M8 Charging Port Issue

[Alec Butner]

I have had my M8 for less than a year and I am already having charging port issues. The charging port seems loose and the cables seem to slip out very easily. I am also starting to notice that the phone has been taking longer to charge and that it will sometimes not charge unless the cable is positioned a certain way. I have tried multiple cables/chargers and still have had the same issue. I have had this same issue with the DNA which caused me to switch to the M8 in the first place. Does anyone have any fixes for this issue? Would this be covered by Verizon warranty? My phone is still under a year old.

 

[Rukbat]

The only "fix" is a new port.

The problem is that there wer about 75 different charging ports being used in the cellphone industry (most manufacturers used at least a few different ones, none compatible with any other manufacturer). That made working on phones a nightmare - you needed a workbench full of chargers and a rack full of data cables. Android solved that by using a single connector for all phones (there are a few Chinese tablets that don't conform.) The problem is that they chose one of the worst connectors for something that gets plugged into almost every day. The amount of contact between the 5 pins of the connector and the board it's soldered to is a lot less than 1/10th of a square cm. It makes a decent electrical connection, but it's about as strong as air. (The same thing happens in the laptop industry, and there are companies that employ 5 or 6 techs as good salaries, doing nothing but replacing loose power connectors.)

If the industry had chosen a connector with better physical bonding to the board, or the connector was designed with a strap over it that could be soldered to the board, it wouldn't happen. But saving 2 cents on each of 10 million phones sold is a large number at year's end, so they won't do it, and we're left holding the loose connector. (I'm getting my wife yet another wireless headset tomorrow - same problem, the microUSB charging connector is loose and I can't see any way to open the headphone to resolder it.)

I use wireless charging and wireless data transfer to get my connector to last as long as possible.