We scoff at micro-USB today, but it was the best connector ever made – at least until USB Type-C, aka USB-C showed up. We’re more than ready to wave goodbye to it, but it does deserve a look back at what made it so good.
If you don’t think micro-USB was ever particularly good, then you don’t remember the days of proprietary connectors – you can check out our extinct connectors write-up for the frustrating, incompatible mess that we had to deal with before USB took over. Remember, the U is for “universal”.
First, let’s clear up this “micro” and “Type” business. Originally, USB had a strict tree network topology – meaning that it was clear which is the trunk and which is the branch. In other words, which was the host device and which was the guest. This was enforced by having different connectors on either end of the USB cable.
