World’s First USB C iPhone 12 Pro Max Up for Sale

If Apple will not bring USB C to iPhones, then hardware engineers will do it unofficially. A Slovakian company called DEEP has successfully transplanted a USB C port to an iPhone 12 Pro Max and it’s fully functional.

This makes it the first iPhone 12 Pro Max to get a USB C port, but not the first-ever iPhone overall. This was already done on an iPhone X last year in November by a robotics student Ken Pillonel. But this time, the transplant was performed by hardware and software engineers.

The iPhone in question was pried open and a few parts were removed to get to the Lightning port assembly. Once it was removed, measurements were taken to learn a suitable size for the USB C connector so it can be installed in the housing properly. After the Lightning port gasket was removed, there was barely enough space for a USB C assembly to fit in.

A new flex cable was designed for the USB C port and an original MFI chip was taken from another device. MFI contains an authenticator chip used in Apple devices that verifies whether a charger is suitable to use. This was soldered into the flex assembly and installed into the device inside a 3D printed housing.

The USB C plug was able to fit this Frankenstein port almost perfectly. However, the speaker assembly needed to be filed down a bit to fit the new USB C housing.

Once the iPhone was put back together, the new port was working seamlessly for charging as well as data transfer. The USB C iPhone 12 Pro Max is now up for sale on eBay through an auction.

As mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first iPhone to get a USB C port. The first one was an iPhone X created by Ken Pillonel. It was sold on eBay for a whopping $86,001.