Why You Might Want to Pass on Apple’s New iPhone Lightning Dock

It got barely a mention during Apple's action-packed announcement on September 9, but Apple now offers an iPhone Lightning Dock, in four different colors. And if you want one, it's one of the few items announced that is actually available to order and shipping within 1–3 business days. The dock is sold in silver, space gray, gold, and rose gold to match the latest lineup of iPhone 6s colors. The dock itself is compatible with more than the iPhone 6s, specifically the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 6, 6 Plus, 5s, 5c, 5, and iPod touch 5th and 6th generation. But it still may not be the Lightning dock for you.

It is not compatible with the iPad mini and iPad, let alone the iPad Pro. There is no back support with the official Apple iPhone dock, so heavier items and even iPhones in bulky cases won't work. The dock is $49 and does NOT include a Lightning cable or A/C adapter. Apple tells you to use the one that came with your iPhone. Apple does offer a headphone jack so you can listen to music while it's docked, which is noteworthy, since Apple relocated the headphone jack to the bottom of the iPhone.

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The Apple iPhone Lightning Dock looks elegant and blends well with a naked iPhone, but there are a lot of third-party options that include a cable and wall charger, and accommodate cases and larger iOS devices, so check around.

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Todd Bernhard's picture

Author Details

Todd Bernhard

Todd Bernhard is a bestselling (6+ million downloads) award-winning (AARP, About.com, BestAppEver.com, Digital Hollywood, and Verizon) developer and founder of NoTie.NET, an app developer specializing in Talking Ringtone apps including AutoRingtone. And his profile photo is of the last known sighting of Mr. Bernhard wearing a tie, circa 2007!

An iPhone is almost always attached to his hip or in his pocket, but over the years, Mr. Bernhard has owned an Apple Newton, a Motorola Marco, an HP 95LX, a Compaq iPaq, a Palm Treo, and a Nokia e62. In addition to writing for iPhone Life, Mr. Bernhard has written for its sister publications, PocketPC Magazine and The HP Palmtop Paper.