Apple MagSafe Battery Pack
Apple‘s MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12 is mired in controversy over its capacity and price. After using it for a while, it has become one of our go-to accessories.
Unintended as a way to extend your battery for days, Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack is the ideal solution when you need those crucial extra few hours or have to get through that long weekend. Assuming you have your expectations in line with Apple’s design, the MagSafe Battery Pack is the best you can do.
Design and build
Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack is a compact device. It will just slightly double the thickness of your iPhone which is notably thinner than most third-party options we’ve seen to date.
The outside is a soft-touch plastic shell and thus far has held up well to fingerprints, dirt, and dust. Much better than Apple’s silicone cases do. Apple has, as it tends to do, kept things minimal. There are no buttons or controls whatsoever.
The only penetrations into the plastic are a pinhole LED that lets you know the battery status while plugged in and that Lightning port for charging.
The charging side of the battery has a light grey rubberized pad to prevent slippage, recessed in the distinctive MagSafe shape. We’ve seen deformation of leather cases when connected with MagSafe — and Apple tells users to expect it.
This back panel appears to be a stock Apple component or strictly regulated in the program Apple controls true Magsafe peripherals with. When compared to the only authorized third-party MagSafe mount from Belkin, there are no differences.
Combined, all of this delivers a click when you connect the battery to an iPhone. We assumed the click was either a design feature or issue when we reviewed the Belkin vent mount but now see that the cause must lie with Apple.
The best we can describe it is that as you bring the magnets towards one another, the attraction causes an internal magnet to shift, hitting against the plastic surface and click. It doesn’t rattle, and you only hear it when putting the battery on, but with the folks we’ve spoken to about it, it can be off-putting.
We love Apple’s minimalist nature here. You shouldn’t be required to think about a battery pack and certainly shouldn’t need to turn it on or off.
The magic of MagSafe means if you don’t need it, you can remove it. It charges when it needs to and is one less thing for you to worry about.
Integration with iOS
To diffuse any responsibility on your part in managing your battery, Apple has put in place tight integration with iOS. To fully support the battery, users need to have iOS 14.7 or later. Currently, beta users of iOS 15 don’t have full support, but we’re expecting it soon.
When you connect the battery to your phone, a slick graphic appears on-screen that animates in. The center shows your iPhone’s battery percentage both in numerical fashion as well as graphically. Below that, and much smaller, is an animation displaying the battery pack’s battery.
If your iPhone is in low power mode, the circle will highlight in yellow rather than green.
At any time, you can also glance the battery’s remaining capacity with Apple’s battery widget on your Home Screen. The battery widget can also be Smart Stack so that it intelligently shows when your battery pack is connected.
A battery is not eternal. Given the volume and capacity that it has, an iPhone battery’s overall life is generally measured in years. User behavior can cut this down, and Apple has taken steps to help with this, and minimize the accumulation of minor damages over time.
When the battery is connected to an iPhone, it will charge your iPhone up to 90 percent before stopping, using Apple’s Smart battery charging algorithm. The final stretch from 90% to 100% takes a disproportionate toll on overall battery longevity versus the rest of the charge, so Apple keeps you topped off at 90% rather than letting your battery take the hit.
You can go past this 90% if you’d like by going into Control Center and manually allowing it.
In a further extension of battery maintenance, if the iPhone internal temperature is high, the battery will cut off charting when the phone hits 80%. High temperatures are also harmful to lithium batteries, so battery charging is halted a bit earlier to prevent any further damage.
Capacity and speed
Apple isn’t exactly transparent about what it expects any user to see in real life when using the MagSafe Battery.
On the rear of the battery pack, we can see the posted capacity is 1640 mAh, with third-party models boasting 5,000 mAh. But as we discussed in depth, this isn’t a fair comparison — and this battery has much more capacity than it appears just based on a milliamp-hour rating, which doesn’t tell the whole story.
