Idk, lightning has the opposite problem where the contacts are exposed and degrade very quickly on the cable and need to be replaced constantly. Great for apple. And lightning has the gripping pins on the phone which degrade rather quickly too over repeated use. No cable is perfect I fear
It's more difficult to design and build pins for longevity in a cable? I think the logic with Lightning is that Apple can build a very structurally sound connector with pins inside the phone. After all, we have seen few issues with pins in phones failing.
With the lightning cable the problem is with the reinforcement between the connector and the cable. And it's a problem Apple has had with pretty much every cable they've ever made.
I dunno, I seem to go through Lightning charging cables like water, whereas I've never replaced a USB-C charging cable. That may have less to do with the intrinsic properties of the design so much as Apple's unwillingness to build stable cables, but usually I have two or three cables (at home, at the office) which are usually whatever's cheapest, so it seems like it must be intrinsic to the market's ability to produce durable third party cables.
In my house, I replace at least one lightning cable per month. If those are even tugged in the wrong direction, they will bend or break entirely. Also, the copper pad contact surfaces on the surface of the connector often simply fall out of the plug itself, rendering the cable useless.
I'm buying Apple cables from Apple, as well. The lightning connector is garbage, and is easily the worst device interface cable I have ever seen.
Also note that the springs on a lightning connector are on the socket and not the plug.
Lightning cables and sockets are designed to wear out quickly, forcing replacement early and often.
The little heatshrinked part near the connector is very clearly designed to fail, and I've seen so many lightning cables fail there after just 6 months.
Meanwhile my Oneplus 3t USB cable that I've been using even after moving on from that phone has only frayed this year, but still works.
Absolutely, but this will never be the case with lightning. Lightning cable's weak point is the cable itself - which is something applicable to ALL cables. I'm suggesting the male end of the connector of Lightning is far more durable and resilient to these problems of wear and tear.
Apple phones also last longer than other phones, and because their connections remain so standard, you can use the same cable for multiple phones. I've definitely destroyed some Apple cables, but generally they've been on their second or third device.
> I suspect it's because they favor very thin casing and for greater flexibility -- a lightning cable winds tighter than typical charging cables for other phones.
I'm not so sure about this explanation—the cables usually fail at the very ends, where the connector meets the cable itself.
I find the pins on the connector on all my lightning cables gets scorched and stops working no matter what brand or quality of cable I buy. It is as if iPhones don't limit current inrush and the gold plating on the cable arcs and is worn off when the connector is plugged in. The connectors on the phone, however, are fine for years.
Flimsy cables are flimsy cables and they will break and fray. USB-C, Lightning, whatever.
The first-party Lightning cables from Apple have always been pretty flimsy so if Lightning cables have a bad rep in general, that's probably why. That's Apple's fault but not anything specific to Lightning.
I've had a lot of Anker Lightning cables and they're about as bulletproof as a cable can possibly be.
The lightning connector has one major flaw: the springs are in the phone side.
Over time these wear out which is why its much better to have the phone side have simple static contact surfaces and the spring loaded contacts on the cable side which is much cheaper to replace.
USB until C also did this wrong and C fixed that mistake.
I would agree that Lightning feels somewhat better designed. I have a USB-C port for docking my laptop and a USB-C phone and both are somewhat flakey. If I move the cable in a certain way it disconnects. I've tried replacing cables, but to no avail, so it definately seems like the connector is the issue.
I had an iPhone 5S for 5 years before this phone and never had any issues, other than dust getting in, which was easily cleaned.
The iPhone Cables are the only ones that does it without some sort of strain relieves, which means they have a far higher rate of failure.
I brought Anker PowerLine II and III ( Not the + version ) for my family and friends and so far apart from one connector failure ( Not the cable ), all of them have survived the years of usage with no signs of cable damage. It is such a relieve knowing your cable should last years if not decades.
We used to joke apart Apple made the cable so bad because they expect us to buy a new iPhone every two years anyway, which is when all of our lightning cables somehow failed.
I am also wondering, if it is really that environmental friendly to make your cable free of certain material but they break 10 times easier and end up so much more in landfill. Compare to make one that last literally forever. Lightning Cables are sold in hundreds of millions unit a year. And Apple earns money and commission from lightning chips, connector and MFi.
Haven’t had any terrible experiences with lightning cables. I have several cables that are from 2016/2018 that I use regularly. But then again none of my type c cables go bad either… I think it would have been safer to say “from my experience <xyz>” instead of presenting your opinion as if it were more than just an opinion. I see how friends and family members treat their cables, tugging on the phone to disconnect instead of removing the cable by hand. Or placing the charger in a way that the cable is bent up against a piece of furniture. Regarding the lightning port, it’s actually quite easy to clean, compared to ports like usb-c (I’m guessing you know why that would be). Also using lightning on a Mac doesn’t make sense and that’s probably why they don’t do it.
Except lightning has been consistent for ~10 years.
USB on the other hand is a complete mess.
Naively, the lightning connector seems better designed. The cable is just a flat wedge that goes into a socket. The usb has an internal wedge/pin in the socket and then has to have something wrap around it. I feel that internal wedge is more susceptible to damage, and then the entire port on the device is cooked, vs a relatively inexpensive cable.
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