Leaker: Apple to Stick With Lightning Over USB-C for 'iPhone 12' Before Going Port-Less Next Year

[jlc1978]

This is a huge point.

Add in another environmental disaster is that it will cause more batteries in the landfills. Wireless charging degrades the battery faster (uneven charging rates, high heat), so they will be replaced and discarded sooner.

Since the iPhone replacement cycle appears to be between 2 - 4 years, with about 50% replacing every 2 years, (based on what I could find)n it seems doubtful battery degradation will be much of an issue.

The impact of wireless charging on battery life seems to be open to question, with the possibility it actually increases battery life depending on how you charge:

Does wireless charging degrade your battery faster? We asked an expert

There’s no denying the convenience of wireless charging, but as more and more of us ditch the cables some fears have emerged about the potential impact on battery longevity. We decided to ask some experts and find out the truth about the impact of wireless charging on your battery.

www.digitaltrends.com

 

[ksec]

Wrote about this in early Jan this year.

Barclays: iPhone 12 Models Will Have 'Refreshed' Face ID System, Lightning Connector Could Be Dropped in 2021

I think it will be replaced with Smart Connector. It isn't really a port. But still allow you to do what lightning would do. This will allow the whole iPhone to be completely sealed, assuming they even get rid of the Sim Slot.

forums.macrumors.com

But I am sure I wrote similar thing in 2019 during discussion ( more like argument ) about USB-C iPhone. But there were too many of them couldn't quite find anything on it.

The Port connector is likely used for emergency like restoring data. The default would be wireless. Both charging and transfer.

 

[JoeShades]

It will be interesting to see how wireless charging works in a car when you have a dashmount.

I am sure they will come up with a solution that satisifies everyone and works perfectly

 

[jlc1978]

This is true. Wireless charging creates heat (because of inefficiency), and it’s well understood that heat shortens battery lifespan.

The amountn of heat generated is key. I well designed charger would avoid heat related issues. However, there are a;lot of cheap wireless chargers out there that may not be well designed.

 

[Pamela5]

Why not just have USB C like -every other company-.

 

[w4rm]

Port-less is not coming anytime soon. Wireless charging might be the most useless technology of recent times.

That’s what I used to think but we’ve actually come a long way since Qi charging.

This year Xiaomi announced 40W wireless charging! Which can charge the full 4,000mAh battery in just 40 minutes. 57% in 20 minutes.

Xiaomi shows off 40W wireless charging, full charge in just 40 minutes [Video]

Xiaomi is showing off a new wireless charging system that hits speeds of 40W, but it's not on any Android smartphones just yet.

9to5google.com

By 2021 I’m sure we’ll see even faster speeds. Apple would only introduce wireless if it was much faster. And the technology has evolved so much since the early days of Qi.

 

[jlc1978]

Just 1 million iPhone’s Qi charging waste is 800kW already, which is enough energy that a sizeable power plant will generate.

800kW is a small diesel generator. 800mW, OTH, is a decent sized plant.
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Thanks to Europe, the iPhone can’t go port less. This, fortunately, ends the rumors and conversation.

Sure it can. the EU hasn't finalized any rules, and the proposed ones don't rule out wireless only.

 

[filmbuff]

I don't see what the problem with going portless is. All of the problems people are talking about are easily solved by boxing the iphone with a small magnetic wireless charger like the watch. You can still use it while it's charging, it will just have the magnetic thing stuck on the back, basically making it corded. Portable battery packs with wireless charging already exist. While I personally think USB-C would be great to have and more versatile, when has Apple ever held back from inconveniencing people for the sake of modernizing? Remember when they got rid of the headphone jack on the iPhone, or USB-A on the Macbooks even though tons of people still 'needed' those things?

 

[BenTrovato]

I don't see what the problem with going portless is. All of the problems people are talking about are easily solved by boxing the iphone with a small magnetic wireless charger like the watch. You can still use it while it's charging, it will just have the magnetic thing stuck on the back, basically making it corded. Portable battery packs with wireless charging already exist. While I personally think USB-C would be great to have and more versatile, when has Apple ever held back from inconveniencing people for the sake of modernizing? Remember when they got rid of the headphone jack on the iPhone, or USB-A on the Macbooks even though tons of people still 'needed' those things?

I don't see the problem either but I just don't like how Apple isn't making things "better". Removing the headphone jack didn't make the iPhone better. Removing the port doesn't make the iPhone better. It just provides the user with a different way of doing the same thing while simultaneously allowing Apple to create another revenue stream.

If you didn't remove the headphone jack, Airpods don't do as well. If you don't remove the port, wireless charging devices won't sell as well. It's how Apple works now. As an investor, we love it. As a consumer I don't really care for it.

 

[krfr]

I’m still not convinced we’re to the point where portless would be a great option. Batteries still don’t last long enough for people who travel a ton. There aren’t enough places that have wireless charging available. And trying to use your phone while having it sit on a wireless charger would be annoying to say the least.

