It’s a similar story on laptops, where USB-C is getting much of the love these days, rather than the regular USB ports that have been on the machines for years. It is important to note that while a USB-C cable is backwards compatible with the other varieties of USB, the different connecting form factor means you will need a dongle or adapter to plug it into one of those ports. For now, smartphone penetration for USB-C is around 50 percent, according to the London global research firm Omdia.

But the latest top-tier Android phones have mostly migrated to USB-C, though the same can't be said about lower-cost handsets, a situation that should change as the cost of USB-C falls. Many Android phones, even those just a few years old, have so-called mini-USB or micro-USB cables and ports, and while both are also smaller than regular USB, they are different from each other. This cord-connector conundrum afflicts Android, as well. Then again, on some recent tablets, Apple ditched Lightning for USB-C, meaning that one end of the cable goes into the USB-C port and the other into the USB-C power adapter, which is still supplied. If you have an iPad, it may have a Lightning port. USB-A is better known without the “A” suffix it’s just USB or regular USB to the average person. And USB-C is smaller and not to be confused with the familiar rectangular USB-A port that may be on your older power adapter, meaning the cord in the box won’t fit that adapter. The increasingly popular slim, oval-shaped USB Type-C connector is popping up on all kinds of devices. Apple supplies a Lightning-to-USB-C cable with the latest iPhones. If you have an iPhone, the answer could be yes, since the phones still employ Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector, which has been a staple on the company’s handsets since the iPhone 5 was released in 2012 (that’s when Apple replaced the 30-pin dock connector that had been on prior models).īut the answer can also be no. The short answer is maybe, and it depends on the device.

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