My last iPhone’s Otterbox lost the rubber flap that covers the charge port, after 3 years of opening and closing. With my new phone, I really didn’t want to have that happen again. I decided to bite the bullet and spend the 35 bucks, since I had to go out and buy a 20w brick anyway.

Honestly, it was a great purchase. It takes about 20% of the time and practically zero effort to connect my phone at night. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely an insignificant task in the first place, but the amount of time I did spend having to peel open the little flap and stab at the charge port in the dark is not something I miss. The way I see it, I save five seconds per night, I’m being more gentle on the hardware and connecting is as simple as could be. It also works at every angle, rather than having a cord sticking out the bottom into your chest while you’re using it in bed. You can have the cord go in any direction, so you rarely ‘kink’ the cable. It’s just all-around a lot more usable, and I have no concern about damaging the cord/the port through wear and tear.

If I didn’t use a case that covers the port, it probably wouldn’t be as tedious to plug it in in the dark. Still, I’m so used to the puck magnetically snapping onto the back of the phone, I couldn’t ever go back, at this point.