You would be forgiven for thinking it was an April Fool’s joke – after all, it was posted on April 1st. But the Samsung Galaxy A51, modified with a Lightning port, is very genuine. Producer Ken Pillonel previously modded an iPhone with a USB-C port, and due to popular demand, he also did the opposite.
Why do this? For fun and also for the challenge. The first hurdle was to undermine the authentication hardware in Apple accessories – this is primarily intended to disable knock-off products, but it will prevent an Android phone from using a Lightning cable. If the chip inside the cable does not hear the correct authentication, it will refuse to carry power and data.
As you will see in the video, there is a way around this, but it is not as straightforward as plug and play. The last challenge was miniaturization – modern smartphones are so tightly packed that there is almost no room for new hardware.
Well, you already know that Ken managed to graft a Lightning port on a phone that Cupertino would not approve. So here’s how he did it:
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