We charged up our iPhone 12 Pro Max from a dead battery and a fully charged MagSafe Battery Pack. It took almost two hours on the dot for the battery pack to drain and charged our iPhone up to 53 percent.
Apple’s MagSafe Battery pack isn’t designed for multiple iPhone charges on one fully-powered battery pack. Like its predecessor, it’s designed for scenarios like those rare 18-hour workdays, when everything around you is on fire, and you need to eke out a few more hours from your iPhone when away from a wall socket.
Those third-party batteries that loudly tout those larger 5,000mAh capacities don’t get you nearly as far as you’d expect either. With a Qi efficiency rating of only about 50% versus MagSafe’s close to 80%, those will get you almost the same amount of usable power as Apple’s battery pack.
The battery can sit on the back of our phone as much as it needs to. We aren’t looking for speed. We prefer the battery to stay healthy combined with getting much actual runtime per day as possible.
Apple says the battery will provide 5W of power while on your phone, and that can boost up to 15W of power while connected via Lightning. Apple hasn’t said how fast the battery pack itself can charge, but this can be tested.
Charging the MagSafe Battery by itself averaged 17W and it averaged 20W when the iPhone was also connected
Using a power gauge, we measured an average of 17W of input power using a USB-C Lightning cable. When we connected our iPhone to the battery, which is then in turn connected to power by Lightning, we saw this jump up to over 20W of power.
Connecting with Lightning allows the MagSafe Battery to charge at roughly 5W. At the same time, your iPhone will charge with 15W of power simultaneously.
It is also important to note one of the best features of Apple’s battery. It is the first — and only — device to support reverse wireless charging from an iPhone 12. When you have your iPhone connected via Lightning, it can charge an attached battery pack.
This is immensely helpful if you need to connect your iPhone to another device, the best example being CarPlay. You can hop in your car, connect your iPhone to your car’s interface, and charge both your phone and battery at the same time. No other battery pack can do this.
As MagSafe is fully backward compatible with Qi, this is technically able to charge any other Qi-enabled device.
Bafflingly, though, you can’t take a MagSafe charger and use it to charge the battery pack.
As an example, we could place our Airpods Pro on the circle, and they instantly began to charge. You could charge any older iPhones or Android devices too.
Controversy can’t be avoided
Apple product releases always have some level of controversy, but it seems unusually loud this time around. Some of the issues we agree with, and some we don’t.
Opinion-laden commenters have had issues with the unit’s dimensions, the weight, the input method, the lack of buttons, the 5W charging speeds, the capacity, and the lack of color options.
No one product is perfect for every consumer. While we’re sure folks complaining about the dimensions have their own reasons, applying a very personal conclusion like whether or not the phone and battery will fit in your pants and using the widest of brushes to spread that opinion across the board doesn’t suit anybody.
Apple only offers the battery in white, and it is a different shade of white compared to Apple’s white silicone case. This seems like an odd choice, but it may come down to the chemistry of the different materials.
Of all the criticisms, we agree with the input method most. Lightning is fine, but with the launch of the iPhone 12, we’ve moved many charging solutions to MagSafe.
The times you’d need this battery most, such as while traveling, are the exact times we’re trying to pack minimally and stick with just MagSafe. Now a second cable — albeit a small one — will always be needed to be brought if the battery pack is to remain charged.
In an ideal world, the MagSafe Battery Pack would itself be charged via Magsafe. MagSafe in, MagSafe out.
A relatively minor issue is that you can only mount one MagSafe device at a time on an iPhone. If you’ve got the MagSafe wallet, for instance, you’ll be swapping it in and out for that long night on the town. Fortunately, the wallet and battery are slim enough to fit into most s.
Should you buy Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack?
This battery pack is certainly not for everyone and is a niche product. Some people can get a couple of days out of their iPhone’s battery, so the need for an external one is moot.
There are also many more affordable options on the market, though as we already expressed, we don’t think that trade-off is worth it.
