The iPhone is changing charging cables again. I hear your groan. Switching is going to be annoying — but ultimately could make our lives better. Really.
With the iPhone 15, Apple is ditching the stripey Lightning connector we’ve used since 2012. It’s replacing it with a shiny connector called USB-C you might already know from laptops, tablets or most Android phones.
That means if you buy the latest iPhone, you’re going to end up replacing all the spare charging cables strewn around your home, car and office. Also annoying: You may need new headphones, if yours aren’t wireless — or Apple’s new $29 adapter dongle if you want to keep using what you already own. See below for my advice on living with USB-C cables, which follow a few rules of their own.
Don’t want to deal with this right now? There’s no rush: Beyond the port change, there are not many standout features in the iPhone 15 worth an upgrade, and older iPhones will keep on charging with your existing cables for a long time. In a few years, perhaps wireless charging — already part of the iPhone — will be common enough you can skip this mess altogether.
This is the third cable switch in the life of the iPhone, not counting when it also ditched the headphone jack in 2016. In the end, what annoys me the most is that Apple took so long to adopt for the iPhone the cable used by the rest of the gadget world.
USB-C is the mini but mighty champion of connectors. It doesn’t matter which way you stick it in: there’s no “up” or “down” on either end. USB-C cables can be cheap as chips. And depending on your cable, your iPhone also could transfer data more quickly, too.
The biggest benefit is that you should end up with fewer cables to worry about. You’ll be able to charge your iPhone from the same cable as billions of other phones, laptops and tablets out there. You could make friends with an Android person (yes, that’s allowed) and borrow the person’s cable.
Picture yourself going on vacation and packing just one charging cable. You can just plug your iPhone into your USB-C laptop charger, and it should juice up just fine. (Oops, this won’t work if you also have an Apple Watch, which uses another proprietary cable.)
This is better for the environment, too, because we’ll end up buying fewer single-purpose cables. The European Commission estimates a common charger will save 11,000 tons of e-waste annually in Europe alone.
But there are aspects of making the switch that could be confusing or even expensive. For one: Not all USB-C cables are created equal.
I’ve been researching the ins and outs of USB (pardon the pun), and I answer some of the biggest questions below. Send me your questions, to geoffrey.fowler@washpost.com, and I’ll try to answer them as Apple provides more details about its switch.
