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Comment by theogravity | Hacker News Reader

My wife and I are upgrading to the iPhone 15 if the ports are USB-C. My wife has held out on two generations of iPhones for this.

The products we use outside of Apple are generally USB-C based that it'll be nice to not have to carry / have around lightning and USB-C cables.

I wonder how many others are thinking the same.

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> My wife has held out on two generations of iPhones for this.

Is that a lot? I'm still using an iPhone 11 and honestly don't see a reason to upgrade. My friends who use iPhones are rocking the old ones that are round at the sides. Yet on public transport etc I see iPhone 14's everywhere. Buying a new phone every year or every other year is cringe imo.

I'm not sure. She's on a 12 mini where the battery life has crapped out and a 3rd party replacement didn't make it any better (thought iFixIt's batteries would be better, but guess not), so she has a lot of incentive to swap over.

For me, I'm on a 13 Pro. If the 15 didn't have USB-C, I'd probably have skipped the iteration. Since there's USB-C and most likely WiFi-6e support, and I play MOBAs on the iPhone that are sensitive to latency and have WiFi-6e APs, it's reason enough for me to upgrade.

I'm still on my iPhone 11 too.

I only recently started getting annoyed at how sluggish apps have felt compared to using my friends' newer phones.

I buy every other year, if for no other reason than my phone is physically worn after two years.

A $2 plastic case might help?

I use the Apple leather case and after 2 years, the case may have worn a bit, but the phone itself is pristine.

There is a set of people (like a friend I have) who doesn't like using cases and feel that the point of having a case-less phone is that the phone is meant to be shown off in its bare glory.

I do use a case.

But I will end up wearing out the oleophobic coating on the screen and the battery will no longer last a full day

Screen protector. I use a tempered glass one for $10 that has been replaced once due to just wear from constant mobile gaming in the thumb area.

I have worn a hole in the oleophobic coating on the screen, tbh.

Also the battery typically will no longer last a full day.

It's not a lot. It's not a little. It doesn't have to be a competition of who's more whatever.

really bummed that they discontinued the Mini line, looks like I'm going to be the last Lightning user in like 10 years…

yeah, last year, eventhough the current models were the iphone 14, needed a new phone and bought the previous generation's iphone 13 mini, because probably like you, wanted the smaller form factor. It's awesome!

Yeah, like you, going to have to hold on to this phone forever...

... although, might buy a foldable when Apple releases one (the Samsung zflip 5 seems really compact and nice!)

We’re in the same boat. USB-C mandatory going forward.

I kinda hate that the new MacBook Air went back to a MagSafe charger for this reason.

Having the MagSafe and the Thunderbolt 3/4 ports is a great combination. it's a welcome change on the road to have magsafe but I use TB3 at home with a dock.

You still charge through the USB-C / Thunderbolt ports (and use a USB-C to USB-C cable with the provided power brick to do so). The MagSafe plug is just for convenience (and perhaps slightly higher wattage than is normally specced for USB-C on the beefier MBPs).

Also if you happen to trip over the magsafe cord, the possibility of snapping the connector is non-existent compared to the risk of using a USB-C cable.

It's of course a possibility but the Type C connection was designed to sacrifice the cable part first, both on the "repeated insertion" metric and for cases like this.

It's more about the computer flying off a table and into a hard surface in the USC-C trip case.

Are you not able use the USB-C port to charge on the Air (or is it more that there's less ports available if you do that)? I'm able to for my M2 Macbook Pro and it has a magsafe port.

Something was wrong with their design of the last MacBook Airs with USB-C charging port. I'm very gentle with my electronics and yet the charging port broke two times in a row (fixed under warranty). My daughter's MacBook Air had the same internal break as well (fixed under warranty).

I suspect they didn't properly support the internals so the force of inserting a USB-C plug caused a crack or break over time (and a short time!).

I went out and bought cheap "MagSafe" like USB-C connectors for my machines and my kids (in college) machines. I personally WELCOME the return to MagSafe!

>I went out and bought cheap "MagSafe" like USB-C connectors for my machines and my kids (in college) machines. I personally WELCOME the return to MagSafe!

Be very careful with these; they can misalign as they come apart and put 20V onto pins not capable of handling it, blowing out the electronics for the port (and NOT covered by warranty).

Thanks for the warning. I really appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I'm kind of up against a wall. I need to use my laptop for work, but I can't keep sending it in for repairs (and I can't afford out-of-warranty repairs). I'm extremely gentle, but my MacBook Air needed the USB-C port replaced TWICE in just one month.

So, I went with the "let's not somehow magically break the physical port" route. I certainly hope the unofficial MagSafe connectors don't blow it out...

You can still charge through the USB-C ports, fwiw.

You can still charge via USB-C and Thunderbolt. I already had a bunch of USB C chargers and see no reason to buy additional USB-C to MagSafe cables when most the time USB-C to USB-C works just fine. At my desk I plug into a thunderbolt 3 dock and it works great. Seamless.

I've waited 4 years to upgrade. First it was because our phones were good enough and now it's because the 14 didn't have USB-C.

I bought a bunch of USB-C to Lightning dongles with lanyard that tie to the end of the cable. Now I have exclusively USB-C cables with dongles attached to them, and it's almost as good as a native USB-C iPhone.

You still have to carry an additional set of accessories, though. I understand they're tiny dongles.

Were did you get these? I have been looking for a USB-C female to lightning male connector for some time, but I don't think they exists. What you have found seems to be the closest thing.

I bought mine at a local phone repair shop, but Amazon is rife with them. Here's a random result which I'm sure you can improve upon. They generally come with a little lanyard of nylon or silicone to permanently tie to your USB cable.

https://www.amazon.com/TechMatte-Lightning-Compatible-Headph...

Thanks. I swear when I searched for them, there wasn't a single one.

At least for me, not a huge deal (have one lightning cable and one usbc cable in my backpack amongst a lot of other odds and ends).

As for using the port itself, am using magsafe charging so can't remember the last time I plugged anything into my iphone's lightening port.

Just my two cents and thanks for the interesting question.

I’ve held out for two generations as well and although USB-C would be nice, having to carry one more cable or an adapter just isn’t enough for me to justify spending >$1,000 on a new phone.

I have been holding out as well. I will be upgrading from iphone8plus in 2017.

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