If you find yourself on occasion needing to squeeze a few more hours out of your iPhone before you get home, and Low Power Mode isn’t quite doing it, Apple’s MagSafe battery is going to be as good as it gets. It is compact, solid, effortless to use, integrates well into iOS, and has features built-in for both the MagSafe battery and your phone’s battery long-term health.
The price isn’t inconsequential. The MagSafe Battery is priced like most of Apple’s products. Whether or not that price is worth it depends very much on how you value deep Apple integrations.
- Compact form factor
- Wonderful iOS integration
- Thoughtful battery health features
- Fast power input
- Up to 15W of power while plugged in
- Magnetic force is strong
- Uses same Lightning cable as iPhone
- Provides good amount of charge to latest iPhones
- Supports reverse wireless charging
- No color options
- No MagSafe or Qi input
- Typical Apple price tag
- Sometimes off-putting click when connecting
MagSafe Battery Pack deals
Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack retails for 99, but AppleInsider readers can exclusively get a free 10 Adorama gift card with promo code APINSIDER. For activation instructions, check out the MagSafe deal here.
This Price has a coupon applied
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Andrew O’Hara has spent the last eight years embedded in all aspects of the digital space from leading digital marketing teams to front-end web development and design. He started producing vid.
tommikele
As usual. with charging devices and cabling, Anker offers a superior product and much better value than Apple.
crowley
People not wanting something isn’t a controversy.
StrangeDays
As usual. with charging devices and cabling, Anker offers a superior product and much better value than Apple.
Define value, please. From what I’ve read Anker is like the others. less efficient and unable to charge rapidly when plugged in. Two things this battery is better at. Also, reserve charging via one cable plugged into the iPhone. These all offer value.
dewme
There’s no denying the fact that this thing is chubby (fat, husky, big boned, obese, or whatever word you prefer). It may very well be less chubby than other brand equivalent products, but it is still a little heifer. The fact is that Apple obviously goes to great lengths not to present any pictures of this thing mounted on an iPhone in full profile on their web site, where its considerable girth compared to the host iPhone would be very apparent (as in. it’s thicker than the damn phone), is very telling. All of the semi profile pictures are showing it unmounted.
Yes, prospective customers can dig around on the web to obtain the stats or see more pictures, but I still believe that sellers of this category of add-on products are being deceptive if they don’t show the thing mounted on the phone in full profile, where the add-on device’s thickness relative to the phone is most glaring and obvious. Apple itself is trying to disguise its chubbiness. Why?
None of this disqualifies the product in any way as long as it does the job that it is intended to do. But in fairness to prospective customers, and to promote full disclosure prior to sale, Apple should show at least ONE full profile picture of the portly little beast mounted on an iPhone so buyers purchasing the product sight-unseen will be less shocked when they unpack it at home.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack hands-on: What do you get for 99?
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack packs some perks of the Apple ecosystem, but it sure is pricey.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Doesn’t get noticeably warm
- Thinner than competitor
- Compatible with iOS 14 Batteries widgets
Cons
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Apple has replaced its iPhone charging cases with the new Apple MagSafe Battery Pack. It’s a.sized power brick that snaps onto any iPhone 12 model, and is basically meant to make sure your iPhone stays charged even through a long day.
But at 99 the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack is far from cheap. That’s more than twice as much as Anker’s competitor, which also has a higher capacity. This hands-on Apple MagSafe Battery Pack review will explain what you get in exchange for that difference, and my initial impressions of the pack.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack: Price and release date
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack costs 99 and is available on Apple.com and Amazon. That’s a pretty mountain of pennies, especially when compared to the higher-capacity Anker Magnetic 5K pack costs 45.
Apple announced the MagSafe Battery Pack on July 13, 2021, and the release date was July 19.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack: Compatibility
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack snaps right onto the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. For my testing, I’ve used it with my iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The MagSafe Battery Pack can also charge the Qi-enabled Airpods Pro and Airpods via their cases.
This means it’s primarily for those with the latest iPhone, and those who will buy upcoming iPhones, such as the iPhone 13 (which is expected to still have MagSafe).
