[lanakaryatna]

I have not device with usb-C so I'm no problem

[Chris Knopff]

I have a Type-C port on my Pixel. Beyond that given time things will start to use Type-C over what most people are familiar with. Such is evolution. There'll probably be a new one out, as well

[anon(5327127)]

There has been a new standard announced by Intel so, even if the Pro did include the port, it would then be old.

I have one usb thumb drive which, at the other end, has a usb 3 port. I grabbed one for the very, very rare moments that I might need it. I don't.

I'm honestly feel that a great big chunk of the population just love to sound cool and jump on the bandwagon! OH MY GOSH it doesn't feature a port that I have no use for! By the time USB C hits the absolute mainstream, just like 4k televisions (still selling the 1080p units) the Surface Pro 7 will be here and a new port released.

Try not to get taken in with the marketing bull (If you can).

[anon(10237065)]

What am I doing without USB-C? I'm having a normal life! - I don't own any device with USB-C, even som fo my new devices and external HDD don't have it.

[sssamjoan]

This was my big question with new laptops (like the MacBook) only having USB-C. None of my devices have USB-C so what is the need exactly? Will there be a move to USB-C as standard soon??

[convergent]

I have nothing that requires or uses USB-C and don't see me needing it any time in the near future.

[Msolok]

Unless you purposely go out of your way to get USB-C devices, most will still be USB-A. Most phones that come with USB-C still come with a cable with USB-A one end and USB-C the other. All mice, keyboards and most other peripherals are USB-A, not USB-C. I honestly think it would have been FAR harder and more expensive to go 1 or 2 USB-C and no USB-A.

Is USB-C the future? Maybe, but who really knows. How long until USB-C is on everything, and all old devices are replaced with USB-C? Much longer than a lot of the doomsayers would have you believe.

Before USB-C can really take off the standards need to be cleared up and streamlined for consumers. As it currently stands USB-C on laptops can do some of many things, some things, a couple of things, and not very many things. They can be USB 2 speed, USB 3 speed, they can support data, they can support power, they can support power and data, they can support monitors, they can be half Thunderbolt, they can be full Thunderbolt. But not all ports will support the same things, and it's almost never clear what they DO support on a particular device.
This was Microsoft's point when they announced that there would be no USB-C on the new Surface Devices (only via a dongle that's TBA). It's far to confusing and not at a point where it's a necessity yet. So to keep things simple and clear they left it off. That's a good choice in my book.

[DJCBS]

I have two USB-C ports on the Spectre X360. I would gladly exchange at least one of them for a mini-display port.
In fact, the ports on the Surface Laptop are the only thing I have no problem with on the device.

USB-C is absolutely useless to me and I don't foresee them becoming useful anytime in the future. In fact, all I see is needing to buy dongles and more dongles because nothing works with USB-C apart from recent phones.

[Drael646464]

Interestingly type-c does not mean usb 3.1. People are able to use the port, on early versions of usb.

But in general people just look for high numbers and don't think about the real world application. SSD for example - everyone talks about sequential read/write, but unless you are copying between two drive of equal speed (and when is that going to happen lol), that's pretty useless.

Same with usb 3.1. Its good for...hmm, video...and high speed hard drives. So if you have that external raid 0 dual msata drive (like your just super impatient about copying files damn it!), or egpu, or super hi def webcam - great (although you only get to use it, if the bandwidth is top notch, end to end). For video output a display port or hdmi does the job. And its common.

usb-c as a standard is good for phones because enables charging at the same as peripherals...but then that's only good for something like continuum, and that has limited applications.

Being two way doesn't help much for laptops, as you have to carry a charger round anyway.

It's useful in that its fast but small. Its easier to plug in. It's also useful if you have room for few ports, and you want one that can do everything.

But then if you have wireless charging....its only for peripherals, or connectivity....in which case everything you use over it, has to be fast enough: Does that phone you are using have an ultra high speed NVME SSD inside it? Is your external hard driver 10 gbps or more?

I think its good, but its more of an enabling technology. Its overrated right now. Most things use type a, and most applications are plenty happy on usb 3.

It has it's uses, but it's practical use is not as high as faster internal disk speeds, ram speed, cpu speed, bigger battery life, richer colour display or other features. In fact its practical use is pretty low right now, given micro-usb and usb 2 is still dominant, and usb 3, is still trying to catch on.

