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An argument for USB-C iPhones
(beehaw.org)
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this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2023
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Usbc has some fundamental flaws that make it a bad choice for a phone charger port.
The main problem is how much more difficult it is to clean compared to a lightning port which is literally a hole you can wiggle a toothpick around in with impunity to make lint come out. Usbc ports are so narrow around the plastic tongue that you need a thinner than normal kind of straight pin to jostle the dust out. That’s not too bad but those tongues are more delicate than the rest of the thing which is made of metal, so it’s easy to bend em or break em entirely. The pin design on the tongue is also much thinner than those on the lightning port it’s replacing and they seem to be more exposed, because they’re very likely to be damaged during cleaning compared to contacts on the lightning port.
On the other side, the cord, usbc has an annular oval that may need to be cleaned from time to time, but it’s contacts can’t be directly reached because they’re on the inside of the oval. Everyone with an iPhone or iPad knows about the tarnished black pin on their lightning cord, second one from the right, that needs to be scuffed with a pocketknife so it’ll work. Man, maybe it’s time to replace that cord. Too bad you can’t reach the v+ pin on a usbc cable when it gets tarnished.
That’s not even the bad part though.
You know how it seems like lightning cables never last as long as other cables? They always break at that little circuit board behind the connector, need to be held a certain way to charge and eventually don’t work at all and you gotta go down to the gas station and spend $5 on a replacement.
Usbc will change all that! It’s got a much tougher connection to the little board that’s connected to the wires in the cable, and the annular ring connector makes a very strong connection to the port it’s plugged into. So strong that when you accidentally bend the cable end with it plugged into your phone, it breaks the tongue or pulls the port off it’s circuit board rather than just breaking internally like a lightning cord does. Now you don’t have to go to the 24 hour gas station and get anew cord, you’ve got to wait for a microsoldering shop to open up so you can pay them $150 to put a new port in your phone.
As a computer charging port, sure. A computer or headphone data port, sure. Something that’s gonna go in a pocket? No thanks.
I've had a phone with a USBC charger for years. Previous to that it was micro USB. I know several people who have done the same.
Nothing you have described has really ever been an issue for any of us. Your critiques are true, I suppose, but it's important to think about how often they are practical issues and not just theoretical.
And at that, USBC ports are in general repairable. The only time they aren't is when they are impossible to gain access to without damaging anything else.
My take away from your comment, personally, is that lightning cables burn out, are more expensive than USBC, are proprietary and not an open standard, but might be easier to clean. Though you can clean USBC ports using a needle, so not even crazy easier, just a bit.
I can understand being hesitant about change, but these feel like exaggerated critiques.