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack: Design
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack is made so simply that I can’t even feel annoyed with Apple for not including anything close to an instruction manual. It’s a thin, matte white rectangle with rounded corners on the outer side.
In my hand, the MagSafe Battery Pack feels a little bulky, but I’ve gotten used to it in the last 24 hours. importantly, it doesn’t warm up noticeably in my And compared to using my iPhone with a portable charger, it’s a lot more sleek and seamless.
On the inner side, the battery pack offers a soft-touch gray surface with a white ring to indicate the MagSafe connection. (You’re going to want to aim that for the Apple logo on your phone.) Finished with a gray Apple logo on the outer side, The MagSafe Battery Pack has achieved almost the platonic ideal of Apple’s minimalist aesthetic.
The MagSafe Battery Pack measures 3.7 x 2.5 x 0.4 inches and weighs 4 ounces, making it 33% thinner (and a tad lighter) than the Anker PowerCore Magnetic 5K (3.7 x 2.5 x 0.6 inches, 4.6 ounces).
Apple’s accessory features one Lightning port, which is the primary way to charge it. You can also charge the MagSafe Battery Pack from a Qi-based power charger.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack: How it works
As simple as it gets, the MagSafe Battery Pack snaps onto the back of an iPhone 12 (and, as I mentioned, all upcoming MagSafe iPhones), and just starts charging immediately. It’s delivering juice via a very slow 5W rate.
After snapping it on, you’ll then see your phone’s current battery charge amount on your screen, plus the percentage of remaining battery life in the MagSafe pack. The MagSafe pack’s charge amount will appear in the Batteries widget.
The magnetic connection of the MagSafe Battery Pack is acceptable when you’re using it snapped on the back of an iPhone 12. That said, when I was using it, I kept thinking it could be tighter, as it was a teeny bit looser than I’d like. I was excited to figure out that the strength of the magnetic connection increases when you’ve got a MagSafe phone case in between the iPhone and the battery pack.
When you connect a lightning cable to the battery pack and to a power source, you’ll get 15W charging, and you can get faster rates with a 20W power adapter.
This means, essentially, that you’re going to be keeping your iPhone afloat when it’s got a charge. This isn’t the kind of recharging speed for those trying to bring a dead iPhone back to 100% or close to that.
You can also refuel wirelessly-charging Airpods cases by placing them on the MagSafe Battery Pack’s magnetic side. It doesn’t snap on, but it works either way.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack: Battery Life
Herein lies the biggest potential flaw of the MagSafe Battery Pack. Apple doesn’t make any claims of how long it will extend the life of your iPhone 12. That may be because such data varies by model, but a range of battery life would have been nice.
Teardowns have revealed the MagSafe Battery Pack has a capacity of 1,460mAh. That’s less than 30% of the 5,000mAh Anker Magnetic 5K.
Based on how fast the MagSafe Battery Pack emptied, though, we’re guessing any claim might not have been that long. In the morning, I attached the two when both were charged, and by 4:30 p.m. I was at 16% on the MagSafe Battery Pack with the iPhone still at 89%. Normally, my iPhone would be much lower, probably in the 40-50% range.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack: Outlook
As I’ve noted in this hands-on Apple MagSafe Battery Pack review, Apple’s accessory comes with a lot less battery life than Anker’s competing brick, and it’s nearly twice as expensive. So, why would you buy this thing (which I did)?
Primarily, you’d buy the MagSafe Battery Pack because there’s a general assurance that Apple-made accessories may work better with the iPhone. You see that born out by the integration with the Batteries widget, and the home screen as well. It’s also got a thinner design, as well.
I look forward to reporting back once I’ve had more time with the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack, which I expect I’ll use all-day long on my upcoming trip to Las Vegas.
Apple MagSafe Battery Pack Review
Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack is a compact and convenient way to add hours of battery life to your iPhone 12.
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.
