The title has it… What is the physical size of the new Lightning connector? That is, what's the size of the tip of the connector that gets plugged into the device? I want to use this information for comparison of physical size of micro USB and Lightning.
IPhone – the physical size of the Lightning connector
iphonelightning
Related Solutions
The lightning cable in terms of USB speed is not any faster than the cable it replaces according to the Apple Store product description for the Lightning to USB Cable
This USB 2.0 cable connects your iPhone or iPod with Lightning connector to your computer's USB port for syncing and charging or to the Apple USB Power Adapter for convenient charging from a wall outlet.
It is still only rated to be a USB 2.0 cable, so that implies all the currently just released devices with the new Lightning connector are still USB 2.0.
So as far as USB connectivity and transfers go it can only go as fast as USB 2.0 allows, which should make it an equal with the old 30-pins usb interface.
The all digital aspect might be a plus for some users / uses, eg outputting to digital audio devices directly, but even that is unclear, it not really clear what all you can do with the new interface.
Although one point taken from the Media event slides is "Adaptive interface", not sure what that means exactly, but it may mean that hardware & software developers may be able to program how the pins can be used to interact with devices and accessories. If that is true that could be a huge long term benefit from this major re-factoring of the interface connector for iOS devices.
If you count the shield on USB 3.0, the "9 pin" version actually requires 10 pins, as the shield, while typically grounded, is not actually used as the signal-ground (and it cannot be used as such).
As such, if the lightning connector indeed has only 8 pins, there is no way it can support USB 3.0 while properly complying with the USB spec.
I would guess that if it supports USB 3.0, it would be with non-standard USB extension, much as many of apple's other USB addons (like their high-current charging facilities).
I'd like to further note that, from an electrical engineering standpoint, using the casing (which is called the shield) for anything but, well, shielding is considered very bad practice.
The entire point of shielding is to basically absorb any interference before it can each the inner conductors. If you are relying on the shield for carrying a meaningful signal (and ground is indeed a meaningful signal), it is no longer effective as a shield.
If it does support USB 3.0, I would hope they open the connector mechanical design up for wider adoption, as the current USB 3.0 micro connector is horribly designed mechanically.
Related Question
- Lightning Connector – Power Drawn by External Devices from iPhone or iPad
- IPad – Apple Lightning to Micro USB
- Lightning Connector Safety for Children
- IPhone – Lightning Headphones with a splitter
- IPhone – Sensitivity to gross noise on battery charging lines of Lightning connector
- iPhone – Has Anyone Used a Lightning + Micro USB to USB-C Cable?
- MacBook – Male-to-male Lightning cables & Lightning hubs
Best Answer
I haven't seen any precise measurements of the connector itself, but you can see from these iPhone 5 blueprints (which come from Apple for case manufacturers) that the width of the area the connector goes is 9.05mm (including the plastic housing).
I used a hires image from iFixit's iPhone 5 teardown to get an estimate that the metal tip is about 84% of the width of the plastic housing, which works out to about 7.6mm, give or take. Using the same methodology, I'd estimate the height of the metal connector to be about 1.4mm.