4 weird ports you’ll only find on super-old Android phones
These days, new phones come with brighter screens, more RAM, and increased durability, but there was also a time when an important aspect of reviewing a new phone involved checking its port selection. Many ports came and went before Android phones settled on a single USB port to rule them all.
ExtUSB
HTC did its own thing
Before USB-C, there was micro-USB. This port has largely disappeared from phones today, although you can still see it on occasional new accessories. Before this once-ubiquitous port, however, phones were a wild west when it came to charging ports. The very first Android phone, the HTC Dream (HTC G1 elsewhere), used a port called ExtUSB.
HTC’s ExtUSB port was capable of transmitting audio and files, in addition to power. The port was also compatible with a standard mini-USB cable, so you didn’t have to exclusively buy an HTC charger to use your phone.
By the time the HTC G2 (this time marketed in the US under different names such as HTC Desire Z and T-Mobile G2) arrived, the charging port had already switched to micro-USB.
USB 3.0 micro-B
Samsung gave it a chance
The micro-USB port had a lesser-known name: USB micro B. It wasn’t the only USB standard known as micro B. When Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 3 in 2013, it came with a larger port called USB 3.0 micro B.
This larger port was essentially a micro-USB port with a second port attached to the side, allowing for faster transfer speeds. In fact, the phone was backwards compatible with micro-USB cables, as long as you were careful to plug them in the correct way. While this awkward port is unusual on a phone, it was quite common on portable hard drives, which required faster file transfers. The Note 3 released 4K video, of which large files could also benefit from faster speeds.
Samsung quickly abandoned this experiment and returned to micro-USB on the Note 4. USB-C would eventually solve the problem, as it would offer even faster transfer speeds while being less heavy than micro-USB.
Micro and Mini-HDMI
Perfect for a specific period of history
The USB cables we previously plugged into the bottom of our phones weren’t as versatile as the ones we use today. For a phone to transfer video, you needed another jack, either an HDMI adapter or a smaller version of HDMI itself.
It’s hard to imagine plugging an HDMI cable into a phone today, but in 2010 you had the option. A micro-HDMI port was available on the Motorola Droid X, a brand synonymous with the first Android. There was a time before Android phones became “Samsung”, when they were commonly referred to as “Droids”.
A less popular option here in the US was the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, released the following year. The name Sony Ericsson alone harkens back to an earlier time, as the name disappeared in 2021 when Ericsson sold parts of the arrangement to Sony. Today’s Xperia devices are simply Sony phones.
The Zodiac Arc had a slightly larger mini-HDMI port. While you could certainly use a mini-HDMI cable to mirror the phone’s screen, there was also a custom full-screen app that organized your photos and videos for a larger screen.
Mini-SIM tray
Killed by eSIM
Most of us don’t think about SIM cards often. We inject them into a new phone and that’s it until it’s time to buy a new phone. Most Americans who walk into a carrier store never touch the SIM card themselves.
But even if you’re used to using a SIM card injection tool, the size of early SIM cards can still be surprising. Today’s phones (those that haven’t exclusively adopted eSIM) use tiny nano-SIM cards. A few years earlier, the industry had coalesced around slightly larger micro-SIM cards. Before that? The first Android phones had even larger mini-SIM cards. By today’s standards, there wasn’t much “mini” about them.
It’s not uncommon for modern SIM card trays to offer all three sizes, and most of us have opted for the smallest SIM card option throughout our smartphone journey. When I started my career in phones in 2013, the industry was already transitioning to nano-SIM. I didn’t have many devices with a micro-SIM, and it was already comical when I saw a phone using the relatively massive mini-SIM.
Look back at the history of any type of consumer electronics and you’ll see a graveyard of abandoned ports and cables. This isn’t unique to Android, nor is it a relic of the past. Not long ago, Apple finally ditched its proprietary Lightning cable for USB-C. Future generations will never know what it was like for Android and iPhone users to walk into each other and find themselves unable to burn through a charger.
