Summary
- While Lightning may still be fine for charging compatible iPhones and iPads, as well as some small file transfers, Apple and most major vendors are rapidly transitioning to USB-C.
- Choosing Lightning risks not being able to find new or replacement accessories a few years down the road.
- You’ll definitely be sacrificing the charging and data potential of USB-C, which includes interoperability with non-Apple devices, and more accessory types, such as docks.
Recently, my wife and I switched phone carriers when we realized that we were not only paying too much, but needlessly missing out on 5G. My wife decided to simultaneously upgrade from her increasingly outdated iPhone SE to a new-to-her iPhone 13 Pro Max. My first concern, naturally, was whether the phone would still be relevant by the time her contract is up, including its port technology. The 13s were the second-to-last iPhone generation to support Lightning, a proprietary connector format Apple first introduced in 2012, but rightfully (if reluctantly) jettisoned this year in favor of USB-C.
I think my wife should be fine, for the record. But this really is the last year you should buy anything with Lightning, including accessories. And even then, that may be a mistake unless you’re operating under the same circumstances as my partner. I’ll explain as best I can.
Lightning is a format on its death bed
Don’t let the prices fool you
Functionally, Lightning is sometimes just fine. If you’ve got an iPhone 8 or later, for example, you can charge your iPhone up to 50% in 30 minutes, as long as you’ve got a USB-C-to-Lightning cable and a USB-C wall adapter rated at 18W or higher. That won’t be fast enough if you’re running late for work, but if you’re the sort who only charges overnight or ahead of a long trip, you’ll be okay. Timing may be even less important with headphones like the AirPods Max or PowerBeats Pro — both of which used Lightning in their initial versions — or utterly irrelevant if you’re connecting an old Lightning-based Mac peripheral, such as a Magic Keyboard.
Data-wise, Lightning is capped at 480Mbps like USB 2.0. But even some USB-C iPhones and iPads are limited to those speeds, and often, people don’t bother with wired data transfers anymore. They use Wi-Fi or cellular. It’s even speculated that Apple will launch a portless iPhone a few years from now, taking advantage of wireless MagSafe charging and increasingly fast Wi-Fi standards. I have my doubts, but it’s not inconceivable.
Without vendor backing, choosing Lightning could put you in a precarious position.
The main issue here is that both Apple and third-party vendors are withdrawing support. You will find plenty of cables, adapters, headphones, and battery packs available at the moment, but the biggest accessory makers have largely switched over to USB-C, and Apple no longer sells any new devices with Lightning. You may be able to find refurbished iPhones and iPads, but those are in dwindling supply, and will probably vanish from Apple’s website completely after next-generation models are announced in fall 2025.
Starting in 2026, I’d only count on refurbs from sites like Amazon and Best Buy.
Without vendor backing, choosing Lightning could put you in a precarious position. Let’s say you buy an iPhone 14, plus a Lightning battery pack and a plug-in charging stand to go with it. While the iPhone itself will probably get software updates and repair support for the next several years, if those accessories die, you may not be able to find matching replacements. A few years from now, alternative accessories could be gone too, in which case you’ll have to consider upgrading to a newer iPhone anyway. It might be more frugal to buy a USB-C-based iPhone 15 from the jump.
Another issue is interoperability. One of the reasons people love USB-C is that while there can be different data speeds and power capacities (check the guide below), the same cable you’d use for your phone, tablet, or computer will typically work just as well with any other device, and vice versa. Lightning robs you of that freedom, forcing you to keep specialized cables or adapters handy. Indeed, one of my wife’s biggest complaints about getting her new iPhone was that after using my loaner OnePlus 9 5G for a while, she was going to have to fish her Lightning cables out of storage.
Missed potential
The feature advantages of USB-C and a final verdict
If you can afford them, USB-C devices and accessories may offer substantial quality-of-life improvements. Interoperability is a big one, but another is the potential for faster charging. While even the iPhone 16 lineup is limited to 27 to 30W, that’s still faster than some earlier Lightning iPhones, and every minute counts when you need to be somewhere. Newer iPads can hit 30 to 35W. Any recent MacBook can be run entirely off USB-C as long as your adapter meets its power demands, but then, Macs have never supported Lightning for anything except peripherals.
If you need wired data transfers on a regular basis, USB 3.1 or 4 is an absolute must-have. Lightning’s 480Mbps is lethargic next to the 5Gbps offered by USB 3.1 Gen 1, let alone the 40Gbps possible with USB 4. Consider this — while it takes about three minutes to transfer 10GB using Lightning, that same process can take 16 seconds using USB 3.1, and only two seconds with USB 4. That’s one of the reasons why any serious Apple-based video editor insists on a Mac or an iPad Pro — projects are often measured in the dozens or hundreds of gigabytes, if not terabytes.
Using Lightning would be like flooring your Ferrari in a back alley full of junk.
Some accessories are only possible with USB-C, such as docks, which help greatly expand the ports of some Apple devices. The best the Lightning world can supply is a multi-port adapter. Forget about Lightning-based external SSDs, too. The slowest external SSD is going to run over 10 times faster than Lightning allows, and some newer NVMe drives are faster still. Using Lightning would be like flooring your Ferrari in a back alley full of junk.
As I’ve suggested, you may be fine with Lightning products if your demands aren’t any more complex than charging mobile devices or syncing a few small files, and you’re willing to take a gamble on support. In every other scenario, though, it’s time to go all-in on USB-C. Many Apple fans wish the company had done that back in 2015, when Android phones first began the switch. It shouldn’t have taken European Union regulations to force the company’s hand.
