Why is Samsung Micro USB lead/spcket non standard ?

[Pobinr]

I'm disappointed to find on my new 'Galaxy s' that Micro USB socket is non standard.

Is this deliberate so one has to pay a fortune for Samsung USB leads & in car chargers ?

Infuriating either way.

Leads for this leads for that.

[clareriley]

£3 for a mains charger and £5 for a incar charger from ebay. Not that much really. Also you can use the USB car charger adapter where you just plus in the USB lead supplied with the phone. We have 2 of those in the car, one for me and one for his dell streak which still have not released a proper charger.

[TehPriest]

What do you mean not standard? Mine works with a generic car charger and generic lead from the PC. What's not standard about it?

[windowlicker]

Micro USB IS the standard these days. Anything else is non-standard.

Are you confusing Micro USB with Mini USB?

[Pobinr]

Micro USB IS the standard these days. Anything else is non-standard.

Are you confusing Micro USB with Mini USB?

Well I guess I must be. Didn't know there was a difference. Why there is I know not. There's not much difference in size. Mini USB seems as if it would be small enough for phones.

[someuser]

Agree with Window Licker. All the phone manufacturers got together about a year ago and agreed that MicroUSB will be the standard going forward. All the latest Android phones are MicroUSB. Even Apple agreed that they will eventually move to MicroUSB in a future Iphone (but will probably have a apple dock connector as well). There is currently nothing more standard than MicroUSB.

[surrealjam]

Windowlicker, you are correct. Pobinr (like me to begin with) is confusing mini with micro.

HTC, Tom-Tom and a whole host of camera manufacturers still seem to be using mini connections and very few have apparently moved onto the micro USB. For this reason, on first using the Galaxy S, I did think "darn - it's got a proprietary charger fitting!". Of course, I now know the error of my ways...

Hopefully it's not too long before this is THE standard as it then won't matter if anyone forgets their charger. Namely - ME!

[mt1]

I bought a generic usb charger lead and it works just fine, its a standard connection

[windowlicker]

Micro-USB has been especially designed for rough use and the connector is specified for at least 10,000 connect/disconnect cycles. One of the reasons is that with devices like cell phones, the number of connect/disconnect cycles will be significantly higher than with static equipment like printers and mice. So the connector needs to be very durable on a phone. Also, a Mini-USB is hard to fit in a thin phone, and in the technology world small is never small enough so this is why the switch was made.

[TechMagician]

I think Pobinr is correct. Its a non-standard micro-USB slot on the Galaxy S because i have a couple of micro-USB leads that don't work with this device. I think its down to the HDMI out Samsung use the micro-USB for this. Very annoying.