Apple’s first wireless charger has recently turned a year and a half (here is our review of 2020), but it clearly has not found mass popularity. Even iPhone owners who have long been registered in the Apple ecosystem are more accustomed to using traditional wired chargers or wireless ones purchased earlier.
Add to this the strange, repeatedly voiced rejection of the very method of charging among the people, akin to fear of 5G – and it becomes clear why I am regularly asked if it makes sense to buy a MagSafe “puck” for new and last year’s iPhones.
As a user of MagSafe for iPhone with a year and a half of “experience”, now I will tell you about my impressions, the pros and cons of this charger. The first is more than the second. But this does not mean that everyone should run to the store right now.
Pros of MagSafe for iPhone
Goodbye Lightning. Yes, no more “poke” in the Lightning port, picking with a “lace”. Where is he, again fell at the table? Or fell behind the bed? Seriously, I have not connected the cable to the iPhone for three months, and this arrangement is absolutely fine. If tomorrow this port disappeared from the device at all, then I would not notice it.
Magnets are rolling. The “washer” lies, the iPhone brought it up – a click, the charging went. And you don’t have to crawl anywhere with the back panel of your smartphone, look for a “contact”. I keep the MagSafe adapter on my bedside table, and I think it’s the perfect place. When you come to crash at night, you just slap your iPhone and that’s it. You don’t even need to check that charging has started: a huge full-screen animation will eloquently tell you about it.
MagSafe comes handy with a kickstand. You can use almost any (for example, this one from Twelve South) with an iPhone in portrait orientation. I have several, from folding to stationary. I usually start a YouTube video or a mid-range series like this while I’m working or playing.
iPhone with MagSafe stays mobile-ready. Let’s say you got a call, you need to go somewhere. Instead of tearing out the cable, which joyfully flies under the table, you snap the charging from the back panel with a slight movement with your palm – and that’s it. And if you’re using some sort of MagSafe dock or holder, even better.
In the car holder MagSafe – just fire. Previously, people stuck magnetic stickers on the back panel. Then the iPhone fought from them when it fell, crashed with Apple Pay and / or forced to wear special cases with built-in magnets. Having a holder with MagSafe, you can even “slap” a bare iPhone – and also take it off when you get out of the car. The cables don’t stick out. In short, sheer convenience.
Charges iPhone 13 Pro Max 100% overnight. If you sleep at least 5 hours or more, then one MagSafe and a modern iPhone will be enough for you to not think about charging at all all day later.
I don’t see any damage to the battery. It’s been four months since I charge my iPhone 13 Pro Max daily with MagSafe. Many people think that wireless chargers ruin the battery. The truth is somewhere in the middle, now is not about that. The main thing is that the iPhone settings still show 100% capacity. So if MagSafe has a negative effect on the service life, then in the short term it is not noticeable.
Cons of MagSafe for iPhone
Charging design is not the best. Apple’s motive to make the “washer” as thin and light as possible is understandable to me. But this has its downsides. The cable coming out of the MagSafe steel ring is taut, especially at the base. It easily lifts or rotates the entire puck when it is lying flat on the table. Looks so so. Third-party manufacturers have not produced weights, mounts, and other “docks” for Apple wireless charging, so the problem is solved. It just didn’t make the product any better.
Apple seems to have forgotten about MagSafe. No, it’s not so much about the support of the standard itself – everything is fine here. Even the new firmware came out in December, although no one knew before that it even existed for the charger. The fact is that the ecosystem of officially licensed chargers on this platform is half dead and did not even begin to live until the recent month and a half.
Belkin released two and a half accessories, Anker too. And that’s where everything seemed to freeze. And dual MagSafe charging did not really support either the new version of the Apple Watch (no fast charging) or the new iPhone 13 (the camera unit does not lie flat with the charger). We need more cool, thoughtful official stuff with MagSafe support. Moreover, they exist in great abundance among the Chinese with AliExpress – which means that there is a demand, otherwise there would be no supply.
Charging speed would be faster. I’m happy with the current one, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be faster. Now the limit is 15 watts, while you need a charger no weaker than 20 watts. Perhaps Apple will solve this issue with the new generation of iPhones (current models do not support more than 15 watts), at the same time updating the line of both MagSafe accessories and chargers.
Charging at a speed similar to the Apple Watch Series 7 would be ideal: let me remind you that in 45 minutes they “refuel” from 0 to 80 percent. But these are already dreams.
MagSafe hurts soft cases. Because it presses and heats up. Respect to Apple for not hiding it from the doorway – for example, leather cases on the official website used to be displayed with a trace of charging, although they look different right out of the box. But this does not mean that there cannot be a better option, and this should simply be taken for granted.
What it can be, the question is complex and rather intended for engineers from Cupertino. This is partly why I abandoned the leather cases that I almost always wore on iPhones for many years, and switched to the original plastic one. Which, by the way, I’m very happy with.
So to take or not to take?
If you have an iPhone 12 or iPhone 13, then I would at least recommend try MagSafe charger. You can start with the most convenient scenario: put one by the bed and charge your iPhone from it at night.
In the car, I also recommend. To do this, it is not necessary to take the holder immediately with MagSafe charging, a “passive” one is enough, with the support of the new iPhone magnets themselves.
I do not advise taking MagSafe for those who are extremely important to charge the iPhone as soon as possible. That is, if you constantly wander around, sleep anywhere for only a few hours, and “recharge” in a cafe that accidentally got in the way. Then the power of such an adapter is unlikely to be enough for you, especially if you use the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.
For me, MagSafe was not a revelation, but rather proved that future smartphone models can do without a Lightning port or even USB-C. The accessory itself is definitely not perfect at the moment, but it is very good for its tasks. Apple has something to strive for in the next generations, and I hope they strive will. Even Android manufacturers are slowly copying the idea. So they found something in her.
MagSafe Adapter costs 3990 rubles. I recommend the original 20-watt USB-C charging from Apple (1990 rubles), since it is not included in the kit.
Finally, beware of MagSafe fakes and buy the original version from authorized resellers. Chinese “clones” are terrible, they overheat until the internal components are charred, often break down and almost always do not give out the promised 15 watts.
(46 votes, overall rating: 4.54 out of 5)
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Nikita Goryainov
@ngoryainov
Editor-in-Chief iPhones.ru. Thanks for reading us. Have a question, suggestion or something interesting? Write to [email protected]
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