Pros
- Fits all iPhone 12 models
- Sturdy design
- Simple, bidirectional pass-through charging
Cons
If you make heavy use of your iPhone 12 and often find the battery running low while you’re out and about, the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack (99) will likely become your favorite new accessory. Small enough to slide into a or bag, the MagSafe Battery Pack adds hours of use to your phone, snapping neatly into place with the aid of precisely positioned magnets. Apple’s external battery solution may seem pricey when compared with other portable chargers and power banks, but its excellent build quality and one-year warranty make it one of the best ways to charge your iPhone on the go, and our Editors’ Choice winner for iPhone 12–compatible external batteries.
Slim and Sturdy
The MagSafe Battery Pack is a small, slightly chunky device that measures 3.75 by 2.5 by 0.43 inches (HWD). It works with every MagSafe-compatible iPhone and fits perfectly on the back of the iPhone 12 mini.
The aesthetic here can be best described as utilitarian. The outer shell is made of a durable white plastic with a gray Apple logo centered in the upper half. The charging face of the battery pack is covered in gray silicone that matches the logo on the other side. A Lightning port and an indicator light are on the bottom edge.
Although the outer shell has a matte finish, it’s very slippery and easy to drop, though after several accidental drops, we didn’t notice any scratches. The only damage that occurred was some staining on the silicone charging plate from being attached to a phone in a leather case.
Belkin Boost Up Charge Magnetic Portable Wireless Charger Pad
Apple doesn’t offer AppleCare for the MagSafe Battery Pack, but it does include a one-year warranty. If the device stops working and there’s no obvious damage, you can take it to any Apple Store for repair or replacement.
We wish Apple offered designs that complemented the iPhone 12, as a thick white puck stuck to the pack of the back of a blue or green iPhone 12 looks clunky. It would also be useful to have a USB-C port in addition to the Lightning port.
Much Than a Number
At 3,687mAh, the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s battery may seem paltry compared with the 5,000mAh cell in the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, but don’t be fooled by a simple number. Thanks to Apple’s more efficient hardware and software, our tests showed the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s battery lasting for more than 15 hours, compared with a bit over 11 hours for the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
And even those tests don’t tell the whole story. The truth is that most battery drain tests, including our own, aren’t an accurate representation of day-to-day usage for any phone. We start with a full charge and force the phone to do battery-intensive tasks nonstop until it’s drained. Most people use their phones on and off throughout the day. For instance, you may read the news on your morning commute, check your messages a few times during the day at work, and then turn on Spotify and scroll through on the way home. That will have a different effect on battery than our torture tests.
The white MagSafe Battery Pack doesn’t match the aesthetic of the iPhone 12. (Photo: Steven Winkelman)
The MagSafe Battery Pack’s 1,460mAh capacity might seem low at first glance; it’s little more than half the capacity of the iPhone 12 mini’s 2,227mAh battery, and far less than the 5,000mAh external batteries you can find for a quarter of the price. But the numbers are once again deceiving.
Milliamp-hours (mAh) theoretically define a battery’s capacity to power a device—or recharge a device, in the case of battery packs—but that statistic is calculated with the assumption that the two devices have the same voltage. If their voltages are different, the effective mAh rating changes. Since all the iPhone 12 models have 3.81V batteries and the MagSafe Battery Pack has a 7.6V potential, the Battery Pack’s effective mAh capacity is actually 2,920mAh. (A lot of math is involved in figuring this out; Apple Insider’s Wesley Hillard (Opens in a new window) does an excellent job of breaking it down.)
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack charges your iPhone 12 at up to 5W when unplugged, and at up to 15W when plugged in. (Photo: Steven Winkelman)
To make things even more confusing, the effective mAh capacity doesn’t account for inefficiency. If you use a regular Qi wireless charger to charge a phone, about half the power is lost due to device placement, heat, and other environmental factors. MagSafe is more efficient than Qi because the magnets ensure perfect positioning of the phone on the charger, but there is still a significant amount of lost power. And both the iPhone 12 and the MagSafe Battery Pack have built-in safety features (Opens in a new window) that help prevent the products from overheating and minimize battery degradation, but limit charging capability and speed in the process.
