Engineer makes the world's first Android phone with the Lightning port. Who wants it?

After the roaring success of the world's first USB-C equipped iPhone, an engineer has now made the world's first Android phone with a Lightning port, Engadget reported. 

Last year, we had covered Ken Pillonel's story of how he fought the odds and spent many hours understanding the iPhone's architecture to make the much-needed iPhone with a USB-C port. There are no marks for guessing that the reverse engineering project is also Pillonel's brainchild and although it is unlikely to make the same waves as his previous project, Pillonel wanted to do this just for fun. 

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As Pillonel said in the teaser video, one of the other aims of doing this project was to balance things out a little. The engineer thinks that the attention his last device received left the world in chaos and this project would help divert some attention to Android devices as well. 

Apple continues to challenge

Speaking to Engadget, Pillonel said that the Android phone project was quite challenging at a technical level. His aim to make the Lightning port functional for not only purposes of charging the device but also for data transfer also added a layer of complexity to the project. 

Overall, making the whole thing work together was another issue. Apparently, the lightning charging cables sold by Apple do not charge every lightning port they encounter. Instead, they confirm that the device being charged is an Apple device, so the project called for him to trick the cable into believing that his modified Android phone was indeed an Apple device. 

The modifications are always difficult since they need to also fit right back into a commercial-grade phone with little scope for error. However, Pillonel is getting better at these mods with every single day and hasn't been exacting on the quality of finish for the Android phone, since he isn't planning to sell it online. 

What's next? 

Coming up shortly on Pillonel's YouTube channel is the long video of how he managed to make the world's first Android phone with a Lightning port. 

After that's done, YouTubers have thrown him challenges like replacing the 3.5mm jack on the phone with an extra USB Type-C port or even throwing together a micro-USB, Lightning, and USB-C port on a single phone, even at the cost of the speaker (some has real charger issues). 

What we do know from the comments is that a project involving AirPods is in the pipeline and will also come out soon. 

We will keep an eye on that one.