The world is rightfully celebrating the iPhone’s swap from Lightning to USB-C this week. People love to hate on Lightning — and so they have good reasons to. Most of the world’s hottest units now use USB-C ports, together with Apple’s personal iPads, which means iPhone homeowners have been caught toting round an additional cable only for their cellphone and its equipment.
However should you’ve been residing within the Lightning world for the previous decade like I’ve, issues have been nice anyway. I’m not ashamed to say it: I’m unhappy that Lightning is lastly going away.
The Lightning Life, a minimum of when you have an iPhone, has been handy. Utilizing a Lightning cable hardly requires any thought — its greatest revelation, at first, was that it might cost your cellphone irrespective of which manner you plugged it in, an enormous enchancment over Apple’s {old} 30-pin connector. Plugging it into my iPhone after I’m sleepy earlier than mattress by no means looks like a problem.
Lightning was small and dependable
The connector’s small dimension has saved all the things Lightning-related small and moveable, too. Again in 2012, when Apple debuted the Lightning port on the iPhone 5, this compact dimension was an enormous a part of what made the announcement so thrilling. Lightning was 80 % smaller than the comparatively large 30-pin connector the iPhone had used earlier than. That meant that Apple’s merchandise — and the cables themselves — might look that a lot nicer. I can’t show this, however I’ve to think about that the iPhone 5’s sleek look was due partly to the swap to the smaller Lightning connector, and people tiny modifications add as much as saved area in a bag or pocket.
Not solely are the cords themselves straightforward to journey with however the Lightning customary additionally created a generation of reliable and portable travel accessories. It powers one in all my favourite Apple units ever: the MagSafe Duo. Despite Dieter Bohn’s middling impressions, I picked one up on sale and, frankly, I like it. It’s a low-profile manner for me to cost my iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods at any time when I’m at my desk. After I journey, I can simply fold up the MagSafe Duo and slip it right into a small pocket in my backpack in order that I can simply cost my units at my closing vacation spot.
And even at residence, the Lightning Life has been dependable. I by no means fear that Apple’s Lightning cables will randomly cease charging my units (although I’ve been fortunate to keep away from among the durability issues Lightning cables are sometimes known for). Apple’s stable magnets and the MagSafe Duo imply that my iPhone and Apple Watch virtually all the time begin charging as quickly as I drop them on their charging spots — there’s no fussing round to verify they’re aligned appropriately.
With Lightning, I’ve constructed up an especially reliable system for charging lots of my Apple units that I’m very pleased with. Sure, Apple designed it that manner because of its MFi program that provides Apple a lower of each MFi-certified charger or cable bought. And sure, as a result of system makers must undergo Apple for MFi certification, that in all probability meant that some attention-grabbing charging equipment didn’t get made. However the MFi system meant that equipment labored and lacked the confusion of USB-C. Saying goodbye to Lightning doesn’t simply imply dropping a port and a connector; it means saying goodbye to an incredible assortment of cables and merchandise that I’ve come to rely upon as a part of my every day life and journey routines.
With all that stated: I do perceive the place the Lightning haters are coming from. As of late, mainly each different system I personal fees over USB-C. The iPhone has been the lone holdout, which means that I’ve to toss each a USB-C energy brick and my iPhone charging gear (together with the MagSafe Duo!) in my bag earlier than heading out the door.
USB-C provides the tantalizing promise of an especially reliable system for charging all of my devices. And it is going to be a worthwhile swap as soon as I’ve to make it — I’m in no rush to improve from my beloved iPhone 12 Mini — although there might be some friction. I’m already grumbling over the truth that Apple unceremoniously dumped the MagSafe Duo as a substitute of releasing one with a USB-C port (although there are USB-C-based alternatives I can think about).
However these are minor quibbles. USB-C ports on the iPhone 15 lineup are clearly the higher selection in 2023. USB-C does all the things Lightning can do, and it typically does these issues higher. No matter my gripes about shopping for new charging gear, the transition received’t be practically as painful because the swap from the 30-pin connector to Lightning; I have already got a bunch of USB-C charging cables and bricks that I can use with a USB-C-equipped iPhone.
Nonetheless, I’ll look again on my 11 years (and counting) of Lightning Life fondly. They’ve been years of straightforward charging and lighter backpacks.
When Apple government Phil Schiller launched Lightning in 2012, he referred to as it a “trendy connector for the subsequent decade.” He was greater than proper.