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Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

With no regard for specified speed / power capabilities, USB-C is in and of itself a vastly physically inferior connection. It becomes easily impacted with pocket lint, and the tolerances are so small it can't be cleaned with normal tools. Not even just the phone, but the cable as well.

I'm an Android user and I have spent years dreaming that Apple would just open Lightning to the community.

I am kind of lightly thrilled at least that the Apple user base will soon realize what a nightmare it truly is.

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Transfer speeds by year

    2001 USB: 480Mb/s

    2012 Lightening 480Mb/s

    2023 USB 80,000 Mb/s

    2023 Lightening 480 Mb/s

But just on physical characteristics, I've had to deal with multiple iPhone with a broken pins whereas broken pins for USB is just a replacement cable.

Lightning does also support USB 3 (5Gbps) speed. It was used on iPads before they switched to USB-C. Do your research before posting false information.

Not really, that requires an Apple proprietary adapter for connecting to Cameras.

If you plug one of those three models of iPads in to a computer they’ll transfer files at 480Mb/s.

Not if you use the right cable

What you're saying is, Lightening supports USB 3.0 speeds on the 3 devices below when and only when using a £40 dongle which lets you connect an actual USB cable.

> 12.9-inch iPad Pro 1st Gen

> 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2st Gen

> 10.5-inch iPad Pro

That's ignoring all the form posts stating it doesn't work even with the adapter and ignoring the dongles product page stating it supports specific file encodings.

> The Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4.

The cable was a means of vendor lock-in, nothing more.

It doesn't even support 1080p!!

> maximum supported resolution of 1600 x 900

USB meanwhile, 8k@60hz

Lightening is un-defendable.

I've had Macbooks with USB c chargers for few years now. I've never had any of these problems. On the other hand I had to delint my sisters phone because the charger wouldn't full connect.

Tbh I think there's very little difference in their physical properties. Both work well.

Big disagree. You just clean it out with a brush or something. Maintain your shit. God, imagine if you ever owned the roof over you head or something.

USB-C has the retaining clips in the cable which is a replaceable and sacrificial item. Lightning has it in the device so once it goes the whole device is essentially dead.

So much for "vastly inferior".

I take very good care of my things. The plug on my phone should not require daily maintenance though. I have had cell phones since the late 90s and USB-C is the only plug that has given me trouble.

USB-C over a pretty short period collects lint. It gets compressed into the connector little by little every time you seat the cable and eventually your cable won't seat anymore. You then find a very solid plug in the bottom of the port that no amount of brushing will get it out.

You basically have to use a very fine needle to scrape the bottom.

I am guessing you have never had a USB-C phone before.

had to do this with my iphone a few years ago. used a plastic toothpick (rather than metal, of course) to extract the lint.

what you describe happened to the lightning port.

Me too… but have you used a usb-c phone?

I can only tell you my personal experience, but I can say with total confidence that the usb-c slot is significantly more irritating.

The lightning slot is physically almost exactly the same size, but the usb-c one has a huge damn tab in the middle that makes cleaning the slot out a) more of a pain in the ass, b) harder to see what you’re doing, and c) requires a physically smaller tool to do it.

/shrug

Yes, lightning isn’t magically immune to lint.

…but usb-c is harder clean, and seems more prone to collecting lint in my experience.

I've had a USB-C phone for 7 years. I did indeed have to use a needle to remove the lint that built up one time. One time in seven years. I enjoyed it. It was so satisfying and it's a shame I've never needed to do it again.

It's really not a big deal. It's just a needle. An incredibly common tool found in most households.

The advantages easily outweigh this one small downside.

The main advantage is ubiquity. You can thank Apple for Lightning not having that. They could have made USB-C redundant, but of course that just isn't the Apple way.

What kind of linty clothes are you guys wearing? I have had usb-c phones for what seems like forever now.. Never had any issues or had to clean it even once.

Jeans. I think the reason I don't have to do it much any more is I work from home now so don't have my phone in my pocket almost every day.

For PCs, laptops, tablets, e-readers etc I can't see this ever being a problem. It's not just phones, remember.

I was wondering the same thing. This is the first time I'm hearing of lint-inside-port situation. Was I living under a rock?!

This has never been a problem for me for both USB-C or lightning ports. But apparently — judging by comments here — this is a common complaint.

About the ports themselves I don't care either way. I have no strong opinions about USB-C or lightning.

You and I have been living under a lint-free rock, apparently.

> The plug on my phone should not require daily maintenance though.

That's an absurd exaggeration.

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