Can you charge your iphone without a charger

The company has notoriously lobbied against legislation that would require Apple to grant customers access to the resources required to perform their own fixes.

Apple made some strides toward repairability in when it started offering independent repair businesses the same manuals and tools used by authorized service providers, but repair advocates say it should make these available to customers too. More important is reaching a closed loop in its production cycle—using percent recycled materials for the entire manufacturing process—as this is the area where a phone's environmental impact is the largest.

Kuehr says it starts by Apple setting up its own system to get its devices back in its hands, thus reducing the need to mine the earth for materials. Apple announced such an initiative in with the goal of creating such a closed supply loop, and it has made some progress. The new iPhone 12 range uses percent recycled rare earth elements for all the magnets inside, and the same is true of the Taptic Engine which provides haptic feedback in last year's iPhone.

Apple has also been using percent recycled aluminum enclosures for several years in select products. It employs disassembly bots to recover these precious materials from used devices, and the company also recently set its sights on becoming carbon neutral by It will take quite some time before Apple unveils an iPhone made completely of recycled components and materials.

And that's precisely why Kuehr is apprehensive of the latest announcement about the charging adapter. The idea of excluding a charging adapter isn't new. It was thought up several years ago as a way to cut prices on already affordable phones, says George Paparrizos, senior director of product management at Qualcomm. It didn't catch on because, at the time, charging standards and ports were not unified.

However, the world has rallied around the reversible USB-C connector, the port found on today's MacBooks, Windows laptops, Android phones, select iPads, headphones, and many other devices. Paired with the open Power Delivery standard for battery charging, the latest spec allows adapters to output up to watts, with the ability to scale down if the device that's plugged in can't accept that much power.

Qualcomm's new Quick Charge 5 protocol supports the PD standard and can output watts as well. Qualcomm claims it can fully recharge a phone in just 15 minutes. The adapters included with many phones today aren't adequate enough to recharge bigger, power-hungry machines, but as more high-power chargers arrive, Paparrizos says, you'll be able to carry a single adapter to charge your smartphone, tablet, laptop, and other gadgets. There's another solution that already exists, and it's quickly becoming popular among accessory makers.

It's called gallium nitride GaN , and it's a compound with semiconductor properties. Before it began appearing in chargers, it was used to create the blue LED in the early s, which in turn made it even easier to create the efficient white LEDs that currently power everything from street lamps to your smartphone's screen.

The scientists behind the feat won a Nobel Prize in In the early s, those in the power electronics field started thinking about GaN as a substitute for silicon transistors, says Huili Grace Xing, a materials science researcher at Cornell University.

Gallium and nitrogen, when bonded, have features that are advantageous when used for charging. For example, the compound can cool faster while also operating at higher temperatures. Other benefits are more visual. Using GaN results in a charging adapter that's significantly smaller despite offering the same power, if not more.

It can take all day under the sun to get a few hours' charge for your iPhone. But if you find yourself outdoors in a sunny locale on vacation, perhaps then a solar charger might be an easy and reliable way to keep your phone charged. Just spread out the cells — like with this one from Hiluckey — and let the sun do its job, topping off your phone or charging the battery that's integrated into the solar cells.

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

It often indicates a user profile. Log out. Smart Home. Social Media. More Button Icon Circle with three vertical dots. It indicates a way to see more nav menu items inside the site menu by triggering the side menu to open and close. Dave Johnson. There are a lot of ways to keep your iPhone charged, even if you don't have access to your AC adapter and a wall outlet. You should consider keeping a portable battery and a USB cable in your travel bag so you can always top off your iPhone , even if you're nowhere near a wall outlet.

Other charging methods include a car charger, hand-crank charger, solar charging, and a wireless adapter. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. I did this when we lost power during a storm and all our devices were getting low on battery. Many modern cars now have USB chargers already in them, making it easy to plug your cable in and get powered up. Portable batteries are a popular charging option.

The great thing about portable chargers is that they can move along with you. You can be walking along the mall, the beach, even hiking in the mountains—and your phone will still be charging. For these, you will definitely need a cable.

Luckily, they tend to be inexpensive. Some are even built into a phone case, so they can serve a dual purpose. The nice thing is that these case chargers can be easily attached to your phone without the charger dangling from a cable. There are even backpacks that have battery chargers built into them. Did you know that you can buy wall outlets that have a USB port built right into them?

I love this option; I even have a couple in my home. You can even get your regular wall outlets replaced with ones that have a USB plug-in. But wait—some versions can plug directly into your existing wall outlet and give you USB ports as well as more AC power plugs. These options are easy to install and are similar to outlet expanders. You can also find power strips, like the ones used for computers and audiovisuals, with USB ports. Many of these provide the added feature of surge protection.

They make it a breeze to just plug in your lightning cable and get charged up. Like USB wall outlets, these are convenient to use.