All mobile phones, tablets, earphones and a wide range of other portable consumer electronics will need to be sold with USB-C charging ports from Saturday, the EU has announced.
First introduced around a decade ago, USB-C charging ports are reversible and capable of accelerated data transfer and charging speeds, the latter known as 'fast charging’.
In a statement on Friday, the European Parliament said that as of the following day, all such devices sold in the EU must have a USB-C charging port, with laptops set to follow suit in late April 2026.
Apples lightening has been around for a while, but so has USB-C. Don’t forget that Apple was really the first to go all in on USB-C on their laptops so this isn’t something unachievable for them. The big thing to me is that the EU is only forcing phones, laptops and earphones on this rather than making most small devices compatible with type C. Type C has a ton of built in support for other devices but we still allow shitty manufacturing to build barrel plug based devices when they really should switch.
While I agree with the USB-C standard, I have wishes. It’s a compromised design which is the best of a challenging dynamic existence. Extension are an example.
With that said, I work with a wide range of instruments. The Variation of DC standard is important for the conditions that they need. 12V, vs 24, vs 5v and the amperage. So while I hate barrel, I would rather have them then the USB-C give the dumb nature of the barrels. The negotiated power is challenging as a universal when you need reliability in harsh conditions. (Which the world really is when you step out of cities.)