If you had told techies in advance that Apple would be getting rid of its 5W power brick in its iPhone 12 (and iPhone 12 Pro) release, they likely would have been ecstatic. If you had mentioned that it did in fact come with a USB-C cable, they would have been over the moon, thinking that their prayers had finally been answered.
Unfortunately, they would have been wrong. Unlike the new iPad Pro, the latest iPhone does not have a USB-C port for charging. In fact, it has the same old lightning port, and the cable that it comes with is a USB-C to lightning cord. It does not include a USB-C block to plug that cord into.
This result is not satisfying to anybody. For tech people, it means they still have to lug around another cord specifically for their iPhone, as opposed to just using USB-C for all their devices. For everybody else, they are likely going to buy their new phone and immediately wonder how on earth they are going to charge it. Unless they have one of newer MacBooks, they probably do not have a USB-C port lying around their house.
I know this from experience. A member of my household has a pair of noise canceling bluetooth headphones, the Tribit QuietPlus 72. They work really well for him, and with 30 hours of playtime, he can go several days without charging them. When they die, however, he is out of luck. The first time it happened, he spent over an hour digging through his desk trying to find some cable that could charge it. When he finally found the one it came with, he was flabbergasted. Because it is USB-C, he could connect it to the headphones but had no way to connect it to a power source.
Since I have a MacBook Air, he can use my USB-C charger for his headphones. Now, every few days, he comes to me in need of some juice. This situation is going to play out over and over again in households around the country when the iPhone 12 is finally delivered to their door.
Of course, you can solve this money by handing over more money to Apple. If you don’t already own one, you can buy their 20-Watt USB-C adapter for $20. Or, if you want to be really fancy, you can buy their MagSafe charger for $40.
What? You thought you it was only going to cost you $800?
