14 DAY TRIAL // Apple doesn’t seem to be willing to give up on the Lightning port, and despite rumors that USB-C could at one point makes its way to the iPhone, the Cupertino-based tech giant appears to suggest its proprietary port is here to stay.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean the Lightning connector must remain an iPhone exclusive. Not at all.
And while companies out there have absolutely no intention to bring this port to their devices, engineer Keen Pillonel has decided to do this on his own.
Pillonel is the engineer who managed to create an iPhone with a USB-C port, with the device eventually selling for big bucks on eBay. Now he decided to go the other way around and put a Lightning port on a Samsung Galaxy A51.
Unsurprisingly, the whole thing works, though Pillonel himself admits the result isn’t necessarily as refined as expected.
The project, however, is much harder than you’d be tempted to believe.
“[This] was a complex modification that required some out-of-the-box thinking,” he told Engadget. “The Lightning cables sold by Apple are not ‘dumb.’ They will only charge Apple devices. So I had to find a way to trick the cable into thinking it was plugged into an Apple device. And the whole thing needs to fit inside the phone, which is another challenge in itself.”
“I would say it was easier to do than the first USB-C iPhone for two reasons. The first is that I’m getting better at it because I’m learning new things every day, so hopefully I can finish these mods faster and faster. The second reason is that the quality of the finished product is nowhere near what it was for the iPhone.”
This time, it doesn’t look like this one-of-a-kind Samsung would end up listed for auction online, but a detailed video of the project is projected to go live sooner rather than later.