"Look ma, no holes" - iPhone 12 rumoured to be portless

[AndreiArgeanu]

New rumours regarding the iPhone 12 that will release in 2021 say that it will be port-less. Which is actually funny considering that a few years ago when Apple removed the headphone I was joking about how Apple will remove their lightning ports for wireless charging. This does have it's own advantages and disadvantages. For example now you don't have to worry about what kind of cable you need to charge your phone since it's all wireless and a wireless charger generally works across all devices that have support for the feature, however not being able to pull off data from your phone like images, files and documents is a bit annoying, I get that you can upload them somewhere and then get them on your pc but that process often takes more time and requires an internet connection for both machines which you don't always have, plus you get much slower transfer speeds if you're on the move and you're using a 4G network.

Quote

The rumors come from top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, whose research note was seen by MacRumors. In the note, Kuo suggests the most premium iPhone 12, with the same position in its respective range as the iPhone 11 Pro Max, will offer a "completely wireless experience.". That means no 3.5mm headphone jack (many iPhones and Android phones have now dropped this), but also no Lighting Port for powering the phone up.

Instead, iPhone users will have to rely on wireless charging. Several generations of iPhones have been able to charge wirelessly, but it's tech that hasn't caught on for general users just yet. This also rules out using the port to connect to computers, or to use wired headphones via an adaptor: now, all your connection will be done through Bluetooth or the internet.

Source: TechRadar , T3

Personally I'm not into the idea of having a phone that only works with wireless charging since it wastes more energy than a normal charger, wireless chargers are often bigger than standard ones, and some high power ones have fans, but also you can only use power banks which support wireless charging, and again because wireless charging is more inefficient the phone would get less juice compared to using a normal cable. Also at last wireless charging is slower than a cable overall.

 

[bellabichon]

If this turns out to be true, it's a pretty terrible idea, IMO. Wireless charging is still significantly slower, and being completely unable to use your phone while it's charging seems more regressive than innovative. If anything, the fact that this design would be completely obtuse makes the rumour significantly more credible, given Apple's track record in the last few years. 

[Jumballi]

This would solve the "your phone needs usb c" in Europe thing

[Mateyyy]

Because who even needs quick charging? Or transferring photos or whatever through USB, just Airdrop it bro

[3rrant]

3 minutes ago, Jumballi said:

This would solve the "your phone needs usb c" in Europe thing

Apple solution to comply with law is always one: avoid it.

[atxcyclist]

So doing a backup of the phone will need to be done wirelessly? That's fine if you're running the newest wireless standard on your router, but if not then you're going to sit around without a phone for hours. I'll be keeping my 8 for a long time I guess.

[RejZoR]

I'm not sure we're ready for fully wireless yet. Apple has one of slowest Qi charging speeds and even if we look at OnePlus with their super fast wireless charging, it's still slower and you need a bloody fan to cool it.

 

I have a Qi pad for my iPhone XR, but if I'm in a hurry, I'm gonna use the cable. Also I have lightning cables all over my place and in car. I only have 1 Qi pad, nothing in car...

[DKL]

So glad I have a OnePlus phone and Windows 10 instead so I don't have to worry about Apple's latest constriction on their ecosystem's users...

[RejZoR]

1 minute ago, DKL said:

So glad I have a OnePlus phone and Windows 10 instead so I don't have to worry about Apple's latest constriction on their ecosystem's users...

People keep saying this, but they don't really know what it means. I have an iPhone and I don't use it with anything else Apple because I'd be strictly required. Hell, I bought AirPods and I literally only use them on Windows laptops and PC's. Lightning cable being a requirement is like whatever, I can still charge it on any USB port, be it device or charger. Only real annoyance and restriction is the wireless charger for Apple Watch where you can't just use standard Qi. But if you have it with you you can still charge on any USB port. People kept saying how horribly you're locked in, but after using their stuff for over 1 year, it's really not that different to Android where most of the shit steers to Google even if it's not strictly enforced or limited.

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

For example now you don't have to worry about what kind of cable you need to charge your phone

This is wrong on many levels - first of all now you'd need to worry about having a wireless charger, secondly this wouldn't have been a problem in the first place if they used USB-C...

13 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I'm not sure we're ready for fully wireless yet.

We're not. Wireless charging is wildly inefficient and bluetooth has always been unreliable trash. This is also for absolutely no benefit since you can't even use the phone while it's charging and you still need to leave it there. There's a reason almost nobody uses it.

[DKL]

8 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

People keep saying this, but they don't really know what it means. I have an iPhone and I don't use it with anything else Apple because I'd be strictly required. Hell, I bought AirPods and I literally only use them on Windows laptops and PC's. Lightning cable being a requirement is like whatever, I can still charge it on any USB port, be it device or charger. Only real annoyance and restriction is the wireless charger for Apple Watch where you can't just use standard Qi. But if you have it with you you can still charge on any USB port. People kept saying how horribly you're locked in, but after using their stuff for over 1 year, it's really not that different to Android where most of the shit steers to Google even if it's not strictly enforced or limited.

