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Comment by lrvick | Hacker News Reader

As someone that deeply detests Apple and would never give them money, I will admit the lightning connector is superior in durability, inspectability, and safety than USB type C in virtually every way.

The real crime here is that Apple insisted on patenting the design and keeping it for only themselves, forcing the rest of the industry to adopt an inferior connector and ultimately force it on them too.

Classic Apple.

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I was thinking the same about both connectors. And then I bought an iPhone. I never broke a USB-C connector nor socket in few years of heavy usage on few devices, but I needed to buy new lightning cable because the pins have worn out after less than a year of just connecting the cable to iphone.

That's extremely unusual -- I've used Lightning cables daily for years without any issue at all.

Whenever I would notice a cable not working (after about a year and a half), the culprit was always dust buildup inside the Lightning port preventing the plug from entering fully. Clean it out with a toothpick for 15 seconds, and then good as new.

If you were using an original Apple cable, that's bizarrely bad luck. I can't even imagine what could physically cause that.

I think a lot of it is how they use the cable.

My mother goes through cable like candy. I'll buy a pack of 10 and give her 8 and I won't even be done with my cables by the time they stop working.

Cable failure from misuse/abuse almost always happens at the point where the cable meets the connector. Cables with flexible reenforced material at that point can help a lot with longevity.

I wore out the USB-C connector on my android phone in about a year and a half of daily charging, so probably lasted less than 500 cycles. I had to resort to wireless charging to keep the phone functioning. This is my first long-lifed usb-c connector and so far it doesn't impress for durability.

My wife has used apple for years, while she does need new cables from time to time the phone side has never had an issue.

I've used my USB c phone for two years now, charge once a day and it never failed me. My lightning cable on the other hand, feels so cheap and thin like it could break at any minute and the connector is so tiny that it looks like it could snap on the slightest bend. USB c on the other hand, since it's hollow, feels way stronger to bending.

I've been using MagSafe (the Qi wireless kind, not the one for macs) for most of my iPhone charging. I guess this is why I don't wear the cables out. I've added a magnetic adapter connector to my oculus USB-C setup, and that seems to work well also.

I have two broken USB-C cables next to me. They just wore out and broke. They have only been used to charge my phone. To be fair, it's not the metal connector which broke, it's the plastic parts, but still, that's enough to make the connector flimsy.

I also have a phone with a broken USB-C port (data signals don't get through). This phone was effectively bricked when the display stopped working. It still has files on it I'd like to read, but I can't read them because the USB-C data on it isn't working to use remote debugging, and also means the HDMI out feature doesn't work.

I have another phone where the USB-C port works but its charging is intermittent, probably because it isn't making a reliable connection. Probably due to matter accumulated in the port, as the connection does feel slightly less solid than it should be, but it's a pain to clean it out. A toothpick is slightly too large. I've tried various methods of cleaning it out but the problem persists, and I wonder if it's really matter in there, or if something is wrong with the metal parts inside.

These are just my anecdotes, and I don't have anything that uses Lightning to compare with. But I have read claims that USB-C is a very robust, long-life connector, and my experience doesn't give me as much confidence in it as those claims suggest.

It's pretty incredibly that none of my USB C devices have faced such issues, have them for around 2 years now.

I have a family member with a similar iPhone charging issue.

Toothpick. Clean port. That has saved almost every iPhone people bring me that’wont charge’.

Every other one Apple has fixed for free as some internal solder has failed.

But that was twice in about 50 cases.

(I do free/volunteer tech support for old peoples homes)

Another possible issue: arcing/stuff burning on to one of the lightning pins. IDK why it happens, it’s probably lint or something, but it’s easy enough to mitigate: If a cable stops working all the sudden, the first thing I do is wet my fingers and rub both sides of the lightning cable’s connector. Most of the time that does the trick, no new cable or tools needed!

An example of the issue I found searching the issue real quick: https://www.thetechmentor.com/posts/fix-lightning-cable-burn...

Yep, there's definitely a scorch mark. I already tried cleaning it and the port. It intermittently works and seems to depend on which way the cable is plugged in (still intermittent but better; other cables are usually better but still intermittent).

I had one of those dreadful MacBook Pros where the keyboard keys would get stuck, and all the USB-C ports on that were almost useless inside a month - they all just got incredibly loose and cables would just fall out.

It seems that the patents aren't the only obstacle to ubiquitous Lightning:

> Yes, it's hard to make floating paddle and sheet metal spring indents more robust than a solid metal puck, but it also comes with extra baggage that Apple is willing to eat and most USB committee companies are not willing to. USB has always made the connectors out of stamped sheet metal for mass production, but it is not possible to make the lightning puck like that. Having potentially live exposed contacts also complicates things.

(https://reddit.com/comments/6xfo53/comment/dmfqbnc)

Lighting can be safer and more durable, but it's still a dumb choice when USB C can deliver a ton more power and serve more purposes (like connecting to a monitor, daisy chaining, and powering laptops).

Lightning could actually been the physical connector for all the usual USB type C power delivery framework features. If Apple did not patent it.

Now it is left behind in features and adoption. Lightning is doomed to history along with other good patented ideas like MiniDisks and Magsafe.

It's also forever limited to USB2 speeds, state of the art year 2000, and can't do half the things that USB-C does. Of course that's easier to make, but don't worry, the patents notwithstanding, nobody wanted it anyway.

One can lament the inability to adopt and develop a superior connector without disagreeing that USB-C is the future. I think USB-C is better but it's not because the physical connector is good. It's worse in every way. It's also worth noting that there was a usb3 lightning connector in the 2nd generation iPads Pro.

> I will admit the lightning connector is superior in durability, inspectability, and safety than USB type C in virtually every way

Any links to back that claim?

The pins are on the outside making it easy to visually inspect for damage, or obstruction. With USB C a bit of conductive debris can be in the hollow cavity in the connector and cook your hardware. Or bend pins. Watched it happen.

Also if you work in high security environments where badusb attacks are a risk, lightning makes it is even easy to inspect data delivery pins are intentionally missing before you plug in a cable to an airgapped machine.

With USB C you have to custom make complicated usb m-to-f condom devices with transparent enclosures so you can visibly inspect the PCB traces. I have worked in high security environments where these were a must.

Further lightning is simply a solid metal connector and more structurally sound. It is hard to bend pins or cause a short. I have distributed a lot of usb-c devices and watched people hand them back to me with snapped or crushed connectors many times.

I hate that Lightning was made by Apple instead of the USB standards boards.

USB Type C is a terrible connector. I literally use laptops with barrel jack power to avoid it.

Do you have a source for the question you are asking?

Yes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33360137

I think lightning has a much poorer data throughput, though?

I seem to remember Apple needing to embed clever video comrpession ICs in their cables to get around this, in cases where it couldn't cope with the data needed for a raw signal?

The first generation iPad Pro with Lightning could transfer over “USB3” speeds.

But most of the cheaper USB C cables only transfer at USB2 speeds.

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