Anyone can buy an iPhone with a Lightning port, but as far as we know, there’s only one iPhone with a USB-C port. And if you have a spare $100,000 lying around, you can own it.
Last month, robotics student Ken Pillonel posted a short video showing a USB-C iPhone mod that he painstakingly built using an iPhone X and a custom circuit board. The port handles charging and data and doesn’t inhibit any of the functionality of the iPhone itself.
Earlier this week, Pillonel posted a new video describing in great detail how he built the USB-C port for the iPhone. He reverse-engineered a fake F94 Lightning board and made it thin enough to fit in the horizontal space between the battery and the Haptic Engine. He also created special brackets to hold the iPhone in place while milling the Lighting port to make it large enough to fit the USB-C port.
The video is a fascinating watch, and if it’s something you’re interested in owning, Pillonel is auctioning his work on eBay. But it won’t come cheap—with about six days left to go, the price is already over $100,000. Pillonel will “guarantee that the phone will work when you receive it,” but offers few assurances beyond that as it’s “just a prototype,” albeit a very cool one.
Pillonel offers a 30-minute call to the winning bidder to answer any questions, but outlines three terms:
- You will not restore, update, or erase this iPhone.
- You will not use it as your daily phone.
- You will not open it.
The iPhone X’s Lightning port was carefully milled to fit a USB-C cable.
Ken Pillonel
The iPhone X that you receive will only have 64GB of storage, but thanks to the one-of-a-kind USB port, you’ll be able to attach a much larger portable SSD drive. The auction ends at 8am PT on Thursday, November 11.
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He’s still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.
