With the iPhone 14 series shipping in full, 2022 marks the fifth year that USB PD charging has been standard on iPhone phones. Although the charger has been reduced by environmental policy, the USB-C to Lightning fast charging cable has been standard since the iPhone 11 Pro.
This generation of iPhone 14 also comes with a USB-C to Lightning cable as standard, but with a slight change in the cable model from C94 to C91M, which is a new cable.
iPhone 14 Pro Max charges with the standard USB-C to Lightning cable and the original 30W charger, which provides the same fast charging performance as the previous iPhone 13 Pro Max, with a maximum of around 26W-27W.
C91M connector MF001 tester reading chart
The C91M connector has an AS3616A chip soldered to one side of the small board, which integrates the PD fast charging protocol identification, encryption module, product serial number, manufacturer and other information; the terminal component layout is the same as the C94 terminal.
The layout of the components on the back of the terminal is also identical to that of the C94 terminal, with a glued insulating surface. After cleaning off the glue, you can see a square CSP package chip is soldered on.
From the fast charging performance test and disassembly, there is no significant difference between the C91M and C94 connectors, which still maintain Apple’s usual excellent workmanship and materials, supporting an important part of Apple’s Lightning ecosystem. Apple has changed its cable connectors quite frequently, with nearly a dozen changes too fast and slow charging cables combined.
C52 connector
Back in 2016, Apple launched the first USB-C to Lightning fast charging cables to test the waters, using the C52 connector, which was only available for Apple’s own products and was not open to the market; the Lightning terminal head contacts were gold plated, and the USB-C terminal was full of pin pins. The C52 connector was discontinued soon after its release, as the PD fast charging market was still immature and the cable was only purchased by a few iPad Pro users.
C52 connector MF001 tester readout
C91 Connector
In 2017, Apple iterated on the old C52 connector and introduced a replacement, the C91 connector, which is also only available for Apple’s own products. The USB-C terminal has also been changed from full pin to non-full pin and the data transfer rate is USB2.0.
C91 connector MF001 tester reading chart
C94 Connector
In 2017 the first batch of iPhone 8 / 8Plus / X supporting USB PD fast charging was released, allowing PD fast charging from iPad to iPhone, users began to come into contact with the concept of iPhone support fast charging, fast charging data cable market demand exists hard just demand. Seeing that the time was ripe, Apple officially opened up the USB-C to Lightning fast-charging cable license in September 2018, opening up the fast-charging Lightning connector model C94. C94 is not significantly different from C91, which is Apple’s own use, while C94 is supplied to MFi companies, and later Apple’s original data cables have been using C94 connectors.
The C94 connector was the first Apple fast charging cable to reach the majority of consumers, and the C94 connector was the first Apple fast charging cable to reach the majority of consumers.
C94 Connector MF001 tester code reading chart
Summary
The iPhone 14 series with the new C91M connector cable is not a major change from the old C94 connector cable, so why introduce a line cable? As we all know, Apple’s eco-accessories are a private circle, and third-party accessory vendors must use Apple’s original MFi-certified modules in order to use them properly, but some companies will use “cracked chips” to bypass the certification, but every once in a while Apple’s iOS software updates will be blocked for these non-authorized accessories, making them unusable. They cannot be used.
I speculate that this update of the cable connector to C91M is likely to add a new anti-counterfeiting feature to the C94, which will probably be followed by a round of banning.
In addition, on 4 October 2022, the European Union adopted new regulations making the use of the USB-C interface mandatory for all consumer electronics.
