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Posts: 1,038 | Thanked: 3,981 times | Joined on Nov 2010 @ USA
#142
Originally Posted by pichlo View Post
I am getting really tired of this "but they are a startup" excuse. A startup cannot use an off-the-shelf component?

To be fair, before aegis' post, I also assumed that they used a non-standard connector to achieve water protection but once you know what to look for, you find hundreds of existing solutions. No need to reinvent the wheel.
(If this phone is vaporware, none of the following matters at all.)

I personally don't mind the idea of moving away from micro usb, not just for water resistance. (For me, water resistance isn't really in my top 10 priorities, but it wouldn't hurt.) Micro USB charging/syncing has as its primary advantage, IMO, its ubiquity, which was its purpose in the first place. It's far from ideal, though. I see the biggest pluses of Turing's connector choice to be the magnetic connection like Apple's. When I trip over my wife's macbook or iPhone power cable in the dark, it falls off, usually without drama. When I trip over my phone cable in the dark, it goes flying across the room, ports get bent a little, stuff sometimes breaks, heart rate soars. Plus, I find it way too easy to stupidly try cramming the plug in upside down and munging up both plug and jack a little in the process. (Looks like USB-C solves this issue, if I'm properly informed.)

The obvious disadvantage of going with a proprietary or less common connector of course is not being able to borrow a friend's charger or easily replacing a dead one in a hurry. Apple solves this by being huge. So many iPhones out there if you need a replacement it's no further than the impulse counter at the grocery store. That would not be the case with the Turingphone charger.

So if I were Turing, and I were marketing just to me, I'd emphasize those advantages above over the water resistance. But there may also be a reason I'm not in marketing. Maybe if I were I'd just look for a nice waterproof USB-C.
 

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