini USB Deprecated in Favor of Micro USB?

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