The big switch to USB-C has, in general, been quite a success. Of course, there are still some kinks that should be worked on, such as the confusing sub-standards that the connection can carry, but overall, it massively simplified what plugs we use to charge and transfer data from electronics.

Before the time of USB-C, though, things were not that simple. You can still easily remember the confusion of tens of different proprietary charging cables that everyone had to keep in order to charge their electronics. And just before USB-C came, one of the worst connection standards came to light: Micro-USB. What’s even worse, even more than 10 years after the introduction of USB-C, the predecessor is still here to make your day a little bit more irritating.

What is the USB-C connector?

The dream of a universal connection

USB-C was introduced in 2014, and the goal of the connector was, ultimately, a great one: make a connection standard that will be universal for most uses. What’s more, it was supposed to be much easier to use, with better reliability than previous standards, more things it could do, and to top it all off, it was also reversible.

And it really took off. In 2015, Apple came swinging with its big turn towards USB-C, with its new 12″ MacBook coming with only a USB-C connection. It started the trend with all Apple’s laptops, where only USB-C became available. Other manufacturers followed, and it finally culminated in the European Union mandating USB-C as the standard connection for portable electronics sold in the EU, essentially codifying it as the go-to port back in 2024.

The wild west of connectors

The chaos of times past

Of course, USB-C is not perfect, and it comes with its own set of problems. Its confusing standards are very unclear, and there are various hidden limitations that you have to go through to pick the right cable to use, but things are still infinitely better than they used to.

BHack in the day, every company just made its own connector. You had various barrel plugs, proprietary connectors from Apple or Sony Eriksson, and other projects. Later on, things got a little better with more widely adopted standards, such as Apple’s Lightning port. This is also the time when most other manufacturers, of both phones and different electronics, chose micro-USB as their data and charging port.

This was a blessing and a curse. Micro-USB (or, to be more technically accurate, USB micro-B) was much better than what we had before. One cable for (most) of your electronics was much more convenient, but it was also extremely finicky and fragile. Even worse, what broke mostly was not the cable, but the port on the device itself. This meant that, at some point (rather sooner than later), your device was in danger of being inoperable due to it being unable to charge anymore.

We’re still finding fossils in 2026

But please, let me just forget

As I’ve mentioned before, the full-scale transition to USB-C began in 2015. Unfortunately, it’s 2026 now, and we’re almost into 2027, and I still find myself reaching for a micro-USB cable at least once a week. So how come it’s still so widespread that, more than a decade after USB-C was introduced, you can still come by a huge number of devices with the older port?

Well, the answer, as usual, is money. Up until 2024, when the European Union mandated USB-C in new portable electronics sold in the EU, it was still much cheaper and more economical to manufacture products with micro-USB, especially when they didn’t require that much power. This connector is much cheaper to manufacture and implement because of its low power requirements and uncomplicated design.

As you can see, while using micro-USB in smartphones fizzled out rather quickly after USB-C was introduced, the fact that it remained in more budget-oriented electronics is rather understandable. In a budget-oriented device, saving even a fraction of a cent when manufacturing it is often required, so picking a much cheaper, albeit inferior, charging option is an understandable choice.

Unfortunately, even though the decision might make sense for the accountants, it still makes users’ lives a bit more irritating. And unfortunately, at least in my case, the micro-USB plugs that remain are connected to things you don’t really want to swap out quickly: a small portable speaker, my old Kindle, or a pair of wireless headphones. It just looks like I’ll be stuck with micro-USB for a while more.

Can you get rid of micro-USB?

Yes, but you might also not want to

Convenience today is more important than ever, especially when it comes to electronics. That’s why places where something is not streamlined, such as the case with micro-USB charging, are sticking out so badly. That’s also why you might want to get rid of all these micro-USB devices and swap them out for something with the same, universal plug. Honestly though, it might not be worth it at all.

As I’ve mentioned, most of my remaining micro-USB devices are ones that last quite a few years. So, tallying things up quickly, I have a portable speaker, a sonic toothbrush, a pair of headphones, and probably some more knickknacks that I sparingly use. Ultimately, charging some of them with an old, unwieldy port is worth not having to swap them for a newer thing. You don’t have to be a part of producing yet another electronic device, simply using the one you have, and that still works — just with an annoying cable.

You can also deal with it another way. There are various 3-in-1 cables that combine USB-C, lighting and micro-USB, making it more convenient to carry one around, but they have charging speed limitations. You can also use your normal USB-C charger, but get yourself a micro-USB to USB-C dongle. That way, you’re not losing out on charging speed for your other devices, and you can still use the same charger for everything — just connect the micro-USB dongle to your micro-USB devices when required.