The EU common charger : USB-C

cross-posted from: jlai.lu/post/3226934

https://jlai.lu/pictrs/image/30d0a9c2-bf46-49a9-84b7-9fc92fac469e.jpeg

The wait is finally over. From 2024, USB-C will be the common standard for electronic devices in the EU – and we have already seen the impact !

It means

  • 🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras
  • ⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology
  • 🔄Reduced e-waste

One charger to rule them all.

Now, a reality.

Learn more about the here: europa.eu/

Unbundling the sale of a charger from the sale of the electronic device .

The ‘common charging’ requirements will apply to all handheld mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, portable speakers, handheld videogame consoles, e-readers, earbuds, keyboards, mice, and portable navigation systems as of 2024. These requirements will also apply to laptops as of 2026. Such transition periods will give industry sufficient time to adapt before the entry into application.

Consumers will be able to purchase a new electronic device without a new charger. This will limit the number of chargers on the market or left unused. Reducing production and disposal of new chargers is estimated to reduce the amount of electronic waste by 980 tonnes yearly

Producers will need to provide relevant visual and written information about charging characteristics, including information on the power the device requires and whether it supports fast charging. This will help consumers understand if their existing chargers meet their new device’s requirements and/or help them select a compatible charger. Combined with the other measures, this will help consumers to limit the number of new chargers purchased and save at least €250 million a year on unnecessary charger purchases.

L’attente est finalement terminée. À partir de 2024, l’USB-C deviendra la norme commune pour les appareils électroniques dans l’UE – et nous avons déjà vu son impact !

Cela signifie

  • 🔌Le même chargeur pour tous les téléphones, tablettes et appareils photo
  • ⚡ Technologie de charge rapide harmonisée
  • 🔄Réduction des déchets électroniques

Un chargeur pour les gouverner tous. Maintenant, une réalité. Pour en savoir plus sur le , cliquez ici : europa.eu/

Les exigences de « charge commune » s’appliqueront à tous les téléphones mobiles portables, tablettes, appareils photo numériques, écouteurs, casques, haut-parleurs portables, consoles de jeux vidéo portables, liseuses électroniques, écouteurs, claviers, souris et systèmes de navigation portables à partir de 2024. Ces exigences s’appliquera également aux ordinateurs portables à partir de 2026. De telles périodes de transition donneront à l’industrie suffisamment de temps pour s’adapter avant l’entrée en application.

Les consommateurs pourront acheter un nouvel appareil électronique sans nouveau chargeur. Cela limitera le nombre de chargeurs sur le marché ou inutilisés. On estime que la réduction de la production et de l’élimination des nouveaux chargeurs permettrait de réduire la quantité de déchets électroniques de 980 tonnes par an.

Les producteurs devront fournir des informations visuelles et écrites pertinentes sur les caractéristiques de charge, y compris des informations sur la puissance requise par l’appareil et s’il prend en charge une charge rapide. Cela aidera les consommateurs à comprendre si leurs chargeurs existants répondent aux exigences de leur nouvel appareil et/ou les aidera à sélectionner un chargeur compatible. Combinée aux autres mesures, cette mesure aidera les consommateurs à limiter le nombre de nouveaux chargeurs achetés et à économiser au moins 250 millions d’euros par an sur les achats inutiles de chargeurs

samokosik,

Now it’s time to make batteries user replaceable ;)

hatsa122,

One charger to rule them all

billwashere,

It sure seems like the EU has their shit together on more stuff than we do. We can only break shit that was already fixed because reasons. I know the EU is not perfect but they sure seem to get stuff right more often than not. At least Apple won’t go through the trouble of making two iPhones for no reason other than to just be an asshole.

chitak166,

The EU cares about consumer protection because most of the big companies in a position to fuck over customers are based in the US.

It’s why Americans don’t care about consumer protection. They believe exploitation is okay as long as it’s by another American.

Lifter,

I think Americans have bigger issues to deal with than chargers or net neutrality (e.g. playing world police, or starving children, abortion laws). Thankfully the EU can step up.

coin,

Who’s “we”?

qwertychomp,

America, I’m assuming

billwashere,

Yes I’m a yank.

fne8w2ah,

Brussels effect at work!

Resol,
@Resol@lemmy.world avatar

It’s probably the closest thing we have to the perfect port for every utility ever, even with its problems.

recarsion,

This is great news, the only thing I’m wondering is what happens when USB-C becomes obsolete… or if it will ever be improved upon now that there’s a huge legal hurdle.

v81,

So what is the standard fast charging solution they’ve choosen?

The site doesn’t say.

Are we going to see USB-PD in more phones now?

