The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are the latest and greatest iPhones from Apple, and one pays for all that innovation with the missing headphone jack. While the lack of its presence is not going to bother all iPhone 7 owners, it will definitely be a bummer for all audiophiles out there.
While Apple does include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter with the iPhone 7, there is still a major problem. You cannot charge your iPhone while listening to music through it. This might not seem like a big deal, but many people inadvertently do it during their daily routine without realising it. I, for once, never realised that I charge my phone while listening to music almost every single day until last week.
Thankfully, if you are ready to pay a price, you can charge your new iPhone 7 while listening to music at the same time. How? Well, you have a couple of options albeit they are not that convenient.
Apple Lightning Dock
Apple sells a $39 dock for the iPhone 7 that features a Lightning connector and a 3.5mm audio jack allowing you to listen to music while charging your phone. Being a dock, you cannot obviously carry it around everywhere, but if you regularly plug in your iPhone to charge and listen to music while at home, the Lightning Dock from Apple will do the job.
Prices for the dock starts at $39 for the basic white color, with other colors being priced at $49.
Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar
If you are looking for something more portable, you can buy the Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar. Belkin says that it has worked “closely” with Apple to develop this accessory. The catch here is that the accessory plugs into the Lightning port of your iPhone to offer you two additional Lightning ports itself. This means that while you can easily plug in a cable to charge your iPhone, you will have to connect another Lightning to 3.5mm adapter before you can actually connect your existing pair of headphones or earphones. This makes the whole setup unnecessarily complex and not-so-portable. If you end up using the Lightning EarPods then you obviously don’t need to meddle around with the Lightning to 3.5mm adapter.
In case you think Belkin’s accessory fulfils your requirement, you can purchase it starting October 10 from $39.95 through Apple’s retail and online store.
If you frequently connect your iPhone to a music system for listening to music, you can always buy a 3.5mm-Bluetooth adapter from Logitech. This will allow you to connect your iPhone to the music system wirelessly which frees up the Lightning port for charging the phone.
None of the options above are ideal but are good enough to get the job done. While using an adapter or dock might be a bit inconvenient at the beginning, you will eventually get used to it. And if not, you can always buy the $149 AirPods from Apple or any other pair of wireless earbuds thereby allowing you to listen to music wirelessly while charging your phone.
