I’ve never been the biggest Apple fan, as anyone who knows me and most of my articles will attest. As such, when I first heard of Apple’s switch to the the Lighting connector for its devices, I dismissed it as more of Apple’s proprietary nonsense. Reading Andreas’s great comparison article with microUSB cleared up some of Apple’s design choices, but I was still a bit perplexed by the idea that a reversible connector was that big of a deal. However, when my 32GB replacement Nexus 7 came in, I finally realized the actual significance of such a seemingly trivial thing, and am ready to admit that in at least one way Apple’s new connector is superior to Google’s standards-based setup.
The above image is a picture of my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 stacked on top of each other, both with the displays facing up. As you can tell, the microUSB connectors are facing in opposite directions. Big deal, right? Well, while certainly not a deal breaker, this is quite annoying. I often try to plug in these devices without looking, and am actually used to turning the microUSB cable a certain direction for my Nexus 4. When trying to plug in the Nexus 7, I often get mixed up and try unsuccessfully to plug the connector in. This alone wouldn’t be a big deal either, as it is mere seconds of delay.
However, what really bothers me is that the backwards attempts can actually scratch up the area around the ports quite a bit, and sometimes do slight damage to the actual microUSB port on the phone. I’ve only had it happen once with my OG HTC EVO 4G, but microUSB ports do break. Ever since the EVO, I’ve learned to be extremely careful with plugging and unplugging devices, which makes the mismatched ports more time consuming and annoying.
In addition, the fact that the connectors face different directions on two of Google’s own devices makes it much harder to make universal accessories like desktop docks, a car dock, or really anything else that requires a cable to be plugged in. I’ve made several simple docks with a microUSB cable simply hot glued to a flat back, with an additional base to provide support. Back when I had lots of PMPs, it was actually a setup I used quite a lot. Unfortunately, although a setup like this would normally be universal because many devices use microUSB, the backwards facing connectors on the Nexus 4 and 7 mean that a dock for one will be useless for the other because it will face backwards.
I wouldn’t be as surprised if the discrepancy in port orientation came from two different manufacturers, but the two devices I have are the latest of the same family from Google. While it may seem very petty to complain about the orientation of a smartphone charger, I wanted to take this rare occasion to point out a time when I actually understand and support (at least partially) Apple’s choice in something. I would actually be quite happy if Lightning was in fact the standard instead of microUSB, but despite Lightning being “what microUSB should have been,” that will never happen. Instead, I’ll just have to wait and hope that with their next set of devices, Google can make something as simple as port orientation consistent. Unless there is a legitimate design reason why they physically can’t orient the ports a certain way, I don’t see why they should be different.
I understand what you mean, but
“I wouldn’t be as surprised if the discrepancy in port orientation came from two different manufacturers”
The Nexus 4 is manufactured by LG, the Nexus 7 by Asus. But both designed by Google, and therefore should have at least some standard orientation.
#firstworldproblem
btw: i have a lot of different gadgets and most of them use micro usb.
the fact that all my wires connect to all those gadgets is huge, and i would happily accept usb ports that are build in diagonally or even constantly moving and changing their location and/or orientation if only i can keep it that way.
Sorry, but its just a bad argument. Apples ports might face the same way, but you still need to buy different accessories for an iPad and an iPhone, minus maybe a charger. It would be much cheaper to buy a full set of accessories for a nexus 4,7, and 10 than to deck out even a single apple product. I can get the works for an android phone (case, spare battery, screen protector) for under ten bucks.
This is less an argument for lightning and more an argument for Google asking its carriers to have its ports face the same way.
Best reason to switch to Lightning: give apple some more hard earned cash.
They could have been total innovators and done wireless everything… you’d charge your iPhone on an… iPad… but no…
I agree. I love being able to manually handle music on my iPad over wifi, but it still leaves charging as an issue. The introduction of lightning would have been the perfect time to introduce wireless charging. Youd obviously still need an optional cable system, but a wireless generation of apple products would have been nice
I don’t want to start a flame war, but I do have to chime in with this:
I buy Apple products for build quality. It’s just that basic. I may only run Fedora on my brand new iMac, but I know that machine will run for the next 6+ years. Ditto for my laptops and while I may upgrade my phone sooner, it won’t be because the sliding keyboard is falling off, as it is on my coworker’s new ‘droid device.
Bought a system76: returned it for crap quality control. Ditto for the Lenovo that just arrived. Bottom line, with most purchases, you get what you pay for; in tech, even more so.
You do get what you pay for. An iMac might well last you six years, and a good friend of mine is a graphic designer who swears by Apple products because in his words, they just work.
