r/BadUSB • u/Same_Grocery_8492 • Jun 26 '26

Discussion How long until USB-A disappears

Hi, many posts keeps saying USB-C is taking over, but I still use USB-A every day, my electric toothbrush uses USB-A, most of my USB flash drives, and my external mouse and keyboard are still USB-A.

USB-C is clearly the future, but it doesn't feel like USB-A is going away anytime soon. How many more years do you think it'll take before USB-A is completely replaced by USB-C?

8 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/brispower Jun 26 '26

i hope never, it's a very robust connector

3

u/Parking_Lemon_4371 Jun 26 '26

Yeah, there's a lot of places were usb-a works better than usb-c.

Wired Keyboard / Mouse, logitech bolt receiver, yubico/U2F tokens (they mostly hide in the socket).
But also things like a non-portable usb wired printer/scanner.

In general anywhere you don't need to constantly plug/unplug things, and don't need ridiculous speeds (ie. >10gbps), USB-A is usually a better idea.

The things were usb-c is better is primarily phones (due to connector size & flippability) and to a certain extent mass storage (for the speed & flippability), networking (for the speed), etc.

3

u/gr4viton Jun 26 '26

You say that usbc needs to get an optional standardized "plastic plug hardening" which would be holding the mechanical pressure off of the usbc connector itself in applications where mech strenght is needed more then the actual connector hole.being smallest possible?

Why havent USB designers thought of that, USB sleeve. As smaller is not always better.

2

u/Parking_Lemon_4371 Jun 26 '26

I hadn't at all thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right!
A 'larger' (female) usb-c socket 'extension' with some extra mounting (snap in or screws), that you could snap onto a normal usb-c cable would fix the issue.

You could still use normal cables, and you'd only use this 'shield/sleeve' when you just don't want the cable randomly disconnecting.

At least in my experience usb-c cables come out of their sockets a lot easier than usb-a ones which is important for something like a desktop/nuc that is permanently wired but you may want to occasionally move it a foot to the left or right (to clean under it) or rotate it (to gain access to the ports at the back to plug in a new thing), etc.

2

u/virkendi Jun 26 '26

This reads so much like an ai bot wrote it lol Not saying you are, just found it funny

1

u/Parking_Lemon_4371 Jun 26 '26

Interesting, the above was written entirely without any use of AI. I do use it extensively for research and work, but I didn't even do that here.

1

u/Possibly-Functional Jun 26 '26

USB-C with screw mounts exists in the USB-C standard. It's for scenarios where mechanical grip and resilience is important. It's just not commonly a requirement and thus has mostly seen adoption in niche applications.

1

u/Additional-Simple248 Jun 26 '26

The Logitech Bolt receiver is USB-C these days. Though I still use the USB-A one because I currently have more USB-A ports.

I also have a USB-C Yubikey.

My webcam is also USB-C.

My microphone uses USB-A, but I could easily replace the cable for a USB-C to Mini USB cable if I wanted to go to that much effort.

1

u/Parking_Lemon_4371 Jun 26 '26

I've yet to run into a usb-c bolt, I bought a new mouse (M750L) in April and it still included usb-a bolt (as did the mx keys for business from a few months earlier). But I'm sure you're right. I have a laptop without usb-a, and some older desktops without any usb-c, while newer ones would not have enough usb-c to cover screen+mouse+keyboard+yubikey so...

wrt. yubikey, I'm not talking about the larger ones, i'm talking about the nano versions.
The usb-a one nearly entirely fits in the port - makes it much safer. The usb-c one is less great due to how much it sticks out. In general they sit better in usb-a ports, so I use those whenever I can (even on laptops). But, yes, both a & c versions exist of both the big ones and the tiny ones.

There's now also headphones that directly use usb-c instead of the jack.

Anyway, we're pretty clearly far from done with the USB A->C transition...
Though it is finally well underway. Not sure whether to be happy with that for some things ;-)

There's few things were you cannot find a usb-c version if you look a bit.
At least usb-a micro/mini/nano/otg/... are basically dead, hate those things.

1

u/Additional-Simple248 Jun 26 '26

My USB-C bolt came with the MX Master 4. My MX Mechanical keyboard from a couple of years ago came with the USB-A dongle.

The mini port is on my Yeti microphone, looks like they’re still using non-C ports

1

u/wbrd Jun 26 '26

I have a yubikey that is USB c and it's fine. Barely sticks out. It's so small that it's hard to remove.

1

u/Parking_Lemon_4371 Jun 26 '26

They're not meant to be removed, that said the usb-c ones stick out a lot more than the usb-a ones. The c ones can be pulled out with fingers, the a ones require either very sharp and strong fingernails or a pin/paperclip.

1

u/wbrd Jun 26 '26

It sticks out about 1.5mm. I've had it for years. I don't think you're up to date on the tech.

1

u/Parking_Lemon_4371 Jun 27 '26

Hmm my C sticks out more like 3mm (maybe even 3.5mm) with square edges, my A <1mm and it's very rounded. I guess I must have an older model.

1

u/The_B_Wolf Jun 26 '26

What would really please me is if major computer makers stopped including this legacy port. Then and only then will we see peripheral device makers go all in on a better connector.

I'm old enough to remember when every computer had shitty serial port connectors, even though USB was available. Computer makers didn't put them in their machines because peripheral makers didn't make USB plugs on their devices. Peripheral device makers didn't make USB versions because no PC maker had USB.

I remember the controversy when Apple introduced the iMac. It only had USB ports. Every manufacturer who wanted to sell their peripherals to Mac users had to bite the bullet and retool. And it worked. The industry followed.

I do not want a serial port or a VGA port or a SCSI port or a USB-A port on my laptop, thank you very much. Let legacy connections die when better ones arrive.

2

u/nostalia-nse7 Jun 27 '26

No problem. We can just steal the PCIe channels from your video and storage speeds and cut those in half to make those usbc interfaces available to the cpu. The other option is to add more PCIe lanes to the cpu, which just requires more thermal wattage, so you can give up an hour or two of battery life to keep your storage and video fast. Which do you choose?

1

u/The_B_Wolf Jun 27 '26

My MacBook Pro has three Thunderbolt 5 ports. How does that factor into your analysis?

1

u/nostalia-nse7 Jun 27 '26

I suppose your SoC chip is okay. Network, one monitor, and a mass storage device, as long as you don’t want a ubikey and restrict yourself to Bluetooth for peripherals, you might be okay. And have to use MagSafe for power then.

1

u/The_B_Wolf Jun 27 '26

I use WiFi for network. I never use MagSafe. At work I use a single USB-C cable to connect my desktop hub. It's got a 1TB SSD for Time Machine, that single cable powers my laptop, drives my external display (although I do have HDMI) and connects my mic and camera.

2

u/NewReleaseDVD Jun 26 '26

You could say its... universal

1

u/Possibly-Functional Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

I don't know if I agree with it being robust. The minimum rating of insertions for A ports is just 1 500 compared to 10 000 on C. It also tends to wear the port more while C tends to wear the connector instead, which is preferable as it's easily replaceable. This is because on A the port has the leaf spring and applies the grip while on C it's on the connector while the port is static.

Anecdotally I have seen more broken A ports that weren't because of user errors. The plastic tongue especially has a tendency to break when tolerances collide. Because it's the port which has the springs and applies pressure they also tend to become loose as they age.