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Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

electronics.stackexchange.com

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Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#11

Post by ivix »

mistercow wrote: post #4

I only ever had one mini USB cord go bad, and that was a minor pain. But I have had the micro USB port on a cell phone become unreliable, which is insanely frustrating. The post holding the contacts no longer wants to push them against the cord, so it frequently loses the connection. I can solve the problem temporarily by pushing the post back with a small screw driver, but "temporarily" here is measured in minutes o…

Same here. Also I find it much more difficult to insert the micro plugs. I'd like to know the real reason for the change.

After all, RJ45 plus are notoriously bad, but no one has ever changed them in decades.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#12

Post by seanmcdirmid »

msoad wrote: post #7
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's port, which doesn't have an up/down direction, is much easier to plug in than the micro USB port, which does. It is an innovation, like it or not, that USB doesn't have.

Although Lightning Cable is not the first to be bidirectional I am mad at Apple for not making Lightning an open standard.

I'm sure they are doing this to preserve their patents, what is the point of an open standard if no one is allowed to use it?

I would really love to see a magnetic bi-directional cable eventually for phones/tablets. The Surface one is OK, but it doesn't snap as nicely as I think it could.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#13

Post by keeperofdakeys »

msoad wrote: post #7
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's port, which doesn't have an up/down direction, is much easier to plug in than the micro USB port, which does. It is an innovation, like it or not, that USB doesn't have.

Although Lightning Cable is not the first to be bidirectional I am mad at Apple for not making Lightning an open standard.

Lightning has one specific feature that allows it to easily be bidirectional. The pinout can be changed via software, to adapt to any occasion, and essentially manufacture a new plug with a firmware update. This means orientation doesn't matter (without duplicating pins). This is a bit harder with USB, which has specific purposes for each pin.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#14

Post by lucian1900 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #6
simias wrote: post #2

This is a great answer, but IIRC there's an other reason to prefer micro over mini: the moving parts in the micro-USB connection are in the male plug, not the female one like the mini. Since those parts tend to break easily, it's cheaper to replace the cable rather than the smartphone/device having the female port. That being said I'm still a bit mad at Apple for ditching their old large port, only to replace it with…

Apple's port, which doesn't have an up/down direction, is much easier to plug in than the micro USB port, which does. It is an innovation, like it or not, that USB doesn't have.

But it's yet another proprietary connector. We've really had enough of those.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#15

Post by seanmcdirmid »

lucian1900 wrote: post #14
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's port, which doesn't have an up/down direction, is much easier to plug in than the micro USB port, which does. It is an innovation, like it or not, that USB doesn't have.

But it's yet another proprietary connector. We've really had enough of those.

Yes, let's just limit ourselves to standardized connectors, innovations sucks and we are tired of change. Now please get off my lawn. /sarcasm

Just let the free market decide things like this, it is extremely efficient at that. Right now, Apple still sells loads of iPhones without using a standard connector. And frankly, I think my wife's iPhone 5 plugs in a much better way than my more standard Nokia 925 does.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#17

Post by ars »

keeperofdakeys wrote: post #13
msoad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although Lightning Cable is not the first to be bidirectional I am mad at Apple for not making Lightning an open standard.

Lightning has one specific feature that allows it to easily be bidirectional. The pinout can be changed via software, to adapt to any occasion, and essentially manufacture a new plug with a firmware update. This means orientation doesn't matter (without duplicating pins). This is a bit harder with USB, which has specific purposes for each pin.

It's not that hard to simply swap all the pins in hardware if the connector is reversed. You don't need to able to reassign every single pin to make that possible.

Lightning is overdesigned which makes it expensive.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#18

Post by bashou »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #12
msoad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although Lightning Cable is not the first to be bidirectional I am mad at Apple for not making Lightning an open standard.

I'm sure they are doing this to preserve their patents, what is the point of an open standard if no one is allowed to use it? I would really love to see a magnetic bi-directional cable eventually for phones/tablets. The Surface one is OK, but it doesn't snap as nicely as I think it could.

Then it's not an open one.

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#19

Post by bryanlarsen »

I thought that another big advantage of micro USB over mini USB was that it's a lot easier to combine type A & B. The difference between A & B is most obvious in a full size USB cable. The "A" plug is the flat side that goes into your computer, and the "B" plug is the square one that goes into your device.

The differentiation made a lot of sense when USB was exclusively master-slave. However, the addition of the on-the-go standard (OTG) means that things like a cell phone can function as either a master or a slave. Thus the connector on your cell phone is likely a micro-AB connector that can accept either a type-A or type-B plug so you can connect your cell phone to both computers & storage devices without requiring two different ports.

However, a double check before posting indicates that a mini-AB standard does exist. So that's not the reason. I'll post anyways because I think it's useful information on its own...

Re: Why was Mini USB deprecated in favor of Micro USB?

#20

Post by sspiff »

mistercow wrote: post #4

I only ever had one mini USB cord go bad, and that was a minor pain. But I have had the micro USB port on a cell phone become unreliable, which is insanely frustrating. The post holding the contacts no longer wants to push them against the cord, so it frequently loses the connection. I can solve the problem temporarily by pushing the post back with a small screw driver, but "temporarily" here is measured in minutes o…

Exactly the same experience here, except that I never had a mini-USB failure. After roughly 6 months of use, the USB receptacle of my LG smartphone was just not holding on to any cable anymore. I sent it back to LG, and they replaced the part containing the mirco-USB port.

On an unrelated note: LG noticed that I was running a custom ROM but didn't make any problem of it, while technically they can claim that such an action voids my warranty.

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