A mobile phone is ubiquitous in the current society and its impossible to imagine a life without one. With newer models coming into the market every few months, we all think of upgrading our current versions. Apart from analysing the technical specs and features, it’s important to think about the phone charger types as well. What if you end up with a phone that is not compatible with other chargers?
Inorder to make a decision, you must first understand the different types of chargers available in the market! This way, you don’t have to end up hoarding on multiple charger wires at home or office!
7 Different Types of Cell Phone Charging Cables and Pins:
Let us now look into the differences between the many types of cell phone charger cords available in the market:
1. USB-Type A Charger:
USB-Type A chargers have male connectors that connect to the female Type-A ports present on a host device like computers or laptops. Typically, these cable cords have a rectangular shape with the bottom part comprising of the pin connectors. On the recipient side, any device like mobile phone, power bank, ipod etc. can be connected using different charger ends like Type B or C. Type A chargers are quite rigid and can only accommodate the specific ports which are now becoming obsolete in modern host devices.
2. USB- Type B Charger:
USB Type B connectors fit into the female Type B ports present on large peripheral devices like printers, scanners and external storage devices. They have a characteristic square shape with sloped corners on the top. The other end ofType B connectors come with either Type A or C connectors to connect to an external device like computers. The idea behind the development of Type B connectors is to prevent the risk of connecting two host computers to each other instead of a peripheral device. Type B ports are slowly vanishing from the commercial market and giving way to newer types of USB Chargers
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3. USB- Type C Charger:
USB- Type C Chargers are relatively new entries to the world of charger ports. Within just few years, they are the best alternatives to most conventional charger ports like A or B. The key benefit of these connectors is the reversible option. You can plug the connector into the port in any direction to get a good fit. Also, USB-C are quite powerful in terms of connectivity, faster data transfer and speed charging of other devices connected at the end of the ports. Many brands like Samsung, Nexus etc. are making Type-C as their default phone charger types.
4. Mini-USB Charger:
Mini-USB Chargers have officially disappeared from the electronics scene now! But during the times of digital cameras, these chargers were game changers in the way devices were charged. As the name suggests, Mini-USB chargers are much smaller and thicker compared to other kinds of phone chargers. On one end of this charger cable is a standard flat end USB and on the other end you can find a smaller version of either Type-A, B or C Chargers. The main drawback is that these chargers are not on-the-go compliant, meaning they cannot support the switching between the roles of host and device.
5. Micro-USB Charger:
Micro-USB Chargers are one of the most widely sold types of chargers in the world. Infact, brands like Samsung and LG have pretty much made these as their standard mobile phone chargers globally. There are many ways in which Micro-USB chargers are superior to Mini-USBs. These chargers are physically smaller in size to Mini USBs and are OTG (On-the-Go) Compliant. Also, they support a high data transfer of 480 MBPS! There are two subtypes of these USB chargers – Type A and Type B, although the latter is more common.
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6. USB 3.0 Charger:
USB 3.0 is the latest innovation in the mobile industry, which is also called Superspeed USB. Compared to USB 2.0, USB 3.0 offers a high data transfer of upto 625 MB/s and a fast-charging of upto 900 mA, making it the fastest in the market so far. You can identify a 3.0 from a 2.0 using the blue color on the receptors. Today, we have USB 3.1, called Superspeed+ and USB 3.2 Chargers which combine superspeed and superspeed+ to give extremely high data transfer rates of 2500 Mbits/S. These chargers again have subtypes like USB 3.0 Type A, B or C, of which the 18W Fast Charger USB- TypeC is quite popular.
7. Lightning Charger:
The Lightning phone charger chord is wholly owned and designed by Apple Inc. Lightning Connectors have replaced the original 30 pin dock connectors which came with I phone 4 or Iphone 3. Instead of 30, Lightning chords come with just 8 pins and can be inserted into the female port in any direction. All latest models of Apple, including iPhone 12 and Iphone 12 Max, come with Lightning chargers. In 2018, Apple announced that it would replace all its lightning connectors with USB-Type C. However, we don’t see that happening anytime soon!
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Those are some of the best types of mobile phone chargers available in the market today. Before you upgrade your phone, make sure to check the charger type to see its compatibility with existing devices in the house. Else, you will end up with bundles of chargers, leading to chaos and confusion!
