Things are fun for anyone who manages to achieve something that no other has ever achieved or thought of.
Swiss Robotics and data science student Ken Pillonel was one of those people.
Back in 2021, he was the first person who successfully swapped an iPhone X's Lightning port to use a more well-received USB-C port.
Pillonel, a robotics engineering student from Switzerland, then attempted to sell the one-of-a-kind phone to eBay.
Because Pillonel documented everything, including all the processes, and even open-sourced the project on GitHub, others tried to replicate his work, and things didn't seem to be that interesting anymore.
That, until Pillonel created another project, and that is adding an Apple Lightning port to an Android phone.
Ken Pillonel shared an early demonstration of the modification on his YouTube channel.
In the announcement video that is only 47 seconds long, it is seen how a Samsung Galaxy A51, which originally had a USB Type-C connector, had its connector replaced with Apple's Lightning port.
The description also explicitly states that it’s not an April Fools’ Day prank, despite its publishing date of April 1.
"This is it. I’ve finally built the World’s First Android phone with an Apple Lightning port. It supports charging and data transfers. It is a Samsung Galaxy A51. After creating the first USB-C iPhone in the world, I decided I needed to balance the chaos I have created by making the exact opposite invention. It was a complex modification that required some out-of-the-box thinking. And sprinkle some DIY on top of that. The full length explanation video is coming soon. Super excited to show you how I did it," the video description said.
Like on his previous project, the Lightning port hacked onto his Samsung Galaxy A51 is fully functional, both for charging and data transfer.
In the mobile industry, the vast majority of devices use USB-C.
This allows devices to benefit from the more modern USB specifications. As a result, USB-C that support USB4, can transfer speeds up to 40Gbps. By comparison, Apple's Lightning cables are much slower, with transfer data at USB 2.0 rates at only 480Mbps.
Complicating the matters, Apple doesn't release all specifications nor the protocols for the Lightning proprietary technology.
The company has so far refused to do so in favor of its tightly controlled Lightning standard.
Because of this, it's relatively unclear what Lightning's actual maximum transfer speed is.
But what is certain, the technology has not been updated since at least 2012.
USB-C, which is a more modern technology, has a massive speed advantage over Apple's Lightning.
What's more, USB-C also supports higher wattage and current
Lightning port is regarded as an inferior technology if compared to USB-C. But regardless, the port is smart, and is only designed to work with Apple products.
In this project, Pillonel had to find a way to pass Apple’s safeguards.
He said that he had to find a way to "trick" the port into thinking it was connected to an iPhone.
In an interview, Pillonel said that the the most difficult part in this project was "figuring out how to make everything actually work together."
According to Pillonel, he was more after the challenge of doing something no one has successfully did in their right mind.