Long story short: The MagSafe Battery Pack is more capacious than it looks, but it can’t fully recharge any of the iPhone 12 models from 0% to 100%.
Adaptable and Versatile
Apple’s MagSafe Charger can deliver 15W charging, and so can the MagSafe Battery Pack—as long as it’s plugged into a 20W power adapter. Unplugged, it maxes out at 5W.
These are all theoretical speeds. When we connected an unplugged MagSafe Battery pack to an iPhone 12, it delivered 4W of power on average. Plugged into a 100W charger, the MagSafe Battery Pack’s actual charging wattage varied from 3W to 11W.
An indicator light on the bottom of the MagSafe Battery Pack turns green when it’s fully charged. (Photo: Steven Winkelman)
When the MagSafe Battery Pack was plugged in, it managed to add 72% to our iPhone 12’s battery in about 2.5 hours. Unplugged, it gave a boost of 67% over a period of 4 hours. When we attached the Battery Pack to a fully charged iPhone in the morning, it kept the phone at 100% for about 7 hours.
For the fastest charging speeds, you’ll need a 20W USB-C power adapter and a USB-C–to-Lightning cable; neither is included with the MagSafe Battery Pack. However, if you already have a good fast charger for your iPhone 12, that should be just fine.
In addition to being able to charge your iPhone, your iPhone can charge the MagSafe Battery Pack. To do this, plug in your iPhone with the MagSafe Battery Pack attached. Your phone will charge at a Rapid 20W, and when it’s charged up to 80%, it will begin passing power through to the Battery Pack. An indicator light on the bottom of the Battery Pack turns green when it’s completely charged. A charging indicator also appears on your phone’s Lock Screen and Today View.
Bidirectional charging makes it much simpler to keep both your phone and battery topped up. Plug in the battery on your bedside table or desk and keep your phone parked there whenever you’re not using it, the way you would with any MagSafe charging station. When it’s time to go, both the iPhone and battery will be fully charged. And if you later need to charge your phone faster than the battery can, plug it in directly and it will juice up the battery in the process.
The Perfect Companion
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack can get even the most demanding iPhone 12 users through a full day between charges. It’s durable enough to handle your daily commute with ease, and easy to charge when you get home. Even without a power adapter and charging cable in the box, we still think the MagSafe Battery Pack is a good value, especially once you add its warranty and safe charging features into the equation.
If you’re looking for a more affordable option, check out our recommendations for the best portable chargers and power banks. But we know Apple customers value thoughtful design, clever features, and simplicity of use, and that’s why the MagSafe Battery Pack earns our Editors’ Choice award.
First impressions: Apple’s MagSafe battery pack isn’t perfect, but you’ll probably still want to get one
When Apple first unveiled the iPhone 12 and MagSafe back in October, it immediately hit me that the perfect use case was for battery packs. Finally, nine months later, an official Apple MagSafe battery pack is here. We’ve got our hands on one and have plenty of thoughts to share.
Design and finish
First and foremost, the battery pack isn’t silicone like Apple’s previous Smart battery cases. It’s a soft-touch plastic that feels unlike any other existing Apple product. In fact, it feels almost like the inside of the original 2006 white MacBook. The white soft-touch plastic is also an entirely different shade of white than Apple’s white silicone case. It’s much lighter and much more explicitly white. So if you were planning on using the MagSafe battery pack with a white MagSafe case, just know that they don’t quite match. It won’t look as seamless as the old white Smart battery cases.
The battery pack itself is thicker than the iPhone 12 inside of a MagSafe silicone case. It’s pretty chunky. It’s also fairly heavy and certainly adds a bunch of weight to your light iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 mini. It certainly will make the stainless steel pro models feel even heavier than they already do. But keep in mind that this battery pack is easily removable — that’s the main benefit of MagSafe. Unlike the old battery cases, you can keep a case on and remove the battery when you don’t want the extra weight.
