Not a C94? iPhone14 comes standard with new C91M fast charge cable

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With the iPhone 14 series fully shipping, 2022 will mark the fifth year that USB PD charging will be standard on iphones. While the chargers have been removed by environmental policies, the USB-C to Lightning fast charge cable has been standard since the iPhone 11 Pro. This generation of iPhone 14 series is also equipped with a USB-C to Lightning fast charge data cable as standard. Compared with previous generations, the data cable model has a small change. The connector has been changed from C94 to C91M, which is a new data cable.

iPhone 14 Pro Max uses the standard USB-C to Lightning data cable to charge with 30W original charger, and the fast charging performance is exactly the same as the previous generation iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is about 26W-27W at most.

C91M connector MF001 tester reading diagram

 

When the charging head network was disassembled, it was found that one side of the C91M terminal small board was welded with an AS3616A chip, which was integrated with PD fast charge protocol identification and encryption module, product serial number, manufacturer and other information. The layout of the terminal element is the same as that of the C94 terminal.

The element layout on the back of the terminal is the same as that of the C94 terminal, and the surface is coated with adhesive insulation. After removing the glue, you can see that there is a square CSP package chip welded.

From the quick-charge performance test and disassembly, there is no obvious difference between C91M and C94 connector, which still maintains Apple's consistent excellent workmanship and materials, supporting an important part of Apple's Lightning ecosystem. Apple's action of replacing data cable connector is actually quite frequent. There have been nearly ten changes of fast charging and slow charging data cable. The following is a brief history of USB-C to Lightning data cable iteration.

C52 connector

Back in 2016, Apple tested the waters with the first USB-C to Lightning fast charge cable, using the C52 connector, which was only available to Apple's own products and was not available to the market. The contact of Lightning terminal head is gold plated, and the USB-C terminal is full of pin pins. Because the PD fast charge market was still immature at the time, the cable was only purchased by sporadic iPad Pro users, and the C52 connector was discontinued soon after its release.

 

C91 connector
 
 
In 2017, Apple iterated on the old C52 connector to release a replacement C91 connector, which again is only available for Apple's own products. The biggest change of C91 connector is Lightning contact plating process upgraded from gold plating to rhodium ruthenium, gold finger appearance visual effect is silver, more effectively prevent sweat, liquid corrosion contact gold finger, more durable. The USB-C terminals were also changed from full pin to non-full pin, and the data transfer rate was USB2.0.
 

C91 connector MF001 tester reading diagram

 

 

C94 connector
 
 
In 2017, the first batch of iPhone 8/8Plus/X supporting USB PD fast charging was released, which enabled PD fast charging from iPad to iPhone. Users began to contact with the concept of iPhone supporting fast charging, and there was a rigid demand for fast charging data cable in the market. Seeing that the time is ripe, Apple officially opened the USB-C to Lightning fast charge cable license in September 2018, and the open Lightning connector model is C94. There is no obvious difference between C94 and C91. C91 is for Apple's own use, and C94 is supplied to MFi enterprises. Later, Apple's original factory also used C94 connectors.
The price of the original fast charge data cable is as high as 100 yuan, but after the open authorization, the price of a large number of third-party fast charge data cables drops to tens of yuan, which makes fast charge rapidly popular. The fast charge data cable of C94 connector is also the first Apple fast charge data cable that most consumers come into contact with.

C94 connector MF001 tester reading diagram

 

 

Summary of charging head network

The iPhone 14 series comes with a new C91M connector data cable that has no major changes from the old C94 connector data cable, so why introduce a line data cable? As we all know, Apple ecological accessories is a privatization circle. Third-party accessories manufacturers must use the MFi certification module launched by Apple's original factory before normal use, and some enterprises will bypass the certification by "cracking the chip". However, Apple will ban these unauthorized accessories every once in a while when its iOS software is updated, so that they cannot be used.

Xiaobian speculated that after the data line connector update to C91M, it is very likely to be added on the basis of C94 new anti-counterfeiting features, speculated that there will be a round of banning action.

In addition, on October 4, 2022, the European Union passed a new regulation that makes the use of USB-C mandatory for all consumer electronics. The C91M cable is likely to be Apple's last fast charge cable, and will be fully migrated to the USB-C fast charge system in the future.

 

 

 

 

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