USB-C Port on iPhone | Hacker News Reader

USB-C Port on iPhone

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66 pointshasheddan26 comments

I’ve got a USB-C on my iPad and I must say that the lightning port is a better connector, at least as far as inserting and removing it.

When I'm really mobile on some days I'm genuinely terrified of breaking off the USB-C tab inside the port at times. It feels a lot.. safer? to be inserting the middle portion like lightning, I am rather unsure how to describe it.

I think the danger with lightning is that it's much easier to lead to short circuiting due to the exposed pins. I remember reading that some incidents were causing fires.

Accidentally woke up with a lightning cable under my back, it gave me a small burn.

Having seen USB-C connectors bend and crumple, and having never seen a lightning connector bend or crumple, I agree with you.

The issue with lighting is that the springs used to ensure proper contact are on the phone side. USB-C wisely put them on the cable side. This means it’s a bit harder to insert but when the springs become loose you just need a new cable rather than get your phone repaired.

A problem I and everyone else I know with a lightning-connector iPhone (or iPad) have never encountered. Ever.

This mythical problem has been repeatedly brought up and I am now beginning to think that it is simply a theoretical problem and not one that anyone ever has, but the additional effort needed to align and insert a usb-c connector is quite real. If I could use wireless charging on my iPad I am certain I would never again use a cable for power because it is such a pain to do without actually looking at the connection point.

> everyone else I know with a lightning-connector iPhone (or iPad) have never encountered. Ever.

How long do you keep your phone on average?

Also, how can you know that nobody around you has ever experienced this problem? I have, but I didn't tell everybody I knew about it.

I keep phones longer than most to test apps on old hardware. Am looking at an iPhone 6S, and original iPhone SE, and an iPhone 12 right now. All three are plugged in via lightning at least three times a week to a dev box. I know several other developers with similar experience at frequent connections via lightning connector and not a single case of failure on the phone side of the connection. The only time I have had an issue is when pocket lint got into the connection port and after a period of being compressed by the lightning connector the tiny puck of fluff eventually made a good connection difficult. A paperclip was sufficient to clear the problem.

Would love to hear proof of the occurrence of this particular problem though. Until I do I will file it with UFOs and Bigfoot in the category of 'imaginary problems.'

Dunno if I can give you proof. I didn't document the experience as it was happening.

> the additional effort needed to align and insert a usb-c connector is quite real

umm wut? I have a lightning cable for my airpods and usbc for everything else. I can't say I've ever noticed additional effort to align the usbc connector. its about the same as lighting. only now I have this one extra cable that doesn't fit into anything else

Clearly you and me don’t know the same people because iPhones which have become finicky to plug are very common around me.

Tell them to clean the compacted lint out of the port using a straightened paperclip. Due to the nature of the lightning connector design the wedge-shaped connector can push and compress pocket lint into the port until enough is there to prevent a clean connection. This is a valid complaint about lightning connectors, with a solid center it can compress this lint while the internal post and center connection point of usb-c makes this less of an issue. OTOH 'springs' wearing out or other worn parts on the iPhone side of the connection that require replacement are a non-issue.

I know I’m always worried about it whenever i need to clean lint out of the port.

But so far I’ve been careful enough.

That is a legend born at the time USB-mini-B was replaced with USB-micro-B. For what it's worth, typical USB-mini-B has a particularly bad spring design. "Spring" is just a protrusion stamped out from a thin flat sheet of regular mild steel. Same sheet that is making bulk of the receptacle.

One does not necessarily have to make springs that are quite as epicly bad, and indeed both typical USB-C connector, and lightning receptacle, avoid that pitfall.

At the risk of being ironic, I use magnetic connectors on my usbc MacBook pro

I'm honestly surprised Apple has not yet released an official USB-C to MagSafe adapter yet.

There are unofficial ones, but it is a horrible idea as misalignment can cause voltage to be applied to pins which can't handle it, blowing out the circuitry for the port.

Yeah or a subscription to using adapters :)

I find the iPad usb c to be entirely sufficient, but lighting certainly has a more satisfying snap. Would still rather usb c on the iPhone.

I only like usbc because my phone, Thinkpad, MacBook, switch, and vape all use it.

Has anyone made kits for this type of procedure yet? Maybe I'd buy one for an iPhone X at a reasonable price, since the charging port is the single most annoying thing about using it day to day.

A lot of people come to my repair shop with Apple devices. Many of them have “mushy” feeling UCB-C ports that don’t click when inserting a cable. It seems that Lightning port is vastly superior.

Here’s a YouTube video of a similar project: https://youtu.be/1yudWXta6dM

Or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCEzdj_8YwU

Seems like there's a lot of people doing the same project.

Or this (iPod nano, instead of iPhone) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwv82l3Gsd0

From the same author as the OP - me :)

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