These 5 infuriating connectors deserve a place in tech hell

Published 14 hours ago

Adam has a degree in Engineering and has a life-long interest in technology. He has been writing for over a decade for various print and online publications, with a focus on consumer tech. He joined How-To Geek in 2024 while working atPocket-lint.
As well as being a long-term fan of Apple products, he also has a strong interest in smart home tech, running a Home Assistant server at home to automate all his smart home devices. He believes that the ideal smart home should work with minimal interaction from the user, with automations running as if by magic rather than requiring you to push buttons on a control panel. You can find more of his work onMuck Rack.

Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:

Try something different:

You're only a true geek if you have a huge box or drawer full of cables that you don't actually need but are keeping on the off chance. Not every cable is created equal, however. There are some cables that have connectors that are so frustrating they should be banished to tech hell forever.

RJ45 (Ethernet)

The RJ45 connector on the end of anEthernet cable could be my most hated connector of all time. It's incredible that a connector exists that can become horrifically jammed in a port but can also just fall out of it when you breathe. It's all thanks to that innocent-looking latch. Sometimes it just won't depress enough for you to be able to remove the connector, and other times it just snaps off completely, so that your Ethernet cables constantly slide out of the port like a greased pig.

A bundle of Ethernet cables in a person's hand.

I'm fully aware thatsome Ethernet cables are vastly superior in this regard. Additional features, such as boots or clip protectors, can reduce the risk of the latch getting damaged or jammed. But if you have to have additional features added to your connector to stop it from being a nightmare to use, then you probably haven't done a great job designing it in the first place.

Micro-USB

Anyone who designs a connector that's asymmetrical deserves their own place in hell, but making one that's tiny is even worse. I know that there's a right way up and a wrong way up for myMicro-USB cable, but when I look at the port on theold Kindle or Bluetooth speaker I want to plug it into, the port's shape suddenly appears to be perfectly symmetrical.

It's also far too easy to damage the port when you're jamming the connector trying to figure out which way is up. Then you end up with a device that will only charge when your connector is at the perfect angle and have to devote half of your life to "the wiggle". Thankfully, Micro-USB has mostly gone the way of the dinosaurs, but I still have a frustratingly large number of devices that use it.

Lightning

This is less a problem with the connector itself and more the fact that I still have to use it. Apple stuck with its proprietary connector for far too long, and it took the might ofan entire multinational superpower to finally get it to switch to USB-C like the rest of the world.

Finally, I can charge my iPhone with the same cable I use to charge mySwitch 2 Pro controller, but I can't throw my Lightning cables away just yet. I have multiple devices, including iPads and AirPods, that have Lightning ports. I'm forced to cling on to one final Lightning cable that's already on its last legs, in the constant fear that I might have to buy a replacement cable that I don't even want.

USB-A

I said that anyone who designs an asymmetrical connector deserves a place in hell, but designing an asymmetrical connector that looks symmetrical is even worse. There are two unsolved mysteries with the USB-A connector. The first is that, despite there being only two possible orientations, you will never get it the right way up on the first try. The second is that if you guess wrong the first time, there's only one possible option left, but somehow it still takes three tries to get it in.

Despite thevastly superior USB-C becoming increasingly commonplace, I still have to put up with USB-A connectors on a daily basis. The day they become truly obsolete can't come soon enough.

HDMI

Despite its hideous design, I understand the intention behind the latch on the RJ45 connector. You don't want Cloudflare going down and bringing down 99% of the internet because the intern tripped over the Ethernet cable and yanked it out of the port. The reason why some connectors should have some kind of latch or lock system is demonstrated by theHDMI cable.

HDMI cables rely on friction to keep them in place, and friction can only do so much. It's all too easy to accidentally pull an HDMI cable out of its port, or even for it to work itself loose. Your monitor or TV may suddenly find itself without anything to display.

Another major issue is that HDMI connectors are large and stiff. If your TV's HDMI port is on the rear, when the HDMI cable is inserted, it juts out a long way. Good luck trying tomount your TV on the wall with that beast of a connector hanging out the back. At best, you're going to have to try to bend the chunky cable, which will inevitably put pressure on the port, making the connector even more likely to fall out.

I'm sure one day in the future, humankind will look back on cables as a quaint anachronism that grandparents still talk about, as energy and information are beamed wirelessly between our devices. In the meantime, however, is it so much to ask that our connectors aren't completely hellish to use?

Followed