Even if you used usb-c heavily, the hub you were using for it, would come with type a ports, for mice, keyboards, usb sticks, hard drives, printers or whatever else.

Its a good thing, but definitely overrated. And it's not being adopted quickly. Phones use it now, but very few peripherals.

[Rainar Angelo]

No devices that require a USB-C! I don't know what the big deal is with people -.-

[Rainar Angelo]

I have two USB-C ports on the Spectre X360. I would gladly exchange at least one of them for a mini-display port.
In fact, the ports on the Surface Laptop are the only thing I have no problem with on the device.

USB-C is absolutely useless to me and I don't foresee them becoming useful anytime in the future. In fact, all I see is needing to buy dongles and more dongles because nothing works with USB-C apart from recent phones.

That's a first! You are one of the few 'NOT RANTING' about this lack of a USB-C

[CrippsCorner]

I understand why people are upset not having USB-C on the Surface Pro, but it doesn't bother me at all... I don't have any devices that use it. Maybe in 4 years time when I get my next computer, things will be different!

[DJCBS]

That's a first! You are one of the few 'NOT RANTING' about this lack of a USB-C

I can assure you normal consumers won't rant either. Microsoft was absolutely right in skipping it on the Pro 5 and Surface Laptop. Only tech nerds care about USB-C. If you look at the consumer space though, USB-C is very niche. The only contact people have with it is through a flagship phone. Nothing else. And even on flagship phones you have to look at the offerings. Samsung only introduced USB-C this year with the S8. LG sells less and less phones as time goes by. Sony is in even worse condition. And the major competitor to Samsung - Apple - uses a proprietary connector. All mid-range and low end phones - which make up for the majority of the phone market - use microUSB.

And when it comes to other products, none of them uses USB-C either apart from very specific, very niche products which likely only 1% of consumers buy.


So yeah. I'm not ranting about the lack of USB-C. Neither is the rest of the normal consumer market lol
In fact, you'll sooner hear me ranting about the present of USB-C instead of microUSB than the other way around ahahahah

[Drael646464]

I can assure you normal consumers won't rant either. Microsoft was absolutely right in skipping it on the Pro 5 and Surface Laptop. Only tech nerds care about USB-C. If you look at the consumer space though, USB-C is very niche. The only contact people have with it is through a flagship phone. Nothing else. And even on flagship phones you have to look at the offerings. Samsung only introduced USB-C this year with the S8. LG sells less and less phones as time goes by. Sony is in even worse condition. And the major competitor to Samsung - Apple - uses a proprietary connector. All mid-range and low end phones - which make up for the majority of the phone market - use microUSB.

And when it comes to other products, none of them uses USB-C either apart from very specific, very niche products which likely only 1% of consumers buy.


So yeah. I'm not ranting about the lack of USB-C. Neither is the rest of the normal consumer market lol
In fact, you'll sooner hear me ranting about the present of USB-C instead of microUSB than the other way around ahahahah

Outside of continuum display, like on the lumias or s8, one wonders what the actual point of usb 3.1 is on a phone. The internal disk tends to be eMMC. Just what in a phone runs fast enough to need it, other than display (for which, outside of continuum/dex, there is already micro hdmi)?

When phones start using sata or ide drives, perhaps it will make sense. The connector is nice though, tight fit, reversible. But it doesn't really need usb 3.1 - to justify that you need either some special display tech, or a drive that runs up at ssd/NVME/ram speeds.

[kodos78]

No USB-C devices. Only use I have for it is to charge my BlackBerry KEYone phone and to plug a dongle into my MacBook.

I have a USB-C on my primary machine (ThinkPad P50 Mobile Workstation) and it is the loneliest port on the device.

[ajcletus500]

I'm still waiting on my surface pro....

[GG002]

I think a lot of people think that tech nerds will spread the info about the missing USB-C and cause an uproar amongst the average joe looking for a premium device like the SP, but the fact is that most people will be like "What are you talking about? It DOES have USB!".

[clintroymkt]

in my country (Zimbabwe) most people dont even know what USB -C is. Hence why the surface would be perfect here/

[Ghouston]

My 950 has a USB C port. It doesn't really seem to make a huge difference. I don't do much file transferring. However, I do enjoy the ability to just plug my cable into the phone without having to hope that it is facing the right direction. Also, charging seems to happen at a faster rate than that of the micro USB.