On the other side of the battery pack, there’s a smooth silicone gray pad that prevents the back of your iPhone from getting scratched up. On the bottom of the battery pack, there’s a lightning connector that lets you charge the battery on its own or charge both your iPhone and the battery pack together. There’s also a small LED next to the connector like the one on the Airpods charging case that indicates the power status.
The MagSafe battery pack fits nicely on the back of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Max sizes, but it can feel a bit awkward because of how thick it is. On the iPhone 12 mini, though, it feels more natural. This is because the MagSafe battery pack is just as wide as the iPhone 12 mini, so it feels flush with the case. One concern I have is that you can see the thin white edges sticking out from the front of the iPhone 12 mini. This is because the magnets let the pack shift around a bit.
Charging
The MagSafe battery pack snaps right onto the back of your iPhone 12 like the MagSafe wallet, although the magnets are significantly stronger. While charging both the battery pack and the iPhone together, you can feel the battery get warm. This shouldn’t be surprising given that the battery is using Qi charging coils.
When the battery is connected to an iPhone, you can connect a lightning charger directly to the battery, or you can plug it into the iPhone. As we’ve written about, when you plug your lightning connector into your iPhone, you can use it to wirelessly charge the battery pack in reverse.
Since the MagSafe battery pack is basically just a Qi charger with magnets, it can charge any other Qi-compatible device. For example, you can plop your Airpods or Airpods Pro on the MagSafe battery pack if you remove it from your iPhone. Technically you could also charge Android phones, older Qi-compatible iPhones, and other wireless earbuds with Qi charging cases. This is a really great bonus that comes with the battery being easily removable.
Software
The MagSafe battery pack integrates with iOS 14.7, so you’ll see its charge in the battery widget and on the Lock Screen. Unfortunately, iOS 15 beta 3 doesn’t include the necessary components to correctly show the battery pack’s status. Although you can see the charge with a different icon. Hopefully, we’ll get beta 4 soon. In the meantime, you can see what the MagSafe battery pack looks like in the battery widget below from an image on Apple’s website.
When charging your Airpods on the MagSafe battery pack, you’ll see their charge status in the battery widget as well. This is expected behavior, of course, since they already do that when on another Qi charger.
The MagSafe battery pack is far from perfect. It’s thick, and it’s heavy, but it provides necessary utility. This is an Apple product that absolutely tackles function first and form second. There are surely plenty of reasons behind Apple’s decisions with this accessory, particularly due to limitations and safety concerns that come with Qi technology. The battery itself weighs about a quarter of a pound, so it’s not particularly light. It’s 2.5″ x 3.75″ and just under half an inch thick.
Lots of folks were wondering if the MagSafe battery pack would work when you have a case on your iPhone. The answer is yes! At the moment, we’ve only been able to test the MagSafe battery pack with Apple’s first-party cases or approved third-party MagSafe cases. It likely won’t work well with cases that aren’t Apple-approved.
If you charge your iPhone using an iPad Air or iPad Pro, keep in mind that you cannot charge it when the MagSafe battery pack is connected. You can charge them separately, but not together.
If you were a fan of Apple’s most recent Smart battery cases and frequently used the built-in shutter button, you’ll be sad to know there isn’t one on the MagSafe battery pack. Instead, you’ll just have to use the volume buttons.
In terms of battery capacity, we expect that the MagSafe pack can recharge an iPhone 12 mini entirely while it can likely recharge the other three models enough to save you in a pinch. We’ll be back in a few days to let you know how the battery performs, but it’s too early to tell.
Conclusion
The MagSafe battery pack is available for pick up at Apple retail stores starting today for 99. You can also order one online and have it shipped to your home. The battery pack is available in one color, white. So you can’t pick one up to match your red or black MagSafe cases.
Are you picking up a MagSafe battery pack for your iPhone 12? Let us know in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев below!
