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Comment by meuk | Hacker News Reader

I do see a problem with this. I don't use my phone for much more than messaging, browsing, and navigation. Yet, I have to buy a new smartphone every two years because it gets slow and the USB port breaks. This isn't just an inconvenience, it's changing our perception of what tech is and how it should be. People think its normal that technology sucks, and anticipate it works that way. The reason that Steve Jobs, while being a disgusti g human being, made good products, was that he actually called out the bullshit.

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I've found that it is most often the plug on the easily replaceable cord that breaks, which I gather is by design and an improvement over mini-USB, where it was the socket that tended to break.

The biggest issue I've had with micro-USB is that pocket crud and lint tends to gather in the socket, but it's very easy to pick out with one of those slim plastic toothpicks or a similar tool. Every device I've had where the USB socket became wonky, a bit of cleaning cleared it right up.

I haven't encountered a single mini-USB port that I couldn't use with any mini-USB cable (however, these are mostly devices that I don't use as often as a phone, so my view may be biased).

Micro-USB ports, on the other hand, just stop holding connectors, even after I cleaned the port.

The springs that hold the micro-USB connector in are on the connector itself. I have one cable that barely holds on to my phone, but brand new ones lock in tight.

If a micro-USB port doesn't seem to hold anymore, I would replace the cable first.

I had great success cleaning a 3 year old phone. I basically had to scour the bottom of the port with a sewing needle though.

But after I did that, charging went from maybe to not a problem.

And with each generation of phones, developers give themselves more liberties, use more third party libraries which themselves gave themselves more liberties so that simple apps today would barely work on a more modest phone.

> I have to buy a new smartphone every two years because it gets slow and the USB port breaks

I moved from Android to the iOS ecosystem specifically to get the Lightning port. Wikipedia tells me that micro USB ports are rated to 10,000 cycles but in practice I've had to toss tablets because they won't hold a connector, and wiggle phones to get them to charge. With the iPhone connector never an issue and it just feels solid. Why is the design so much poorer?

My guess is that the connector on iPhones is riveted into the frame somehow, keeping it from stressing the solder joints when you plug and unplug. On many cheaper phones, maybe the port is just a hole going back to the circuit board, where the only thing holding the port in place is the solder.

The tongue design also is just simpler and sites not admit crud into it. And it fits either way around.

Get a wireless charging phone.

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