[Drael646464]

My 950 has a USB C port. It doesn't really seem to make a huge difference. I don't do much file transferring. However, I do enjoy the ability to just plug my cable into the phone without having to hope that it is facing the right direction. Also, charging seems to happen at a faster rate than that of the micro USB.

Well the problem is there is the internal eMMC disk is 150 mbps or so, like all eMMC. It seems to run a bit faster copying over usb 3.1 but it would need to be capable of more than 400 mbps to take advantage of 3.1 - and that's a great deal of the problem with 3.1 as a standard - for disk copies, both ends need to be SSD fast or greater.

It's really only good ATM, for 1) wired networking 2) video, or as you point out 3) Charging (although I've been using wireless because its less hassle anyway)

[RumoredNow]

When I got my Idol 4S Windows it was my first Type C port. Mind you, the stock charger and cable are underwhelming.

I went out and secured two Aukey smart chargers (one for the wall and one for the car). Each features a 3.0 A slot and a C slot. The C slot charges faster. I also got some C to C cables and some adapters (female A to male C, female mini to male C, female C to male mini). Why? Future proofing baby.

My Type C stable is about to expand again. I've preordered the Chuwi SurBook which has a full feature C slot and to complement this I'm also adding a Samsung T3 portable ssd in 250GB which has a Type C female port.

[Drael646464]

When I got my Idol 4S Windows it was my first Type C port. Mind you, the stock charger and cable are underwhelming.

I went out and secured two Aukey smart chargers (one for the wall and one for the car). Each features a 3.0 A slot and a C slot. The C slot charges faster. I also got some C to C cables and some adapters (female A to male C, female mini to male C, female C to male mini). Why? Future proofing baby.

My Type C stable is about to expand again. I've preordered the Chuwi SurBook which has a full feature C slot and to complement this I'm also adding a Samsung T3 portable ssd in 250GB which has a Type C female port.

Could be pretty useful on the surbook for docking. You could get a hub with HDMI output, a few USB ports, and a wired network port, an external hard drive for a usb3 port on the dock , and use it as a desktop, whilst charging the device.

[RumoredNow]

Could be pretty useful on the surbook for docking. You could get a hub with HDMI output, a few USB ports, and a wired network port, an external hard drive for a usb3 port on the dock , and use it as a desktop, whilst charging the device.

I could... Except I use Screen Beam to connect to a larger screen, SurBook has (2x) USB-A 3.0 ports built in, I don't really have a use scenario for LAN as my port into the apartment is awkwardly placed for a desktop setup without cables running through high traffic areas and I decided against an hdd which I already have in favor of the performance edge of the sdd...

Interesting idea though. I may look at some hubs down the line to see if they offer something I might want/need to expand.

[Drael646464]

I could... Except I use Screen Beam to connect to a larger screen, SurBook has (2x) USB-A 3.0 ports built in, I don't really have a use scenario for LAN as my port into the apartment is awkwardly placed for a desktop setup without cables running through high traffic areas and I decided against an hdd which I already have in favor of the performance edge of the sdd...

Interesting idea though. I may look at some hubs down the line to see if they offer something I might want/need to expand.

I've long had a similar fantasy of the surface mobile crowd, but with a more powerful tablet, and external GPU, HDD, HDMI output etc. That was before they even invented thunderbolt 3. The potential of a tablet to reasonably replicate a proper desktop experience is closer than ever.

I used my cherry trail tablet as a desktop for a month or so, when I was living out of a suitcase. Just with HDMI out, and a USB 2 hub with a 128gb usb nub and keyboard/mouse. Worked pretty well.

I can get up 600mbs from my external USB hdd (mechanical) on my desktop for a straight drive backup via plain old usb 3 (another nice use of usb 3, quick backups of your device)

Screen beam is also pretty handy though...

The ports have some exciting applications for sort of 2 in 1, 3 in 1 type stuff, which will surely open up even more in the future. You could probably pick up something like that cheap from aliexpress.

For everyday uses atm, its mostly charging, but yeah, as time goes on, considering you can pack fanless i5 into a surface pro, I can see quite small form factors docking into a very capable desktop form.

I'd probably do it with the surbook, even if I never used it much lol. Just for the fun of seeing it in action.

[Wevenhuis]

My surface pro and lumia 1520 don't have usb c works fine. I do admit I love the usb c fastcharging on my lumia 950 xl though.

I mostly use wireless charging for my windows phone devices. Wish there was something similar for tablet pcs and laptops. Helps a lot with cable clutter and accidental cable pulling.