New iPhone Lightning Dock
At first Apple had no Lightening dock. The next year it finally had two. Unlike with the 30-pin iPhones, I needed two hands to remove the iPhone 5s from the Lightning dock. And the dock itself stopped working after a short time. Since it never was that great, I decided not to replace it. I’ve since found that, if I’m going to use two hands anyway, I might as well keep the iPhone flat on my desk, underneath my MacBook Pro (which is on an iCurve). That gives me back some desk space.
Truly curious about the timing on this — why not unveil it back when the iPhones 6 came out last year? I like using docks for my phone, and for years I used Apple’s. Ever since I switched to the iPhone 6 last year, though, I’ve used two third-party docks, both of which I like very much.
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One thing both the HiRise and Spool Dock have in common with the new dock from Apple: they’re designed to work with iPhones of any width and thickness — past, current, or future.
There are definitely some downsides, however, with the most obvious being stability. With the Lightning connector being the sole means of support for the iPhone, the device does tend to rock side to side if bumped.
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For those who aren’t terribly concerned about the potential for accidental damage, the dock works well. It’s easy to mount the iPhone on the dock, and removal is also simple and possible to do one-handed by pressing down on the base with the side of your hand as you lift the iPhone off the dock.
That doesn’t sound as good as the old Dock Connector docks, which trivially worked one-handed.
The dock is officially compatible with all iPhone and iPod touch models with Lightning connectors, but yes, it will work with iPads as well. It might not be a great idea, however, as the much larger iPads are considerably less stable on the dock and the potential for damage to the Lightning connector or port is significantly higher with the possibility of greater torque on that single point of contact.
Update (2015-05-26): Iljitsch van Beijnum:
So the iPhone is only supported through its lightning port. As a result, it wobbles a bit side-to-side when touched. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to affect the electronic connection between the phone and the dock. The iPhone sits fairly stable in the front/back direction. Still, I’m glad I get to use the dock with an iPhone 6 that’s still under warranty. The great thing about this design, apart from being both future- and past-proof (a rarity in Cupertino!), is that it lets the iPhone dock while it’s in Apple’s silicone case. There’s actually room for slightly bigger cases.
Update (2015-07-08): Julio Ojeda-Zapata:
In the end, though, Apple’s own iPhone Lightning Dock has the cleanest and simplest design, and that makes it my favorite of the bunch.
