I’ve gone to several webpages and still don’t know what I need. I want to be able to charge my Uber passenger’s phones but there are so many different chargers. I know Apple is going to go to USB-C, but what convertor would work for the majority of iPhone users now?
There aren’t really that many different chargers. A lot of the differences are minor. There are smart and dumb chargers, but most modern phones can handle either. In general, if the adaptor fits into the slot, it’s probably good enough, even if it isn’t the ideal charger to use every time.
It used to be that some manufacturers (looking at you, Motorola!) were intentionally designing their phones to only work with their own proprietary chargers. I think they’ve mostly been shamed by bad publicity into abandoning this practice, but I’m not sure – in particular, not sure if all iPhones will work with generic chargers, but my guess is “yes”.
With that out of the way, I think the only connector types you need to have are USB-C and micro USB and that will cover the overwhelming majority of all devices. (Note that micro USB is not the same as mini USB, which is obsolete.) The fact that all these devices charge from USB ports means that the voltage specs are standardized.
I’m not sure if I’m understanding correctly, but that would eliminate all iPhones. iPhones take a Lightning cable. Or most of the recent ones will also take a magnetic recharger (which is what I use in my car, as my charging port has gone kaput.) They don’t have USB-C yet, at least that I’ve seen.
Thanks for the important correction, and apologies for that major goof! My son has a number of chargers for his phone and always leaves at least one here, and looking at it it’s definitely USB-C. But I had forgotten that he no longer has an iPhone but switched to Google Pixel. So yes, micro USB, USB-C, and Lightning connectors.
Huh? If your phone takes one type of charger, it won’t take the other.
All current iPhones use the Lightning charger, if you have anything else they won’t work. (The next model to be released will supposedly have USB-C, but all iPhones on the market right now do not and those are not all going to disappear when the new one comes out.)
“Either” was referring to smart vs. dumb chargers.
Anyway, back to the OP . You might want to consider a cable with three tips like I have - Lightening, USB-C and Micro USB
What is a “smart” vs “dumb” charger in regards to phones? They’re cables with a plug on one end and a connector that fits the phone on the other.
They only thing that comes up when looking up those terms is in regards to charging electric vehicles.
Yeah, my new iPad is USB-C and real pain in the ass since everything else (iPhone AirPods, wireless charger) is lightning.
If you look on Amazon or elsewhere (for “multi charger cables”), you’ll find cables that have multiple connectors, for USB-C, Lightning, micro USB, etc. Probably one of those would cover most of the phones carried by your passengers.
A multi-charging cable like this will work for what you need. It has connectors for all the current devices:
I would recommend getting one that’s long enough to plug into the front of the car. If you plug it into the USB plug in the back seats, they could easy take it with them. Plug it into the console and route it to the back seats so they can use the ports but not unplug it.
Two things are being confused here: chargers and cables/receptacle
Most phones have a USB-C (modern Android) or lightning (iPhone) receptacle. Old Android phones might still use micro-USB. This is the port on the phone that is used for charging. The cable that plugs in must have the correct connector.
Then there is the charger. That is the thing that plugs into the wall, or cigarette lighter (aka power) port in the car. That makes much less difference. You can use the exact same charger for all of the different phones, as long as you plug the correct cable into it.
My recommendation is get an in-car charger that provides 2 USB-PD ports. Those will be USB-C ports. Something like this: (I’m not necessarily recommending this exact device)
Then buy two USB-C to lightning cables and two USB-C to USB-C cables. Also get one each USB-A (the regular looking rectangular USB) to lightning, USB-A to USB-C, and one USB-A to micro-USB cable.
That should let passengers charge up to three phones. Modern iPhones and Android phones connected to the USB-C PD ports on the charger will charge as quickly as possible (with the shown charger, one of the USB-C connectors is limited to 9 watts charging, which is still pretty good, and the max for many phones).
If you already have USB-A ports in your car, then just get USB-A to lightning and USB-A to USB-C cables.
Obviously from context, charging+data vs. charging only.
Could you explain what context would have led someone to the “charging v. charging+data” conclusion? It’s not so obvious to this dullard.
The fact that those are the two classes of connections that actually exist.
The iPhone 15 release is next week and is widely expected to be USB-C since Apple is being sued by the EU for using a non-standard charger. Given that iPhones have a design life span of about 5 years, it will be a while until Lightning is fully retired.
I’m not really sure that answers my question. There isn’t any context in puzzlegal’s post that would have led someone to know what those classes of connections actually do (ie one of them just charges, one of them charges and allows data transfer).
For security reasons, it would probably be best to get a cigarette lighter charger rather than using one of the car’s USB ports. The cigarette lighter will just provide charging and won’t have any connection to the car’s internal systems. The car’s USB ports will typically have some data capabilities, like playing music on the stereo, making phone calls, etc. Since you’re dealing with a bunch of random people, it would be best if their devices couldn’t connect to your car’s internal systems when they plug in. Chances are there’s nothing to worry about, but you might as well take the safer route since the cigarette lighter charger is relatively cheap.
Close but not quite. The EU has simply adopted a law forcing the issue.
It’ll be a bit before it enters into force and of course the old models will hang around a while, but in a few years it’ll effectively be the new standard.
No, there are some chargers that talk to the phone and deliver different amounts of power depending on what the phone “requests”. Those are smart chargers. Older chargers are dumb, and just feed whatever they feed. But most phones are smart enough to cope with either. If you have a phone that does smart charging, you want to use that sort of charging as your main charger, but it should be fine to use whatever the cab has for the occasional charging session. Very old phones do better with dumb chargers, but they can usually use a smart one, too, they’ll just charge slowly. (I’m pretty sure that’s the default.)
I agree that the charger is different from the cable. What I was claiming is that you can get one charger that will be good enough for basically all phones, and just connect different cables to it to get any of the three connectors you are likely to find on a phone, which are USB C, Lightening, and micro-USB.
I’m agreeing with @echoreply , who gave a much more detailed and explicit answer than I did.