Unlike the cases of the past, Apple’s new MagSafe battery pack will simply attach itself to the back of your iPhone magnetically. You may be familiar with the concept due to MagSafe’s popularity for cases or wallets… and battery packs.
It seems Apple’s, once again, late to the party with an accessory that third parties introduced some time ago. Worst of all, those battery packs are cheaper and store more juice. However, there are still a few reasons you’d rather pick the Apple MagSafe battery pack over the cheaper, longer lasting competition.
Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack
Apple’s MagSafe battery pack is a bit thinner than others we’ve seen. Its white and carries Apple’s logo on the back. It charges your iPhone with 5w, about one third of the power of an outlet-connected MagSafe. However, if you plug a 20W charger into the MagSafe Battery Pack’s Lightning port, it’ll charge your iPhone with 15W. Interestingly, the iPhone can also charge the battery pack wirelessly if the iPhone is plugged into a charger. This proves that the iPhone 12 series does have bi-directional charging. Potentially, your iPhone could charge other devices, if Apple enabled the feature.
Apple says that due to temperature concerns, the battery pack may stop charging your iPhone after it hits 80%. This protects your iPhone’s battery as well, as charging after 80% is more difficult, requires more power, and can age your iPhone’s battery faster.
See? Even Apple has a problem with only one AirPod charging.
iOS will show your MagSafe Battery Pack’s charge level, and when it’s charging your iPhone. You’ll be able to see this in the battery widget as well as the battery icon in the top right corner of your device.
Apple’s battery pack won’t be able to fully charge your iPhone. In fact, you’ll have to confirm you want to keep charging if you want to charge past 90%. To do this, you’ll have to turn on low power mode, to aid in juicing up your iPhone more quickly. It is, after all, only using 5W to charge. Apple’s Battery Pack has 1460mAh. That’s less than the 2,227mAh battery in the iPhone 12 mini. Still, you may be able to get about 50% extra battery life out of the battery pack.
Finally, Apple warns that the pressure from the magnets and the weight of the battery pack can create an imprint on leather iPhone cases, so you may want to use your charger without a case if you want to protect your leather iPhone case.
Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack starts at $99. It’ll start shipping in late July.
OR…
Sure, it’s large, but you’ll rarely need it anyway.
Or you could go with any of Apple’s competition and potentially get more battery life. Unless Apple is optimizing the charging with their battery pack, you can likely get far more power, more quickly, and for less money with Apple’s competitors. Hyper sells a 5,000mAh battery pack that can charge your iPhone at 7.5W, slightly faster than Apple’s, though with more heat issues. Hyper’s battery pack is definitely thicker, but it’s also $39.99. There’s also Anker, which has the same 5W power output of Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack, but also has 5,000mAh of battery life. That’s easily enough to get you up to nearly 80% from dead, likely more than once. Anker’s charger is just $46.
Apple brings four things to the table that the competition cannot:
- Bi-directional charging
- Apple widget support
- A thiner form factor
- Potentially better heat regulation with the iPhone due to iOS connection
If those are worth paying more than twice the price for something that has less than half the battery life of the competition, Apple’s battery pack may be for you. We’ll have to find out later this month once reviewers get their hands on it. It’s possible Apple has other optimizations in their battery pack, but comparing the numbers alone, Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack may fall behind. However, it is slimmer, and it does have Apple’s logo on it. Quite tempting, apparently, as shipping dates have slipped from July 19th to the 21st as of this writing.
Sources:
- Samuel Axon, Ars Technica
- Juli Clover, MacRumors
- Richard Goodwin, KnowYourMobile
- Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac