MagSafe Battery Pack - Convenience Over Capacity
Can your iPhone make it a full day on a charge? Are you on the go and looking for a way to keep connected? Perhaps you like to always have a backup battery source that is easy to travel with? Whichever bucket you fall into, the iPhone MagSafe Battery Pack is another Apple product that simply “just works”.
From the moment you take it out of the box you can appreciate the simplicity of the product. There is no on/ off switch, no complex adapters, no cables, and no instructions. The only traditional instruction is the image on the back of the packaging, showing that the magsafe battery pack snaps onto the back of any iPhone 12 model. This ranges from iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The Battery Pack is $99.00 USD and can be purchased directly from Apple, here.
The greatest feature of this product is how darn convenient it is. There isn’t any fumbling with pairing, and no need to look up how this device can get charged. It simply snaps on the back of your iPhone, or iPhone case and it charges your device.
Now I really feel this is the start of an entire wave of products that leverage the MagSafe magnet on the back of the iPhone. I have said it before, and I will say it again, I do not believe we will ever see a USB C iPhone, but rather a phone with no ports at all. MagSafe is the bridge to that portless future of where the iPhone is heading.
Now this battery pack is a 1,460mAh capacity, which is small compared to other external batteries on the market. In simple terms it means that it can’t charge any model of iPhone 12 from 0 to 100%, but it can get it pretty darn close. I’d say around 90% of the way there. There are many other options out there for you to choose from with external battery packs, but none of them gets the integration so seamless as this MagSafe battery pack. You are able to charge this battery pack via a lighting cable, or on a wireless Qi charging pad.
It is significantly thicker than the official Apple photos depict, but going back to our theme over “it just works” for many people it won’t be a dealbreaker. I had success with this battery pack working with a case, as well without one. So it’s good to see the product work with a case, even if it isn’t the “official Apple MagSafe compatible” one.
There is one light at the bottom of the device that will turn amber when it is charging, green when fully charged. Simple enough, right? On the iPhone itself, you can see the percentage of charge left in the battery pack in the “Batteries” widget by swiping to the left, tapping the plus button, and adding “Batteries”.
The future looks bright with the MagSafe external accessories. I really feel we will see further evolution as to what can snap to the back of the iPhone. It would be amazing to see healthcare accessories be able to be integrated to iPhone by simply snapping to the back. Perhaps we will see this ability to stack products on top of each other using the MagSafe technology to connect them all together. Whichever route MagSafe takes, I am quite optimistic that it will be around for years to come.
Be well everyone! Happy Charging! 🔋
-Joe