 

[jefish]

So how does one put their phone in a gimbal and attach a mic or external power? The smart connector dongle might allow for mic input, but I'm guessing the connector would either be where the gimbal clamps onto the phone, or on the end, making balancing the phone impossible.

 

[littyboy]

Damn they really dragging their feet on this one, especially since their other devices have made the switch...

 

[kgkuntryluvr]

Am I the only one that regularly uses my iPhone while it's charging? It's the main reason that I don't use wireless charging now. If the Smart Connector can't be used for charging, how will I do so?

 

[The Game 161]

Am I the only one that regularly uses my iPhone while it's charging? It's the main reason that I don't use wireless charging now. If the Smart Connector can't be used for charging, how will I do so?

Smart connector will be used to charge from what ice seen. MagSafe basically

 

[CarlJ]

The Smart Battery cases charge through lightning, but maybe they could make wireless. But hopefully they can fix the efficiency by then. I had a wireless charging Mophie that was horrible. The full power of the case would only charge my iPhone like 30%.

If they put on the Smart Connector, and if the phone can be charged via that, then an Apple, or 3rd-party charging case could use that connection for “wired” charging. But, then, I know a whole lot of people with external batteries and cables, and almost no one who uses a charging case.

A charging case that used Qi charging would be a bad idea - would waste a whole lot of the power converting to/from wireless to get it into the phone (not a big deal when the Qi charging mat is plugged into the wall, but definitely a big deal when the Qi charger is connected to a battery pack of limited capacity).

 

[neander]

Upcoming one "Pro" model with USB C port.. all lower models no ports though.

 

[Black Belt]

It would be absurd to change the port for one year and all the chaos that it would create. I hope the wireless changing will be faster!

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

USBC is largely wasted on the iPhone.

If you’re a historic Apple customer you probably have loads of lightning accessories lying around you’d be pretty pissed at losing access to.

If Apple did do a port-less iPhone they could however do worse than properly bring back MagSafe chargers.

 

[Black Belt]

I’d prefer a MagSafe connection on everything.

 

[CarlJ]

Am I the only one that regularly uses my iPhone while it's charging? It's the main reason that I don't use wireless charging now. If the Smart Connector can't be used for charging, how will I do so?

It depends on precisely how you use your phone while charging. I frequently pick my phone up for the wireless charger, do something and then set it back down on the charger. It’s not charging during that one minute (repeated dozens of times), but it’s charging all the rest of the time.

If, however, you are using your phone continuously for half an hour while it’s charging, then, yes, a cable is better in that situation.

But the real advantage wireless charging is that your phone will tend to be mostly charged whenever you use it, because it’s been on the charger when you weren’t using it. There’s no separate “plug in and wait” step.

This is what most people miss, who think it works exactly like traditional charging except substituting “set on charger and wait“ in place of “plug in and wait”. In practice, I’m never waiting for my phone to charge, with wireless charging. It’s an entirely different way of using things. I wasn’t expecting to have any interest in wireless charging when I got my iPhone 8. Then i bought a wireless charger on sale, just to see what the fuss was about. And then I understood, and I ended up buying several more. It changes the way you think about charging - not just how it connects, but when you charge, and how likely your phone is to be charged at any given moment, throughout the day

 

[fbr$]

- My dream: a 16GB RAM iPhone with USB-C, output resolution up to 4K to an external display like a Mac, full keyboard and mouse/trackpad support like the iPadOS, so the iPhone + an external display/TV could replace a computer (no need for a Mac or iPad) for most users.

- Reality: Apple wants us to buy iPhones, iPads and Macs. All three.

 

[Marx55]

"combine wireless charging and a port-less".

A huge waste of energy worldwide. Let's destroy planet Earth, shall we?

 

[gaximus]

I was all for this until I realized that I wouldn't be able to use my CarPlay anymore

 

[Takeo]

Port-less eh? I'm a figure skater. Figure skaters use music. In rinks. With sound systems that often date from the 1970's. Trust me, there ain't no Bluetooth to connect to and there will not be any time soon. Most hockey rinks have the worst possible equipment you could image. I guess I could carry a old-school iPod or my old SE but it would be a bit of pain to have to charge, sync and carry an extra device just for skating. My old last Gen Shuffle would be super easy to throw in the skate bag and weigh nothing but it's tricky to find a specific track without a screen. And I've gotten really accustomed to controlling the music on the ice remotely with my Apple Watch (LOVE IT!!!). So to maintain that I'd have to carry two phones with me to the rink... the new port-less phone and my old SE.

 

[cppguy]

How're we going to transfer data from cameras without a port? I know there's wireless, but most cameras have a horrible image transfer. Even Sony has no proper RAW image transfer, and what about 4K video, or video from external recorders? I hope that can be solved before going portless.