• Mini USB has to be one of the most robust connectors I’ve used tbh. All my original cables from over a decade ago still work flawlessly, as well as the ports on the devices housing them.

    As for Micro USB… not great. I hope USB-C is more durable, so far I haven’t had any issues with ports going bad that wasn’t down to some ultra cheap adapter or cable

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
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      6 months ago

      I’ve had plenty of Mini-USB failures, all of them in the socket. There’s a reason why when Micro-USB was designed, they bumped the required mating cycle rating to twice that of Mini-USB.

      The biggest problem with Micro-USB, is that it got adopted as the standard charging port for smartphones, which proved even the doubled mating cycle rating way insufficient.

      For reference:

      • USB-A, USB-B: 1500 cycles (but they tend to stay put)
      • Mini-USB: 5000 cycles (good for sporadic data transfers, and once or twice a day charging)
      • Micro-USB, USB-C: 10000 cycles (better for daily charging, not so much for many times a day)
      • Magnetic adapter, Wireless: until it burns out, but not so standard.

      If you had problems with Micro-USB, expect about the same to happen with USB-C. Plugging it once a day to charge, should last 30 years; plugging it 10 times a day to “top it up”, will break it after 3 years on average.

      Personally, I’ve put some magnetic adapters in all Micro-USB stuff like 5-6 years ago, and so far only one of the adapters has broken, all sockets are like new.