Best iPhone accessories for ditching my laptop

Who would put an outlet there?

When traveling, you sometimes find yourself in a, let’s say, creatively laid-out room. A heavy, tall bookcase may block the outlet closest to the bed or maybe the room’s only outlet is frustratingly out of reach for anyone but Gumby.

In such situations, it’s handy to have a cable that’s dramatically long. It lets me doomscroll my way to sleep while cozily lying in bed and keeping my phone juiced. There are plenty of options for extra-long cables, but this Mophie one has the max power delivery that USB-C supports (240 W) and is an impressive 9.8 feet long. A flat wall charger helps make plugging things in less straining too.

And for those times when you want to view what’s on your iPhone on a big screen, it’s helpful to carry a USB-C (or Lightning) Digital AV Adapter.

Many modern TVs support iPhone mirroring, but you can’t always guarantee that an unfamiliar TV will support or run the feature properly and smoothly. Having a physical adapter can simplify things so you can connect via HDMI without troubleshooting an unfamiliar TV.

Keeping it all together

Finally, if you’re like me and tend to forget things when traveling, it’s sensible to have a central place for storing all, or most, of your tech gear.

I’ve been using Bellroy’s Tech Kit, which has all the straps, magnetic pockets, and loops to keep my cables, headphones, chargers, and mouse in one place.

The clever design includes straps for keeping up to six cables tangle-free. But the case itself is also spacious enough for me to toss in last-minute accessories that I didn’t have time to neatly wrap.

Typists should note, though, that this bag doesn’t fit my mechanical keyboard, which goes in a separate, dedicated case. Still, the maturely styled softshell Tech Kit fits the majority of iPhone accessories, as well as most styles and suitcases.

And when I’m still worried about losing gear, I like to pop an AirTag into my Tech Kit, suitcase, or backpack. It takes up minimal space, and when my journeys take me multiple locations, there’s reassurance in having a method for tracking my stuff should it be forgotten, lost, or stolen.