My family is all Apple. I grew up with Apple and my family love Apple for their ecosystem while my mother is not able to trust anything non-Apple yet doesn't have the income required to afford Apple. It's to the point where taking care of my mother was buying her an iPad with accessories so she wouldn't have to worry about trying to buy an Apple laptop or tablet herself. I fear that otherwise she would have gone in debt so she could have a device her older eyes could see. (She used only an iPhone SE and occasionally a ~2006 Macbook prior)
This was all despite cheaper alternatives being out there, that could have provided her similar experiences if not better. She needed something Apple. When it gets people to the point where they mentally block out all other options as even being potentially viable alternatives, yes, the ecosystem most certainly does have negative impacts on some people. Not all, but some...

[AndreiArgeanu]

19 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

People kept saying how horribly you're locked in, but after using their stuff for over 1 year, it's really not that different to Android where most of the shit steers to Google even if it's not strictly enforced or limited.

I wouldn't say you're horribly locked in by any means. But personally it really matters to me whether I am able to install apps outside the app store for example for downloading videos from instagram, youtube, twitter and other platforms, or apps that have all kinds of purposes, but also the ability to change how my user interface works. Saying you're "horribly locked in" is exaggeration but for some people being able to easily take control over your phone is a significant feature.

[RejZoR]

23 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

I wouldn't say you're horribly locked in by any means. But personally it really matters to me whether I am able to install apps outside the app store for example for downloading videos from instagram, youtube, twitter and other platforms, or apps that have all kinds of purposes, but also the ability to change how my user interface works. Saying you're "horribly locked in" is exaggeration but for some people being able to easily take control over your phone is a significant feature.

I'm not experiencing that either. And while I could fiddle with anything on Android, in the end I always removed all that junk because it never really worked well, was causing problems or I just didn't find it useful enough and I just always ended up using stock launcher. And since I liked MIUI which functions basically the same as iOS, I see no real difference there either. As for apps, I got everything from the App Store. I tried alternate stores on Android and they were full of modified junk. Granted, you can download apps from vendors themselves (like Protonmail) where they should be trusted, but I don't really have that need yet.

[TrigrH]

gone will be the days where you need to plug the iphone in to power if it wont turn on

 

now it just wont turn on at all.

[Curious Pineapple]

I can see "have you backed the device up?" turning into "have you burned yourself whilst backing the device up?" when taking it in for it's 3rd forced recall as the charging has busted again.

[Fasterthannothing]

I knew Apple would avoid USB C at all cost. I hope people finally realize how dumb this trend of making everything wireless is. 

[StDragon]

8 hours ago, 3rrant said:

Apple solution to comply with law is always one: avoid it.

^THIS!
 

They engineer around legal thorny issues.

 

Would be interesting to see how this flies in the EU. I would expect to see Apple announce their own USB-C wireless charger...with OLED.

[HumdrumPenguin]

9 hours ago, bellabichon said:

If this turns out to be true, it's a pretty terrible idea, IMO. Wireless charging is still significantly slower, and being completely unable to use your phone while it's charging seems more regressive than innovative. If anything, the fact that this design would be completely obtuse makes the rumour significantly more credible, given Apple's track record in the last few years. 

What if they also release a device that charges anything wireless that is within 3m of distance? That would likely work very well. The price would be higher, but at the same time Apple is known for charging stupid prices and getting away with it.

[Bombastinator]

I see it as a security thing.  All those “you need direct access to the hardware” exploits go away.  Causes some other severe problems though.  This one could backfire bad.  I hope it’s not the only model they sell when this goes out the door if it does.  It may be awful.

[vetali]

The only thing I use a physical connection for is carplay. They would need to provide a wireless adapter that works with all carplay devices otherwise the 12 pro is a no-go for me, even if it has 120hz.

[AldiPrayogi]

Begone watching shit on your phone in your bed while charging the damn thing

[spartaman64]

23 minutes ago, AldiPrayogi said:

Begone watching shit on your phone in your bed while charging the damn thing

just tape the wireless charger to your phone ez

[Bombastinator]

19 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

just tape the wireless charger to your phone ez

The most common one is to incorporate magnets into the design.  That’s what mophie does.

[Blademaster91]

10 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

I wouldn't say you're horribly locked in by any means. But personally it really matters to me whether I am able to install apps outside the app store for example for downloading videos from instagram, youtube, twitter and other platforms, or apps that have all kinds of purposes, but also the ability to change how my user interface works. Saying you're "horribly locked in" is exaggeration but for some people being able to easily take control over your phone is a significant feature.

I don't use a custom launcher, but not being locked down is important to me because I can just plug my phone into a pc and backup files the same way I would as a USB drive, or even just being able to use the browser of my choice.

Having no charging port is a terrible idea, you can't actually use the device when its sitting on a wireless charger, and wireless charging heats up the battery more than using a wired charger.

[Jumballi]

11 hours ago, Sauron said:

...bluetooth has always been unreliable trash.

Apple has been pushing bluetooth forward a lot recently, especially within their own ecosystem. They’ve also been key into integrating wifi into bluetooth, where you use bluetooth for the initial handshake, and then wifi for the actual connection. And with apple buying intel’s modem business, I only see apple being the only company in the situation take this step.

That said, gonna suck for anyone who doesn’t have a $200+ wifi router and/or a mac.