5 Apple iPhone accessories you need right now

Even the biggest Apple diehards know that an iPhone can only do so much on its own. Just like with fashion, you need to accessorize your beloved phone to really make it shine.

Of course, the iPhone accessories we have in mind are more functional than cosmetic. These can be day-to-day game changers for people from various walks of life or simply ways to make life slightly more fun. 

If you just got an iPhone or you’re a longtime iPhone owner who’s looking to add some convenience to your life, these are some of the most essential iPhone accessories you can get right now.

Listen up 

Best iPhone Dongles and Wireless Headphones 

As you’re certainly aware by now, iPhones don’t come with headphone jacks anymore. It’s a death that we’re not likely to forget or forgive anytime soon. There are a couple of easy solutions to this problem. One is cheap and mildly inconvenient, while the other’s more costly but awesome.

Apple’s more wallet-friendly solution for wire lovers is the official Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack dongle. Since it plugs into your iPhone’s Lightning port, you can’t listen to music on wired headphones and charge the iPhone at the same time. But it’s better than nothing. It’s also only $9 right now, which is actually kind of a bummer considering Apple used to pack it in for free with new iPhones.

If you’re ready to abandon wires altogether (and you probably should sooner rather than later), AirPods technically count as an iPhone accessory! The $250 AirPods Pro are the best model available right now because they provide noise cancelation, but the standard AirPods from 2019 are almost $100 cheaper and still very good. 

Stayin’ alive 

Best iPhone Portable Charges

Image: Shutterstock / blackzheep

It totally sucks when you’re away from home and your phone dies, right? A dwindling iPhone battery can make any social occasion less enjoyable than it should be. Thankfully, there are plenty of affordable ways to avoid this fate.

Portable chargers come in plenty of different sizes and shapes, and we have a handy guide to help you choose the best one for your circumstances. If you don’t want to read that, though, the two things you should really look at when buying a portable charger are power capacity and the number of ports. 

Power is measured in amp hours, abbreviated as mAh. The higher the mAh, the more juice a portable charger packs. I recently bought an Anker PowerCore charger with 13,000 mAh and two USB ports, so I can charge multiple devices at once. It was only about $30, so you can get a quality portable charger without breaking the bank.

Just in case 

Best iPhone Cases

Image: zlata ivleva / mashable

Folks, you need a case. You likely know this, but you may not know all the different kinds of cases you can get depending on your needs. There’s a whole world of specialty phone cases out there and we’ll clue you in on a few right here.

If you don’t want to lug around a portable charger (you should still get one!), you can get a charging case! That’s right, they make phone cases that have spare batteries in them that let you recharge on the go. Apple makes a Smart Battery Case for its own phones for $129. You can check out our review of the newest Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 11, if you want to know more.

If you’re tired of carrying around a bulky wallet and want to consolidate, there are phone cases with wallet compartments just for you. So you can carry around cash, cards, and your iPhone all at once.  Just don’t blame us if your combination phone/wallet gets stolen.

If you want something more conventional, I’ve always favored Otterbox’s sturdy, unassuming iPhone cases. They have protected all of my iPhones from my clumsiness too many times to count.

Pop up 

The Yoda’iest Pop Socket

Image: Getty Images / iStockphoto

Chances are you’ve seen Pop Sockets around. They’re little goobers that protrude out from the back of a phone. They’re a little odd at first, but they’ve gotten pretty popular over the last couple of years and you should consider getting one if you want to make your iPhone a little more fun.

Seriously, you can put a little portrait of Baby Yoda on the back of your phone and pop it up and down to your heart’s content. I don’t think I need to say anything else. 

Spruce up those photoshoots

Best iPhone Tripods 

Do you fancy yourself a photographer? Or are you just tired of asking complete strangers to hold your phone out in public? Either way, there are plenty of mobile tripods you can get to fix that exact problem.

Back in February, Mashable recommended the JOBY GorillaPod 500. It can work with a smartphone or a digital camera, if you’ve got one of those with you. But really, this is about iPhone accessories, so all you need to know is that you can mount that sucker on the GorillaPod and get to taking professional-quality photos with your amateur skills.