You can now buy the world's first USB-C iPhone

Michail, 03 November 2021

Last month, Ken Pillonel - a robotics student from Switzerland showed the world his iPhone X with a fully working USB-C port. The very same phone is now being auctioned off on eBay and you can own a bit of history if you choose so. As of writing this article, the price has reached a sizeable $3,950.

World's first USB-C iPhone listing on eBay
World's first USB-C iPhone listing on eBay

The phone in question is a pre-owned 64GB iPhone X in black and only comes with the box and no accessories included. Pillonel also advises it should not be used as a daily driver phone nor restored or have its data erased.

If you want to see how the device reached its final form, Pillonel also posted a complete guide on his YouTube account detailing the whole process. In short, he reversed engineered Appleā€™s Lighting connector and then a replica Lightning connector which allowed him to make a flexible circuit board that managed to fit vertically inside the iPhone between the battery and Taptic Engine.

The whole project is open-sourced and you can find all the instructions on its GitHub repository if you want to have a go at modding an iPhone with USB-C yourself. Last but not least Pillonel said he will continue to tinker with USB-C on iPhones and even hinted at adding a USB-C connector to a pair of AirPods which will be an interesting project to follow.


Related

Reader comments

  • Adul Al Salami Kebab
  • 05 Apr 2022
  • gx$

Even M-USB is more durable than type-c, its less likely to be accidentally destroyed by being forced in the wrong way but overall less durable than its predecessor.

  • Anonymous
  • 03 Apr 2022
  • IbI

Actually lightening connector is more robust than USB-C connector, being a solid center piece rather a tubular plug-in.

As of this moment the bidding amount is showing over 1,00,000. If Apple were a sensible organisation free from Greed, then the iPhones would have had USB C since atleast the last 5 years. Now after taking royalty payments for lightining accessor...

Popular articles

More

Popular devices

Electric Vehicles

More