I'm new in general with Apple and iPhones, is it worth it to buy a Mac Store's mica and case for my iPhone 13? Or would you recommend buying one from a third party vendor?

If you just bought your iPhone and are looking for some ways to enhance your experience with this device, this post is for you. I looked for some recent beginner’s guide to iPhone accessories and couldn’t find any, so I made my own. This is not intended to be definitive, but to give some hints to people who, just like me, are trying to find good accessories to buy (and some cheaper ones as well). It’s a very long post, so feel free to bookmark it and read it later or something like that. As always, please share your ideas in the comments and let’s try to improve this article’s quality. (I probably forgot about something really important, but I tried my best). That’s all folks, good reading.

Chargers

Since the iPhone does not come with a charger, buying a good one could be the first need for you. In case you don’t know yet: there are two ways to charge your iPhone – with a normal cable and wirelessly with a MagSafe charger. Both options are good and have their pros and cons.

Cable chargers:

iPhone 13 comes with a USB-C to lightning cable (just in case you didn’t see it), so the best I can recommend is for you to buy a 20W USB-C power adapter - you are not gonna get any more power than that btw.

The charger offered by Apple costs literally $19.00 and are pretty good. HOWEVER: it is probably a better idea to buy THREE of them for less than 17 bucks (you can even give one for your mother or a friend). Obviously, there are many other options as well.

If you don’t trust this USB-C to lightning cable that comes with your iPhone (or have a dog at home that can bite your cable or lost yours anyway) I suggest you to change that. There are some really durable options such as Anker’s (20 dollars) and JSAUX’s ($13). Keep in mind that those cables are also really long (up to 10 feet) and might be useful in a plenty of situations.

MagSafe chargers

Now, things start to get more interesting. If you never heard of MagSafe before, it is a way to wirelessly attach your iPhone with some really cool accessories (such as wallets, batteries and chargers). The original MagSafe charger provided by Apple looks like this and costs 39 dollars. I’m not gonna lie: it’s kinda disappointing. But, in my opinion, the power of MagSafe comes when you have multiple devices (as we are gonna see later) that can charge wirelessly. In this case, you can buy 2-in-1 or even 3-in-1 charger, which is a way better option (I think). This accessory is also called ‘charger station’, which is self-explanatory.

Some good charger stations are Belkin’s 2-in-1 ($100) and Belkin’s 3-in-1 ($150). Yes, they are expensive. But, if you’re looking for some really good-looking charger station that is guaranteed to provide you the maximum charging capacity for all your devices, this is it (that’s my personal choice as well). If you want some cheaper ones, there is the unbelievably cheap elago’s 2-in1, which you can find for less than 10 dollars. (edit: I forgot to metion that most of these cheaper chargers don't actually come with the charger, they are just the station. This means you will need a MagSafe charger as well, such as Apple's)

(by the way, if you want some cooler looking MagSafe adapter, take a look at JSAUX’s)

MagSafe battery

If you travel a lot or use your phone a lot, you have probably already considered buying a battery pack. These portable batteries allow you to boost the battery life of your phone for some well-deserved 3 to 4 hours more.

Apple does offer a clean-designed battery for $100. That’s not the best capacity, tough. Even Mophie’s powerstation (that comes at the very same $100 in Apple’s site) has a much larger 8,000 mAh battery. There are some cheaper options as well – look at this $30 MagSafe battery from manducary, for exemple.

Ok, now that you have your chargers and is sure that your phone is gonna last the hole day, is time to go for some fun ones.

Apple devices

I mean… I had to at least mention them, ok? If you just bought your iPhone and know nothing about the other devices, here comes some quick explanation: one of the best features of the iPhone is the Apple ecosystem, which allows you to really quickly transfer information from one device to the other. Since I’m a very big fan of this ecosystem, I’m just gonna explain two of these products and where to buy them:

AirPods Pro

These are wireless earbuds from Apple. You can buy them directly from Apple (where you can buy all of the other devices as well – but probably at a higher price) or from Amazon (they seem to be out of stock right now). These earbuds will give you the best experience in my opinion (because they simply work and they sound good). If you want some expensive version there are theAirPods Max. And if you want the cheaper one, there are the AirPods 3.

Apple watch

These are by far the best smart watches out there (and I don’t think any of us will disagree). Now, you probably don’t need a smart watch, but there are some pros. In my opinion, the best part is getting out (to run, for example) without needing to carry your iPhone – and then buying things, listening to music and texting friends (all of that while your phone lays on the bed). I recommend series 7, but literally every model is really good.

If you want more Apple products – MacBook, iMac or iPad (I like all of them btw) - I recommend them, but they are not accessories at all and are out of the scope of this post.

iPhone Cases

You probably don’t want your iPhone to crash when it drops on the ground, right? If that’s the case, even though they are really tough, I would definitely go with a case. I personally bought Apple’s silicon case ($49) on the very first day. Admittedly, there are other really good options.

TAURI’s 3-in-1 case seems to be the best-selling option at Amazon.com (actually, I might get one of these myself now that I looked at it). Obviously, there are multiple options and they are really easy to find. I must mention NOMAD’s leather cases. They are so elegant.

MagSafe Wallets

There is a high chance that you don’t even need a wallet anymore. But, for some of us who do need one, I don’t believe there is any better option than a very slim MagSafe wallet. First of all: they are MagSafe, which means you’re not gonna have to worry about them being lost, since they are attached to your phone and won’t get out easily. Plus, if you do need to take them out, that’s easy and simple (and you can carry them in your pocket as well). And finally: they are slim. That is all we need (at least I think so).

Take a look at Spigen’s ultraslim wallet (27 bucks) to see what I'm talking about. For an even lower cost there is this wallet that turns into a very convenient kickstand ($20). If you’re looking for a wallet and a Popsocket in the same product, here it is (I personally find this one very interesting for $40). Of course, if you want some more stylish options, there are also plenty of them literally everywhere.

Gimbals/tripods

If you like to shoot photos and particularly videos, you probably have already had some difficulties with stabilization. Even though the iPhone is very good at this, it’s not perfect. To solve that, there are multiple options for gimbals and tripods out there that you can check out. I personally bought the ZHIYUN Smooth Q3 for $89 and think they are great. I really couldn’t ask for more (except for the part of connecting it to the iPhone, which wasn’t great). The bestselling option at Amazon is the DJI OM 4SE that comes at 10 dollars more.

Ok, you did it! You read until the end. Thank you for that. Please forgive my poor English, since I’m Brazilian. Please comment your impressions and share with the community your own accessories.

(Guys, I don't know if these links can earn me a comission, since I am a brazilian sharing things from the US - I believe this is not possible. But keep in mind that they could. I'm sorry if that got you confused.)