Why a portless phone would be a bad idea!

                                                                                      Credit: Getty images

When the iPhone 7 was launched in 2016, Apple skipped one of the most useful thing in a phone: The headphone jack. Apple did this so that they could sell their wireless earbuds,  Airpods. In 2020, Apple stopped providing chargers and earphones in the box which is a basic accessory most people use. Instead they came up with a charging solution called 'Magsafe Charging'. 

Magsafe charger is nothing but a 15 Watt wireless charger with magnets so that it can align directly with the wireless charging coil on the back of the iPhone (12 series), so that less power is wasted due to the misalignment of the charging coils. This was the first hint that Apple may even go 'port-less' with the next iPhone 13 series.

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Apple never put any effort in improving their charging technology since they are much behind what Android phones can offer in terms of charging speeds, so Apple could be working on making the next iPhone port-less. A port-less phone is not a good idea though. 

First, charging would be a lot slower and inefficient as wireless charging, however convenient it may be, it will never be as good as wired charging in the near future. Wireless charging is slow and uses more energy than wired charging. It can take up to 47% more energy than a wired charger of the same wattage. 

Second, cross platform connectivity will be very difficult. Apple devices integrate well enough wirelessly, but connecting an Apple device to an Android device or Windows PC will be a big pain. Cross platform integration is not easy and seamless till date and if the port is gone, it would be a whole lot difficult to  wirelessly connect an Apple device to other platforms.

Third reason is environmental issues. There are almost 728 million iPhone users in the world right now, and if all of them start to use inefficient wireless charging, the energy usage would rise drastically over time. The main reason why Apple removed the charger and earphones from the box was for the environment as they say, but we know that it was just clever marketing for more profit.

 

  

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If iPhone 13 is port-less, people has to buy a magsafe charger and a charging brick separately, which is more things to buy for a phone which costs around $1000 and also produces more waste materials like the packaging, shipping materials etc. Arun from Mrwhosetheboss made a really good video about it, check it out:- https://youtu.be/WVPM6D-3aZo 

Not only Apple but Samsung is also not providing chargers anymore and Xiaomi has two versions of the same phone in the China market, one which comes with charger and the other doesn't, and many other companies will also follow this trend with their next products. To give credit to Xiaomi, they provided 55Watt GaN (Gallium nitride) chargers with the international version of the Mi 11 so that people who buy this phone, has this good quality fast charging brick with them which is 25% more efficient than a common silicon charger and 70% than a wireless charger.

So not providing a charger and removing the port, is not a good move for the planet nor the consumer. Companies reduce their carbon footprint by increasing the consumers waste generation and in the process their profits increase substantially. So removing chargers and earphones in the box is not good for the consumer and the planet, until wireless charging is efficient enough and cross platform connectivity is improved.