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Comment by gnicholas | Hacker News Reader

I've heard several Apple 'Geniuses' say that if you wrap the cables around these flaps then the cable will eventually get damaged. Customers routinely reply: "why do you put the flaps there if using them will damage the cables?". Perhaps Apple has removed them because they end up damaging the cables. I've also noticed that the USB-C charge cable seems to be thicker/more rigid than the magsafe 2 charge cable.

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I think people would wrap tightly, and put too much pressure on the point where the cable exited the charger when they wrapped around the flaps, which would inevitably cause a failure. It isn't much better now, but at least the cable can be replaced instead of the whole unit.

Apple's support page corroborates this.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201600

The cables are known to break too easily, but I'd rather want them to solve that by having proper strain relief on the cable than remove the flaps on the charger.

Redesigning the charger? Might as well do it properly. Have the thin cable plug in to an L projection, so it naturally wraps right around the brick body. Put an L projection on the other side, rotationally symmetric, for the wall cable plug. Now they both wrap with large radius curves, and can be replaced independently of the charger itself.

You'd think that a company that theoretically charges higher prices for superior design would do something like that.

The USB-C PD charger bricks just have a single USB-C slot. You can use the provided cable or get your own longer/shorter/braided version. There are also third party USB adapters that mimic magsafe functionality, albeit not as amazing as proper "Apple designed" magsafe of the past.

Given the new USB-C everything paradigm and the available options I don't think ditching these plastic clips is that huge of a fumble for them-- Although I would like to see proper L shaped USB plug options on BOTH ends of the cable from Apple, Nintendo (Switch seriously needs aux charging port in back or on top) and any other third party that wants my money.

It's planned obsolescence, simple as that. There's no other reason to not have a detachable cable on the old magsafe chargers when the new one has it. I think apple feel the pulse of the industry and choose what they can get away with, wwhat (my macbook w-key double pressing again) people will tolerate, until the competition catches up. Then they change the game a bit and produce the next "best iphone/imac/macbook" ever.

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