Hacker News Reader

Comment by DominikPeters | Hacker News Reader

Two advantages: (1) the Lightning port can wear out if used often, but the magnets won't; (2) you can attach and remove the phone from a magnetic charger with one hand and without looking / in the dark.

View on HN

>the Lightning port can wear out if used often

Wait what? I hope you're just saying it can get scratched or warped with rough/improper use.

I have not had an iphone come in with a worn lighting port. 10/10 times it has been extremely packed pocket lint preventing the cable from seating correctly.

I've had that problem, but I've also had the cable clips in the sides of the socket lose some of their grip over time. They're spring steel, but even spring steel is still somewhat subject to plastic deformation with enough cycles.

It's never gotten bad enough to be a problem with mine, but I'm still happier to be using magnetic charging cables most of the time. That's primarily for the convenience of it, which is significant, but I don't mind that they also preserve the connector.

(They're especially convenient in the car. I have an SE, but even with a phone that supported inductive charging, I suspect I'd stick with the magnetic-mount-and-cable arrangement - it's exactly as convenient as inductive charging, with no risk of compromise on the strength of the mount in order to get one with half a transformer in it.)

The lightning port can essentially loosen over time, meaning the “snap” of the cable grips less and the plug can become susceptible to falling out. This has happened to me, even as someone who takes good care of his phone.

Have you tried canned air to clear debris?

A wooden toothpick is perfect for cleaning lightning ports.

I would not recommend canned air as it would drive lint further into the phone.

Even on very old very carelessly used phones I have not seen this. Every single time the lightning cable does not snap into place, it's some packed lint that is the problem. It can be removed with some care and it works fine after that.

Any moving part will wear out eventually.

Everything under, around, inside and outside the sun will wear out eventually.

The lightning port is not even close to being one of the parts that will wear out first.

If the wireless charging mechanism is solid state, it’s immune from mechanical wear.

Mechanical wear matters for example if you have a Roku, and the buttons in the remote control physically wear out. You can just instead use your phone app to control it over WiFi, and the WiFi antenna will “never” wear out because it’s solid state. Source: I have an old Roku

Solid state devices can still fail from mechanical stress. Heat cycling and strong magnetic fields could be a problem for wireless charging even if they don’t need to be. The core issue is generally trying to use the cheapest solution, not just mechanical stress.

Ethernet connectors are probably the best example of this, for servers that might be moved every few years their cheap and maintain a solid connection. It’s really desktops and especially laptops where they become such a major issue.

I’m struggling to understand your point. Phones are closer to laptops in that in typical use a wired power connection is frequently plugged and unplugged, so mechanical wear is an important consideration. Why are you bringing up Ethernet on servers in this context, when as you say the pattern of use is utterly different?

I know almost nothing about wireless charging. But have fair experience with working with WiFi devices. In my lifetime, I have observed 0 cases of failure on the WiFi client mechanism, and exactly 1 case of a WiFi router failing due to hardware. Meanwhile, power plugs are the most common part I have experienced wearing out on consumer electronics. Have you experienced lots of failures of solid state electronics due to eg. hear cycling and magnetic fields?

My point was you need to design stuff for the use case and a healthy margin. Incandescent lightbulbs are perhaps the poster child for solid state devices which with a limited lifespan. You can design lightbulbs for a 100 year lifespan at the cost of efficiency and bulb brightness. Even then an incandescent bulbs lifespan is dramatically shorter if your power cycling it every 2 minutes. But eventually stuff like electromigration for example will be an issue for solid state devices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration

When designing wireless charging the same efficiency vs lifespan tradeoffs exist. Sure, they might be fine, but don’t expect them to last 20 years or anything. Further, the mats are significantly more expensive than a cable.

PS: Connector specifications are generally a dumpster fire because nobody wants to be forced to build expensive cables. And even if the spec says X, if Y is cheaper and still mostly works then you can bet people will do Y. Failure tends take a while at which point people buy a new cable vs returning the old one etc.

Thanks! Your answer reinforces my personal preference for wires to supply power :)

It's a good rule of thumb, but that doesn't check out in practice.

The wireless charging mechanism, while solid state, generates a lot of heat, which has the potential to degrade the battery especially in certain climates.

I think the sun will outlive the lightning port. Unless the sun explodes, in which case technically it would have ended prior to its contents hitting Earth and destroying the lightning port.

I didn't suggest that, I just said that everything wears out.

On my last phone, it's precisely the part that wore out first. A local guy replaced it for about $50 and I got another year of life out of the phone before I dropped it and broke the screen. (Note, this was an iPhone 6 that I replaced about a year ago)

Sure, and for some people the part that wears out first is the third SoC capacitor.

In agreggate though, the lightning port isn't the first thing that will break, and if it breaks you can use wireless charging. Whereas if you only use wireless charging there is less redundancy and the part that actually wears out the fastest, the battery, will degrade faster due to the heat.

Moisture can cause permanent damage when charging. (Corrosion.)

(3) Lightning cables corrode quickly in the salty sea air.

Good inductive charging is an advantage here.

I can’t agree. My iPhone 6 is about six years old, and the port still works like new.

Counterpoint - I have an iPhone 6 that has exactly this problem. The cable doesn't get seated properly, so occasionally it stops charging or disconnects when attached to a computer.

Try cleaning the pocket lint out of it. Major quality of life improvement for me.

Another +1 for lint. Use a wooden toothpick and be gentle

This. I’ve just solved exactly those problems by cleaning out the hole.

I upgraded from 6S to 2nd gen SE because of intermittent charging of 6S. Over time, port became loose, cable didn’t fit and come out easily.

> you can attach and remove the phone from a magnetic charger with one hand and without looking / in the dark.

You can't do that with the cable?

I assume the non-swappable battery will give out long before the lightning port wears out.

Well I live in taiwan, so it’s easy to find someone to swap out the battery.

I might upgrade to a 12. It’s a nice number; 6,12.... 18?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com