USB Type-C (USB-C), which many of us love because it can be connected from both sides without any problems, has been made mandatory for all electronic devices by the European Union in the past months. The European Union, which has approved a uniform entry in electronic devices such as smartphones, has approved Type-C, which provides both fast charging and file and image transfer for this standard. Type-C, which has been on almost all Android devices in recent years, will begin to appear on iPhones with this decision. So, do we know the history of Type-C devices? Why did the European Union approve USB Type-C instead of a different cable connection?
Today we will talk about where Type-Cs came from. This type of connection, which is a symbol of “quality” in phones, computers, wireless headphones and many other technological devices, is far ahead of its previous alternatives both in terms of design and the features it offers. Let’s take a closer look at what processes it went through while developing Type-C, which enables fast charging, especially in smartphones, and who supported this technology.
Let’s look at the brief history of Type-C.
The USB connector first came to PC in 1996 with the USB Type-A connector. We still continue to use these connectors as USB ports on our computer. Of course, their strength increased over time. When we came to the year 2000, the Micro USB port came along with USB 2.0. Micro USB ports were used as standard until the era of Type-C began in 2014. All of the USB Type A, B, Micro and Mini ports that came out in this process had the same basic internal connections. At this point only the ports were changing. The revolution at this point took place in 2014 with Type-C. You can remember it in old smartphones. There is a front side of the cable required to charge the phone. This front face usually does not hold and used to bother us. Here, Type-C, which has removed this effort from our lives, has become the standard over time. Announced by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) in 2014, Type-C appeared as a 24-pin symmetrical USB connector system. The “C” expression in Type-C, which triples the 8 connectors in USB 3.0, was given in reference to the physical form of the connector.
What are the USB Type-C features and little-known benefits?
USB Type-C is a port that offers charging while transferring data. USB Type-C; It is designed to support data transfer up to 10 Gbit/s, the same as USB 3.2 Gen 2. This is 20 times faster than the 480 Mbit/s data rate of USB 2.0 still found in our computers. Although the theoretical speeds do not exactly match the reality, it is something we have tested in daily life that USB Type-C can transfer both data and images quickly and securely.
Another reason why USB Type-C is so popular in smartphones and devices is its charging capacity. The Type-C port, which offers charging up to 100 W since its first release, paved the way for the rapid charging technology in phones to develop so much. Today, USB Type-C Gen 2.1 cables can offer up to 240W charging. With USB Type-C Gen 2.1, data speeds are also much higher. These next-generation cables support data transfer rates of 40Gbps (4.8GB/s). This speed means that it can transfer 1.5 hours of 4K video in 2 seconds in theory.
Another factor that helps us to understand more clearly why the European Union standardized this cable is that it is backward compatible. In other words, you can convert your old type cables to Type-C with various converters. Although this will reduce the power of the cable, we can say that it can save you in difficult situations. Now we will give you a list of lesser known benefits of Type-C.
The unknown benefits of Type-C
- Offering high-speed charging (with USB Type-C Gen 2.1 charging up to 240 W.)
- High-speed file transfer (with USB Type-C Gen 2.1, it offers 40 Gb/s data transfer rates.)
- Elimination of direction requirement as it can be connected from both sides.
- The 24-pin structure is much more robust than previous ports.
- Compared to other ports, it is much newer and compatible with today’s technologies.
- It offers much better sound quality than 3.5 mm jack inputs, thanks to much stronger data transfer rates.
Who paved the way for USB Type-C technology?
First born in Intel’s laboratory and shaped by negotiations between companies such as AMD, HP and Microsoft, USB Type-C was an alternative that smartphones could not find. Some companies producing Android devices started to release their Type-C devices, but the limited number of products released by these companies was not enough for a new technology to become a standard. The biggest step in this technology was taken by Samsung. Samsung, which holds a large part of the market, switched to the Type-C port with the Galaxy Note 7.
While doing this, the company did not forget about the old technology microUSB and sent a converter for them. Samsung started to pave the way for Type-C completely with the Galaxy A8 and A8 +, which it released in 2018. Backed by the power of Samsung, Type-C began to be used in almost all Android smartphones over time.
Apple will also return to Type-C in Europe.
With the decision taken by the European Union, Apple will use the Type-C port on their iPhone and iPad from now on. Apple, which previously used the Lightning port on iPhones and iPads, will have to convert them to Type-C if it wants to sell in the European Union.
Today we talked about the history and technology of USB Type-C. So how did you find our content? If you want more content like this, let’s meet in the comments section.
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