I’d love to see all the different manufacturers standards bugger off.

riodoro1,

Ive seen USB C accessories work in one socket and not in another and it pisses me off way too much. If anyone can decide on what is the protocol the connector is hardly universal. Making sure a particular charger will be 100% compatible with your accessories involves long research into confusing acronyms and then it doesn’t work when you buy it.

fredrik,

There is a section of useful links on the page. 9 links in total. One of them is a factsheet on proposed common charger.

dynamo,

Let’s hope they do this with the 3,5mm jack too

duffman,

In terms of water proofing, how well does the usb-C port hold up? Water damage is one of the main causes of death for mobile phones. I wanted to see better water proofing overall and wonder if this would be a setback in that regard.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thrilled to have USB c as the standard.

zbyte64,

My pixel phone had a wave of salt water from the ocean get into the USB-C port. The phone detected the moisture and disabled the port until it was clean and dry. The port still works.

Prometheus,

I have Honor Magic 5 Pro, and it is rated IP68. Dudes even submerged it on the launch event. I only had it in use once while it was raining and it’s okay for now.

RisingSwell,

I mean, I would hope literally any phone on the market could survive rain.

Prometheus,

You’d be surprised

v81,

I know waterproof Type C ports exist as electrical components. So the test is up to the manufacturer to correctly implement it.

Ultimately, Type C is no worse an option to other ports.

ShepherdPie,

Probably just fine since every phone comes with a lightning or USB C port already and all have their IP65 ratings

LunchEnjoyer,
@LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world avatar

Wonder when they plan on changing from USB-a to USB-c on airplanes too

MargotRobbie, (edited )
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Since everyone here seems so confused by USB naming schemes, a short primer:

USB 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and USB4 are the major and minor revision number of the standard. You don’t have to worry about it if you are not implementing it yourself.

The Gen number indicates the supported transfer speed, Gen 1 is 5Gbps, Gen 2 is 10, Gen 3 is 20, regardless of the spec revision.

(USB 2.0 is 480mbps)

Dual lane (Gen ?x2) means you take the speed of the Gen number and multiply it by 2.

The only major difference between USB 3 and 4 is that USB4 uses Type C plug only, whereas USB 3 can use a variety of connectors.

All USB-PD compliant cables support up to 100w of power delivery, only cables labeled as EPR (extended power range) supports up to 240w of power.

SnipingNinja,

Isn’t there a change in how USB is represented now? They should now have the max speed and power on the cable/adapter

TheGrandNagus,

What the above user is saying is how it’s listed in specs and technical documents

What you are saying is how the USB IF recommends it be marketed. In theory, yours is the only one the average person should worry about these days

However in the real world it’s an absolute mess of OEMs advertising their ports as being one or the other naming schemes, or neither and just saying “USB”

mikey,

Also, USB4 can optionally support PCIe tunneling, which is a fancy way of saying it supports plugging more advanced types of hardware in (like GPUs, high-speed network cards or NVMe SSDs) at speeds of up to 40Gbps.

And there is USB4 v2 (not kidding, that’s the name) which extends USB4 to up to 80Gbps, but there are no devices that support that yet.

pajn,

Isn’t standard USB C cables only 3A (60W)? And 5A (100W) only if they identify themselves with a built in chip?

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Hence, the “USB-PD compliant” portion, which partly is that tiny controller chip.

You can technically have USB-C to C cables that are not PD compliant, but these are not the cables you want to be buying.

Aceticon,

Also to add to this, the USB-C connector is perfectly compatible with the actual USB data protocol all the way back to the original USB (1.0) in low speed mode (with its mind-dazzling 1.5Mb/s speed) - all the required pins are still there as are the bits of electrical signalling necessary in the original USB protocol.

It’s just that USB-C adds more data lines and other things used in the more modern versions of the USB protocols (including for the newer power protocol - USB-PD, though maintaining backwards compatibility with the old power provision which was controlled via the USB data protocol itself) as well as support for the connector being flippable (works whatever way you plug it in) which is done by basically having the original lines appear twice, one on each side of the connector.

MedievalGamer,

I am a huge fan of USB-C and have been waiting for it to come to the US for years. I hope that it will be here soon and that more companies will adopt it.

