I decided to wait for the iPhone 13. Apple's next iPhone, due out this fall (September or October), made more sense to me than buying a new iPhone. I had just bought an iPhone 11 Pro Max in 2019, but would I need another upgrade so soon?

At least, that was my opinion until certain persistent rumors kept surfacing. That rumor is that at least the 2021 iPhone will not have a charging port at all.

We have reported on the rumor that the Lightning port is going away, as everyone from the widely respected Ming-Chi Kuo to Jon Prosser has rumored it. We're not surprised, because the reliable Mark Garman reported to Bloomberg that Apple wants to remove the port on its 2017 phones.

But one moment last week when I was particularly susceptible to retail therapy, I saw the rumor again. And this time it was a video on my TV: YouTuber Rene Ritchie's "Portless iPhone 13" video appeared on the home screen of my YouTube app. And I began to worry about what would happen if Apple really removed the Lightning port.

Ritchie constructed MKBHD's logic about Apple removing the feature by justifying the decision to remove the feature by saying it solved the problem. It happened with the Home button (for the larger screen space) and replaced it with the convenience of Face ID. And the success of the AirPods and AirPods Pro shows that Apple had a hunch what people wanted. [The success of the AirPods and AirPods Pro shows that Apple had a hunch what people wanted, as the Lightning port is a water entry point and can lead to corrosion. Removing it would pave the way for Apple to build in a larger battery or do something else; as Gurman told MKBHD, that space could be used for an in-screen fingerprint reader.

But that was all known. And Ritchie added two words: "underwater photography."

He added two more things: waterproofing will be even better, and Apple's camera gurus have solved the computational trick for taking pictures underwater.

It's still too early for the iPhone after the charging port. Why? First, it will likely be slower than wired charging. The new MagSafe charging recently added is a great alternative to wired charging, but it is really slow.

And second, and more importantly, I depend on the best portable chargers and don't want to buy new ones. I keep a charger in every bag, so if I forget to plug in my iPhone when I go to bed the night before, I can always charge it.

That's why I don't want the charging port (Apple seems to be against USB-C on the iPhone) to go away; is Apple going to give away MagSafe-to-Lightning adapters?

We can already see Anker and other companies selling MagSafe chargers. If you use your iPhone at the same time you draw power from a portable charger, it makes sense to eliminate the cord. However, this is asking people to throw away an accessory and buy a new one, which clashes with the recent message from Apple announcing that it will remove the power adapter from the iPhone 12 box to reduce waste.

Despite knowing that the iPhone 12 Pro Max would drop in price this fall, I ordered it after I finished processing the above thoughts.

Why? Partly because I want better pictures and retail therapy is real. But the main reason I didn't want to wait is because if I'm going to use it for a while, I'd rather get used to the larger 6.7" size today than this fall.

I don't think I can wait for Apple to maybe bring back the charging port someday. This is not like the new rumors of a MacBook Pro with MagSafe and no Touch Bar (although I feel justified in waiting to purchase a new MacBook until the "butterfly" switch design is discontinued). Instead, I would wait until the iPhone 13 or later, to the point where the market for third-party accessories adapts to this portless iPhone.

And since I'm in the iPhone Upgrade Program, continuing to pay the monthly amount for a better phone feels like a better plan than replacing a large number of accessories in the future. Besides, I'm easy. I feel bad for those who use the Lightning-based CarPlay connection, as wireless CarPlay is not yet available in some cars. If the rumors are true, Apple's changes will have a wide ripple effect throughout the industry.