Apple removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and proclaimed it showed courage. Consumer reactions ranged from indifference to frustration and even anger. The headphone jack remains useful today, and many of us have expensive headphones that rely on it. Now with the iPhone 8 and iPhone X confirming the headphone jack isn’t coming back, Belkin decided to solve the listening while charging problem as best anyone can using one dongle.
This week the Belkin 3.5mm Audio + Charge RockStar adapter went on sale. It’s the second Charge RockStar dongle Belkin have released, but the first one offered two Lightning ports meaning another dongle was required to add a headphone jack. However, this new Charge RockStar replaces one of the Lightning ports with a headphone jack. So you can now charge while listening to music through your wired headphones.
This new adapter costs $34.99, which is $5 cheaper than the previous Charge RockStar. It is guaranteed to work with all iPhone 7 and 8 models as well as iPhone X as long as they are running iOS 9 onwards. It’s also Made for iPhone (MFi certified) and supports synching data to your laptop while accessing music. Belkin also guarantees that charging will not be any slower by using this dongle.
Being able to use just one dongle instead of two means the 3.5mm Audio + Charge RockStar adapter is sure to sell well. It also helps that Apple will be offering it in its stores (and online) so staff can grab one and offer it to customers if they start complaining about the lack of a headphone jack during a purchase. It’s not as good as having the jack be a standard part of the phone, but Apple decided we didn’t need that anymore.