Granted, I haven’t bought an Apple product since their 2nd gen iPod nanos, and have never owned an Apple PC. My experience with iPods showed me that they conveniently stopped working a month after the warranty expired, but I wouldn’t say they’re made worse than any competitor.
Say what you want about Apple, but you’ve gotta admit they’ve got style.
My sister and I both have iPod Videos (the ones with the spinning hard drive inside). Her 30GB dates back to 2005, my 80GB dates to 2006….so it’s fair to say they are outside of warranty, yet both work just fine.
I think many users just don’t know how to take care of their devices.
You’re probably right, I used the iPods in high school and doubt I was too careful with them at that point. The issue I always had was that the audio jack would stop working, likely due to an occasional drop where the headphones would get pulled out.
However, I have had a second gen Zune since my senior year in 2008 – its taken plenty of abuse and works just fine. Zunes were built like bricks though, and definitely more durable than Apple’s relatively thin Nanos at the time.
Gonna have to leave a comment here about Apple. I work as a tech agent for mobile product repairs, and the most commonly defective item that shows up at our center is actually either an iPad or iPod. Guess what the reasons behind the damages are? Either broken charging port, or screen damage. Granted most of the screen damage is caused by the people themselves, because in all fairness they are complete and total morons.
Another thing is, I build my own computers, and have literally NEVER bought one from the store because of this. Let me tell you, one of the pc’s I’ve build about 9 years ago still runs with no issues, and I turned it on only a few weeks ago just to check up on it. Even back then when I built that old machine, it still cost me less than a mac, and was more powerful than one in the same generation.
Apple doesn’t mean quality, it just means you pay extra because you get an apple on the back of your device. Asus parts for example, outlast apple parts on almost every occasion.
Having iPads and iPods be the most repaired products likely has as much to do with so many of them being out there. Pure logic would have Windows Phones come in as the least repaired of the three major smartphone genres, because fewest of them are sold. Statistics are great until you start using them wrong.
I do agree with building your own computers though. Not to mention being able to fix them. I’m actually getting annoyed, because I have working computers going back a decade, and it’s always hard to throw away something that’s working.
Yeah I wasn’t really referring to the fact that iPads and iPods specifically come in for repairs. I just wanted to point out that most of the repairs were charger port related for the most part, even on the “better built” apple chargers.
Yeah on the whole statistic part of it it makes sense that more apple come in than microsoft related stuff in the mobile field. I just wanted to share my finds about apple’s build quality.
Statistics are great till you start using them wrong
galaxy s3 sold twice as many units last year as iphone 5
by your reckoning that should be his most common item in need of repair
(@Adrian) I disagree that Asus makes it more reliable than Apple. I have bought iPhone 3G, 4, iPad 1, Apple TV 1, and all work well out of factory.
I bought an Asus Transformer TF101 w/ keyboard dock. The keyboard dock came problematic, swapped another one (had to return the tablet too as it came in one box). 2nd one (the replacement) works, but has scratches all over both sides, mechanical kind of scratches, like tiny dots. Swapped again, now this is a third one, now working fine. But it has a green tint so only lately I found an app to adjust the colour. Contrast is still quite low and that cannot be changed. Color and contrast definitely no match to iPad. I also own Asus eeePC 1000HE. This one is good, well made, but it is not a tablet.
Another thing: it is much easier to deal with Apple’s warranty claim than other manufacturers.
Back to OP’s topic. I hate MicroUSB but have to live with it. My Nook Color got knocked from table to flloor while connected to charging cable. Cable plug almost broke and eventually completely broke. Many people have same problem so Barnes and Noble has been nice enough to ship another cable (but not to Canada!). Meanwhile, without original cable, it can only be charge at 500mA, not at high current rate.
Problem with MicroUSB is that it is so thin that it has very little mechanical strength itself, so it is very easy to break. Worse, if dropped, what if it breaks the socket inside? That means into repair centers for most people.
I already don’t like Mini USB, but accepted that when it almost became the standard at the time. But no, for strange reason, they shifted to Micro and not only that the EU standardized on it! Why?
Talking about that, how did Apple get away from that mandate from EU? I don’t live in Europe so I don’t get enough of that kind of news here.
My favourite plug (which might not be good enough today for fast charging, I don’t know) is the plug that came in Ericsson’s cellphones like T28W or R520m. It is because when knocked it came loose and nothing is broken. As a matter of fact, to remove the plug, you bend it instead of pull it. The later version on W810i is similar, also is the kind of “no harm done” design.
Why can’t the standard be something like this, that will reduce breaking so many times over? Why standardize on a long thin piece of metal which has no mechanical strength?
And the high current charging modes are not standard anyway.
I think Mini USB is the thinnest they should be at. But there is also another flaw of Mini USB, some of them are very loose, especially those which have the 90 degree corner on one end.