LifeInMultipleChoice, (edited )

What are you using that doesn’t have it? Samsung, Apple, Dell, HP now use it on all phones, Tablets, Laptops. Playstation uses them, Vapes as well. I am unsure what XBOX uses, but usually people use a dock so I haven’t looked at the plug.
Not asking as if there isn’t a device out there that doesn’t use it, but I don’t know of any devices I can think of

n2burns,

Small appliance. For example, 6 months ago, I was looking for a new bike front light and finding one that charged by USB type C was difficult. I thought I might replace my rear light too, but all the simple, reasonably priced ones were micro USB, so I gave up.

bamboo,

Honestly I would hold off on purchases for USB-C models of devices that used to sell with micro USB now after getting various things which only work with the USB-A -> USB-C adapters. Seems like manufacturers did the bare minimum and just replaced the socket and plastic hole, without any other changes, so while yes it can charge via a USB-C port, it still requires the USB-A cable because it can’t do any negotiation on charging specs and was designed with the 5V assumption of USB-A power.

n2burns,

For myself, I’m always carrying around a Type A block, so it’s not an issue right now and probably won’t be an issue until the batteries die. I just want to carry around 1 less cable.

TheGrandNagus,

I bought a Logitech wireless mouse last year (and a high end, well-reviewed model, to be clear) and was absolutely astounded to see that it charges by microUSB.

My beard trimmer also wasn’t USB C but in fairness maybe that’s a “we designed this so you can charge it in a wet, steamy bathroom” kinda thing.

eBook readers took ages to finally transition for some reason (faaaaaaar after phones/tablets), but we’re now finally there.

Plenty of laptops still use their crappy barrel plugs

My head torch I bought a few weeks ago was microUSB

I went into Lidl and bought a AA/AAA battery recharger, that was microUSB too

Don’t get me wrong, most stuff is Type-C now, but microUSB and others still rear their ugly heads a fair bit, and it needs to stop.

Fridgeratr,

Huh? It’s been here for years. It’s great

victorz,

reduced e-waste

Well I wish the products would be bloody cheaper as well when there’s no charger in the package, but no…

AntY,

Unpopular opinion: I prefer micro-usb.

stephen01king,

Why?

AntY,

They’re smaller so there is less dirt and stuff that gets in. I also think that I’ve been unlucky with my usb-c devices, since the contact seems to break often.

only0218,

I have yet to see an broken USB c contact

Welt,

A lot of USB receiving end ports break. It’s a problem with the hp laptops at my work. Unless they have another laptop I could use (cloud-based so swapping isn’t a problem, but laptop inventory is), then we have to put into it. It’s not the plug (male end), it’s the port (female end) that fails first, which is much worse.

only0218,

Interesting, in what kind do they fail? It’s sad that the bill didn’t introduce an replacement way.

grayman,

It’s a lot harder to find good cables. The connector wears out fairly quickly. C can be better, but cheapness makes it worse in many cases.

only0218,

That sounds like buying cheap getting cheap. Good USB c cables from ugreen and similar aren’t that expensive in my experience.

grayman,

They all wear. C seems to wear faster and easier. I’m buying the “good” cables. Only stuff with really high reviews (score and count), such as ugreen. The better quality so last a lot longer, but not as long as other formats. I have 10 year old lightning cables. I can’t get more than a couple years out of a C cable.

only0218,

Personally all lightning cables I’ve seen have been damaged in some way. Those weren’t my cables tho. And regarding USB c haven’t had a failure either.

GermainRobitaille,

I wish smartwatches were included too so that I could travel with just one charger and one cable. I guess waterproofing a USB-C port is not that easy though (for the ratings those watches usually have).

cyberpunk007,

What about wireless charging with a USB C wireless charging pad?

brbposting,

Agreed.

Until then:

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/2e572893-62e2-4d15-993d-f54729b512cd.jpeg

Khanzarate,

Yeah. Wireless charging helps some of that, especially if the pad is itself connected through a USB-C cable.

Ideally, in my mind, someday phones themselves will be able to charge wireless devices, so we’ll connect the phone through the USB-C cable and place the watch on top and they’ll both be ready to go in the morning.

towerful,

My phone has reverse wireless charging.
It’s slow and terrible, but does work

Person264,

Some phones can already do that, like wireless powershare (Samsung)

XTornado,

Google phones had and maybe still have it. There was an ad about it of one of their phones charging an iPhone.

Khanzarate,

Yeah mine does, I love it. I just want it to be standard.

goldisgood4u,

it’s definitely looking like it will be standard. the new iPhones do it too.

ShepherdPie,

Your smart watch has a charging port? All mine (going back to the Moto 360) have always been charged wirelessly.

GermainRobitaille,

Actually I wrote smartwatch but I meant GPS watch. I recently bought a Garmin and there’s no wireless charging for it.

d3Xt3r,

I can relate to this. I’ve got a Garmin and I’m traveling currently. The best solution I could find was to get a Garmin - USB-C adapter with a little loop at the end, so I tied it to my existing USB-C cable and can plug in the adapter whenever I need to charge my watch.

unrelatedkeg,

What about little pucks as a compromise?

Or ideally, a single standsrdised one

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