Belkin Has an Answer for How to Charge Your iPhone While Using Lightning Headphones

I have been pretty critical of the iPhone 7 and the lack of a headphone jack. I’m not disappointed with or even surprised by Apple encouraging the advancement of digital audio. My biggest concern is the loss of functionality, specifically the ability to charge an iPhone while listening to music with a wired connection. With the iPhone 7, that capability went away. I even wrote that Apple should have made a Lightning splitter cable to allow this.

Belkin had the same idea, and has preannounced its Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar ($39.99). I can’t vouch for it, as I haven’t tried it yet, but I hope to when it’s available. The adapter is compact and the Lightning tip should accommodate most cases. However, it’s not exactly cheap, and since you can easily lose it, you might want or need to buy a few. They say it only supports one Lightning Audio device and one Lightning Charger, so it’s not meant for multiple users with Lightning headphones both listening to the same iPhone. Nor should you expect to speed up charging time by plugging chargers into both Lightning ports.

Pros

• Solves a very real problem
• Compact size
• Should accommodate most cases

Cons

• Not cheap
• Another thing to remember and not lose
• Not yet available
• Supports one Lightning Audio device and one Lightning Charger

Final Verdict

The Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar from Belkin solves a very real problem and frankly it’s something Apple should have created, and maybe even included with each $700-plus+ iPhone 7.