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Hands-on: How Apple’s new iPhone 12 MagSafe Battery Pack compares to Anker’s for on-the-go charging
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article where I called MagSafe the defining feature of the iPhone 12 line. Little did I know that Apple was about to release its own official MagSafe battery pack. So, of course, I bought it immediately because I wanted to see how it compared in day-to-day use with the Anker Magnetic Battery Pack. Let’s dive into my comparison of the Apple MagSafe Battery vs. Anker Magnetic Battery Pack.
Table of contents
As I’ve mentioned in my iPhone 12 mini diary, the battery in my iPhone doesn’t last nearly as long as it did when I was on the “Max” lineup, but that’s the trade-off you make to have an iPhone you can fit in your
While I haven’t traveled as much as I usually would since the iPhone 12 mini was released, I’ve done enough to feel how it functions when not at my desk. The truth is that if you travel with the iPhone 12 mini, you’ll need external batteries to make it through the day with normal to heavy usage. So it’s not a matter of if you’ll need an external battery, but which one.
One of the benefits of MagSafe is that you won’t need to use a cable to charge your iPhone. If you want the absolute biggest external battery you can find, you’ll want to go with an actual external battery that you’ll plug your iPhone into. I own a handful of models similar to these, and for extended trips, I always keep one in my bag.
For shorter trips, I am going to rely on MagSafe batteries from now on. Now that I have three options, which one will be my go-to model for trips and days when I’ll be away from home most of the day?
Apple MagSafe Battery vs. Anker Magnetic Battery Pack
Before we look at the key features, one thing to keep in mind is that only Apple’s battery is MagSafe certified. The other options are MagSafe compatible, though. In practice, I’ve never had an issue with charging from the non-Apple ones.
Price
One of the biggest considerations when choosing a MagSafe battery pack is the price. Both the Anker and the Charge Fast models are less than 50. Apple’s MagSafe battery is 99, so right away, that’s a reason to look elsewhere.
iOS integration
The second thing to consider is integration with the iPhone. On the Apple MagSafe battery, there is a widget showing the current charge of the battery. For obvious reasons, none of the third-party options can deliver that. Is that feature worth spending an extra 50 on? It’s hard to justify, in my opinion.
Capacity
Capacity is where the problems crop up for Apple’s MagSafe battery. Apple’s MagSafe battery is 11.13Wh, where the Anker model is 18.5Wh. So for double the price, you’re getting a much lower capacity battery.
Size
Both battery packs are compatible with each other in physical size. Both will fit the iPhone 12 mini as well as the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The underside of Apple’s battery case is slight softer than Anker’s, but if you’re using a case, you won’t likely notice a difference.
Wrap up on Apple MagSafe Battery vs. Anker Magnetic Battery Pack
After spending some time with Apple’s MagSafe battery pack, I can firmly say that it’s not the best value. It might be the best one if you want the whole Apple experience, but it’s double the price of the Anker Magnetic Battery Pack.
While this might seem like a trivial thing, I am over devices that charge by lightning. Because of MagSafe, I want to go to USB-C for everything wired charging. My MacBook Air charges over USB-C, my iPad Air charges over USB-C, my Logitech MX3 charges over USB-C, and my Airpods Pro charges over wireless charging. I almost never use lightning now. The Anker Magnetic Battery Pack charges over USB-C, and that’s a significant benefit of using it.
- iOS integration with a battery widget
- Apple logo on the back, with quality and reputation that go with it
Pros of Anker Magnetic Battery Pack
So what’s the final verdict on the Apple MagSafe Battery vs Anker Magnetic Battery Pack? Unless you want to charge with a lightning cable and like the iPhone battery widget integration, I can’t recommend it over the Anker model. So if you have a budget of 100 to spend, grab two of them. If this product had come out simultaneously with the iPhone 12 without competitors, it might be a different story, but charging power is charging power. Sadly, the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack is the first Apple product I’ve ever returned. There’s nothing major wrong with it other than it gives about half the charge of third-party brands at double the cost.
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