I’m experimenting with the magnetic iOS/Android cable below. They used to not work with data transfer but now they DO. I can confirm that these work with CarPlay. I have had this about a week so far and here are my thoughts.
Pros:
- the phone connects and disconnects much easier and faster.
- there isn’t any stress in the port of the phone where the connection is
- while you still have to physically connect and disconnect a cable, it is less annoying
- small converter piece fits snugly and doesn’t fall out
Cons:
- to have it make sense, you need to leave the tiny port adapter which converts from lightning/ to magnetic, connected to your phone, otherwise it would defeat the purpose of a quick connect. This isn’t really a con for me since I have one charger in the house and one in the truck but if you want to go back to using a regular iPhone charger, you will have to pull the converter piece off your phone (not a huge deal).
- the small adapter piece might not work with all phone cases. I had to trim the rubber at the bottom of mine to open it up a bit.
- when connected you can’t twist or move the phone around a lot otherwise the magnetic connection will be lost. When using in your truck, try to connect it, then place phone flat or in the holder on its side, not with the connection straight up/down. It will make sense once you try it.
I am going to experiment with rigging something in the truck so that the magnetic connection is fixed somewhere and I can just quickly drop the phone in somewhere and have it snap on rather than have to touch the cable at all. Link below for the cable I bought. I bought the 3 pack which comes with 3 cables and 3 sets of connectors.
One quick tip. When disconnecting the cable, don’t pull straight away from the magnet, bend at an angle which breaks the magnetic connection easier and doesn’t pull the adapter piece out.