Apple iPhone 17 Pro gets Lightning port through protective case

Over the past few years, Ken Pillonel has already converted older iPhones to a USB-C port and added a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and the modder's online shop even offers protective cases that add a USB-C port to models from the iPhone 13 or iPhone 14 series. On April 1, the engineer has now set to work to equip a current iPhone 17 Pro ($1,149 on Amazon) with a Lightning port instead.

The protective cover is probably primarily intended as a humorous hobby project, as this protective cover is not intended to be sold. Nevertheless, the project shows that it would be possible to charge a current iPhone via Apple's outdated, proprietary connector with moderate effort. Technically, the project is relatively simple, as the protective case from a 3D printer is simply combined with a USB-C to Lightning adapter, which is modded to take up as little space as possible so that the protective case only adds a few millimetres to the bottom end of the iPhone.

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro can be charged via this Lightning port, but Ken Pillonel does not specify whether the port can also be used to transfer data or connect accessories. The official Apple USB-C to Lightning adapter, which is available in the Apple store for $29, can both transfer data and connect headphones, whereby data transfers are limited to USB 2.0, as is usual with Lightning, i.e. to data rates of a maximum of 480 Mbit/s.