I live with Apple’s 30 pin plugs. At first, it took a while to acquire all the necessary cables and adapters, but after a while, it is comfortable because it can be shared. Now with the new lightning cable, everyone has to go buy new ones. It was news when some high gov execs in one Asian city got into a low batt situation on their iPhone 5, and couldn’t find a store to buy the lightning cables because they were all sold OUT! Now that is the bad part of being proprietary (and new).
At least we have moved away from all the proprietary connections from the old cellphone days. It was so crazy that different models from same manufacturers have different connectors. That cannot be worse!
The cellphone connectors on the old Motorola MicroTAC or related models in those days, have very sturdy *(but big) connectors. Definitely hard to break that when dropped, not like plugs today.
I think it is very wrong that your tablet slid from table / desk to floor, while connected w/ a charger, would break that plug by that fall. This would happen so often and yet shouldn’t be that fragile. This is completely wrong to have a 1 to 2 pound device tethered with a tiny and thin connector as a charger, yet expect it to not break?
I guess that is why they want you to pay $50. to $100. for a docking station so you can charge your tablet safely. Another money grab to solve a problem they created themselves. Or is it called manufacturing consumer needs?
Apple makes a Lightning to microUSB adapter to deal with the EU. Good thing someone stands up to those idiots, standardizing one of the worst plug designs in history.
just wait till the wireless charging dock comes out for the Nexus 4 then it won’t be an issue
I’m considering picking up a third party charging dock, but the fact that Google still hasn’t released a “stock” wireless charger is another problem entirely.
I am all for wireless charging.
But I thought I read that it is not as efficient, and generated extra heat.
I thought the heat was bad for our batteries.
Been waiting 2 months for Nokia to release their wireless charging backs for the 820. I would like it for my Wife’s phone. Tired of plugging in her devices every night.
Peace
All of my devices use micro USB and I plug them in “blind” all the time. There’s a simple trick. Just feel the metal part of the micro USB cable before you plug it in. The flat side has two “sharp” points and the round side is smooth.
Please change your article. You have incorrectly stated that the micro-USB is a google requirement. That is incorrect the standard they are using is an EU requirement (hence why in the EU Apple has to include a micro-usb adapter).
Personally to me it makes sense. I don’t have to buy multiple chargers and one of these days manufacturers will actually stop making them for specific phones, and rather you will buy a charger from the store for any phone. Since the EU has made this ruling my life is easier as I don’t need to buy additional chargers (usually a min of 2 – work, travel and then the one that comes with the phone for work.
Can’t speak for the EU part of your comment, but micro-usb is certainly not required by Google for Android. Samsung has used 30-pin connectors like Apple used until the last iteration of iPhone/iPad/iPod on some GalaxyTab devices (frustratingly using entirely different pin-outs!), and maybe others.
Really?
I have had devices with micro usb for 4 years now, kindles, blackberrys, droids and now a playbook and never had a charging issue. The last charging issue I had was with a nokia 5310, with one of those tiny tiny pin chargers, that fell off a table and bent the pin.
Having recently moved from iOS to android, I have to say android is easily the better OS these days, iOS is so … dull. I have a sony xperia s, and everything about it is better than the iphone 5, down to the fact it comes with a case and screen protector in the box. How much would that cost Apple? too much apparently
Dull, maybe, and that’s why I don’t switch back, but I sure do miss the awesome battery life on iPhone. My iPhone easily got two days of moderate use from a charge. My Android phones seldom get more than four or five hours. Android is most certainly not the superior platform yet. Will it be? Hard to say. I’ll wait and see.
I have seen dozens of broken micro-usb ports on smartphones. These connectors are delicate, and many people don’t take enough care in pluggin them in. The lightning connector is very sturdy–even more so than the 30-pin connector it replaced. It’s not a deal-breaker for me for a device to have a micro-usb port, obviously, but it’s a FAR from ideal standard. Mini-usb is much sturdier, and even though orientation matters with it as well, I prefer it to micro-usb.
The Asus Nexus 7′s microUSB port is, plain and simple, UPSIDE DOWN. There’s a top and a bottom to these connectors, and it’s identified by the seams. Seam up is proper orientation; seam down is backward. Just try it on any standard USB connector.Regular USB has one seam, and microUSB has two side seams. I have the same issues with my Droid 4 and my Nexus 7, and despite the insignificance, it is grrrr-ingly annoying.
Google doesn’t make both devices. One is made by Samsung and the other is made by Asus. Apple is over priced and restrictive. I have the same problem trying to connect the charger in the dark, but when it won’t go in one way it will go in the other so it takes about tw0 tries.