Phone accessories have gotten completely cluttered, with half of every “best accessories” roundup being things designed to look impressive in unboxing videos and break within a month. As someone who has bought and regretted enough phone accessories to fill a drawer of shame, I learned the difference between things that genuinely improve daily use and things that solve problems you don’t actually have. Today I’ll share all of it.
Here’s the honest list — what’s worth buying and what you should walk right past.
Worth Buying
MagSafe wallet (iPhone) or a card-holder case. Carrying a separate wallet feels increasingly unnecessary when your phone already goes everywhere you do. The Apple MagSafe Wallet ($59) attaches and detaches with one hand. The Peak Design Mobile Wallet ($40) adds a kickstand that’s legitimately useful on video calls. Android users: a slim case that holds 2–3 cards does the same job without the magnetic ecosystem.
A real fast charger. Most phones support 20W–65W+ fast charging and ship with either a 5W brick or nothing at all. An Anker 45W USB-C charger runs about $20 and takes your phone from 20% to 80% in under 30 minutes. This is the cheapest genuine quality-of-life improvement on this list.
A braided USB-C cable. The cable your phone shipped with is built to minimum spec and will fray within a year. An Anker or Belkin braided USB-C cable rated at 60W+ survives thousands of bending cycles and actually delivers fast charging speeds. Buy two. About $10–$15 each. Probably should have listed this first, honestly.
Magnetic car mount. Suction cup mounts fall off dashboards in summer heat. Magnetic mounts using thin metal plates inside your existing case run $15–$25. The Moment and ESR HaloLock lines are both solid. One-handed mounting while parked is meaningfully safer than fiddling with a clamp.
Tempered glass screen protector. Not the $4 ones — those shatter on first impact. The Spigen GlassTR EZ Fit ($15) includes an installation frame that eliminates bubbles and survives normal drops. Without one, the screen will crack eventually.
Power bank. The Anker 622 MagGo for iPhone or the Anker PowerCore Slim 10000 for any phone give you a full extra charge in something pocket-sized. The “Slim” in the name is accurate. Travel days, long events, dead phone emergencies — all less stressful.
PopSocket or phone grip. Sounds frivolous until you’ve dropped your phone three times in a month. A PopSocket at $10–$15 also works as a video stand. The Moment Loop system sits flatter. Your phone lasts longer with one.
Skip These
Stick-on camera lenses. The clip-on anamorphic and wide-angle lenses look fun and produce mediocre results. They introduce distortion, reduce overall sharpness, and fall off at the moment you least want them to. Modern smartphone cameras handle most scenarios better without them.
UV sanitizer boxes. The ones claiming to kill 99.9% of bacteria using UV-C light. The research on consumer UV sanitizers is thin, the exposure time in most of these devices is inadequate to actually sterilize anything, and washing your hands is free.
Wireless charging pads that aren’t replacing something. Wireless charging at 7.5W–15W is genuinely slower than plugging in at 20W+. Unless you’re replacing a cable charger with a MagSafe stand that keeps your phone upright and usable while charging, the “convenience” isn’t worth the speed trade-off.
Fidget ring phone cases. Any case whose selling point is a spinning ring or fidget mechanism on the back. The ring adds bulk, the mechanism fails within weeks, and it makes your phone harder to put in a pocket.
No-name Bluetooth trackers. Apple AirTags and Tile work because of their networks. A $5 tracker from an unknown brand has a tiny network or no network, which means it only works if your phone is already near the lost item — which defeats the purpose.
Premium screen cleaning kits. A microfiber cloth and a small amount of distilled water clean your screen. Any kit charging more than $5 for this combination is selling you packaging.
If you buy only three things: a 45W fast charger, a braided USB-C cable, and a tempered glass screen protector. Everything else is optional, but the MagSafe wallet and magnetic car mount are close to must-haves for daily use.
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