Reversible USB Type-C connector revealed by Foxconn

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) Type A and Type B connectors will be joined by a newly pictured Type-C connector to be finalised this summer and built-into devices before Xmas. The previous USB connectors looked simple in comparison to some of the old interfaces they replaced, like parallel and serial ports, but are still unnecessarily complicated in that there are two different kinds of ends and both ends need to be orientated correctly as you fumble around behind your PC, printer, scanner, external storage device or whatever.

The new USB Type-C connector will use the same connector for both in and out, computer and device, also it will have a plug that offers symmetry across its end axis so it can be inserted in either of two orientations – much like Apple's lightning cable. It is also much smaller than existing Type-A and Type-B connectors but not as small as the ever more common non-reversible micro-USB connector. The exact size of the USB Type-3 connector is 8.3 x 2.5mm and you can see the receptacle above in a render courtesy of Foxconn, in a laptop edge sitting next to a Type-A USB 3.0 connector.