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EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

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241–250 of 751 posts

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#241
post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

> What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

Profit.

What was the reason for abandoning FireWire?

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#242
post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

It is reasonable to believe Apple builds a better phone. While I can't speak for the mass of Apple customers, it seems unlikely that they secretly want the European Commission to design their phones.

This is a bad decision, because:

1. The European Commission doesn't have the time or resources to make consistently good decisions about phone design. It is a minor miracle that Apple managed to gather enough talented people together in one spot to give us the iPhone. The EU can't replicate that level of ability (observe the quite remarkable failure of EU phone manufacturers).

2. If (when, really) technology improves, progress will be slowed.

3. Heaven help us if we need a bureaucratic response to protect indifferent customers from nonuniform chargers. There are actual problems in the world they could be focusing on.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#243
post #239
post #226

Hear me out, I’m an Android guy at heart and I genuinely believe the lightning connector is vastly superior. I never have lightning connectors fail to seat, nor fall out of a socket while I’m using a device, nor have I ever broken a lightning connector on a device. These are all seemingly fundamental problems with USB-C. I have had THREE USB-C sockets fail on two phones through normal use, on Pixel and OnePlus device…

Looks like all other people on internet with broken lightning connector are blatant liars..

You can break anything if you try hard enough. I make no claims of lightning being indestructible, but USB-C is genuinely fragile.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#244
post #45

Maybe unpopular opinion but I like lightning more than USB-C, it makes more sense to me to have the connective parts of the cable on the outside of it, which gets rid of that little "notch" on the inside of USB-C ports which just seems like it can get bent at any time.

I also prefer Lightning. The central pin of USB-C being in the device's port rather than the charger seems like a bad idea to me. Lightning is the opposite.

I think it helps against dust getting stuck inside though.

Also, more ports on USB-C make for better "alternate mode" functionality, where some data lanes are re-purposed (with an analog mux) for another use, like displayport, or audio DAC.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#245
post #226

Hear me out, I’m an Android guy at heart and I genuinely believe the lightning connector is vastly superior. I never have lightning connectors fail to seat, nor fall out of a socket while I’m using a device, nor have I ever broken a lightning connector on a device. These are all seemingly fundamental problems with USB-C. I have had THREE USB-C sockets fail on two phones through normal use, on Pixel and OnePlus device…

I love lightning for this exact reason. It’s very difficult to break the actual port in the phone by design.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#246
post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

I have like 3 lightning cables, apple deprecating lightning would account to me throwing these cables away and buying usb-c. I suppose other apple users would have to do the same. Not to mention other lightning accessories, headphones and such. Lightning is still included on airpods (pro and max). Furthermore, usb-c is younger than lightning. And lightning was arguably superior to previous usbs (more durable). So whi…

people always look for short term gains while completely ignoring the long term benefits

go look for phone charger waste and why it is important to stop having 4685486468478 different type of chargers, people are very selfish in this thread

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Apple's own USB-C equipped iPads are slimmer than any of their phones.

Besides, what's the point of a thinner phone when you got a huge bump for the camera's. Rather it be a bit thicker so that there is more room for battery. I personally really wish for a flag ship phone like the Galaxy S21 Ultra that doesn't have such a huge camera array.

The bump looks so bad haha. I've never found anyone that agrees

Yeah I'd much prefer a phone that's what, 1mm thicker? Maybe 2 at a push

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much time did you spend on researching what USB-C cable you should buy? :) Also, does it have data? At 2.0 speeds? At 3.1 speeds?

I know what I should expect if I am paying a cable $5 vs $40. Just because tip of the cable is looking like USB-C, you shouldn't expect it to support HDMI etc. Most people are not looking for full set of USB-C features. Most people are just looking to charge their device. I don't remember last time I wired up my phone to my computer for any data transfer, and I am a nerd who reads HN. Think about the average folk. If…

Even charging from cable to cable is completely different. But I do not believe at all that regular people do not ever have the need to connect their device to a computer. They might not most of the time, but that one time they do they'll be kicking themselves over it.

Also, $40 per cable is completely and utterly ridiculous. That's 5-8% of monthly salary of Bulgaria (EU country) for a short cable.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#249
post #44
post #4

Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere, it's Apple and their cable. Right now I always need with me a micro USB cable, an USB-C one, and Lightning, because Apple thinks different™. What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones?

> What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones? I can think of 3 reasons: 1. A lightning port is slightly smaller than USB-c, so it enable Apple to keep their phone slimmer than the competition in theory. 2. Apple loves to be in control of everything. With lightning, they could make a switch to a "lightning 2.O" cable / port whenever they so pleased. With USB-C they would be restricte…

> keep their phone slimmer than the competition in theory.

This always struck me as a solution looking for a problem. Are modern phones really that chunky that we have to sacrifice functionality to shave a few fractions of a mm?

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Apple's own USB-C equipped iPads are slimmer than any of their phones.

Besides, what's the point of a thinner phone when you got a huge bump for the camera's. Rather it be a bit thicker so that there is more room for battery. I personally really wish for a flag ship phone like the Galaxy S21 Ultra that doesn't have such a huge camera array.

IMHO, the camera bumps are also just ugly. That is mitigated by protective cases, but still thicker phones would be more robust and have place for larger batteries. That being said, modern day phones all look the same anyway, once they are in a non-transparent case.
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