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Air MagSafe Battery vs Anker MagSafe Charger
- Thread starter gomakoto
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It's only like the Air pack in that it is thin and can charge the phone, however it is not the same in the sense of how it behaves. It will charge the phone at a slower rate and when the phone charges to 90%, it will stop charging the phone and become the phone's battery until it is dead. This keeps the heat lower, saving the lifespan of both batteries. It is a smart battery because of the integration with iOS. I don't think it's worth $99, but it is double the price because of the smart function and not just the apple tax.
Yes, the Air Magsafe battery is a great design, especially for heat reduction.
I have tested the Air with wireless charging:
EV car charging pad (OEM)
Anker MagGo Qi
Belkin Boost Qi
Apple Air Magsafe
Non Apple chargers (Anker & Belkin) got quite warm and the worst was my EV car Qi charging mat which got super hot.
The coolest: Apple Air Magsafe battery.
Great design by Apple !
I used an anker pack on my 16 pro max for 1/2 of its charging. I was at 99% capacity after 12 months. I think it worked just fine regardless of Apple Gobbltygook. It did get warm, and thats better for charging with the pack on, but I do not buy in to it making any difference on the life of the battery. In theory sure whatever. I wouldn't just use any wireless pack though, some of them aren't great, but the anker seem ok for me.
I used the Anker Ultra Skim 5k last night while I was out and about for 7 hours. Really bugs me how when the phone hits its max charge, it just stops charging - so every few hours I'd have to look at my phone then hit the button for it to resume charging again. Only complaint I have on this tiny little battery.
If it’s maxed you don’t really need to worry about topping it off for a while anyway?
I was doing some high drain activities (GPS, etc) (away from wall power) - so I was hoping it would continue to power the phone instead of turning off, and me having to keep clicking it every now and then after finding my phone draining like crazy. My wired batteries don't have this problem - they will trickle charge the phone and keep the battery at 80% (what I set the iPhone battery to) - so the phone consumes no cycles and runs off of the external battery.
Most old Ankers have a Trickle mode (you double press the button to get a green light) or they keep supplying power even when the draw is low.
I believe the phone is still using cycles with a trickle charge. The only battery that seems to bypass this is the Apple MagSafe one? Personally, I don't care about cycles. Give me max output as long as my phone isn't turning into an oven.
If anyone is interested, I was able to test this wired magnetic bank. I wasn't expecting much because of the price and it turned out pretty mediocre. It took an Air from 0-40% in 30 min but got pretty toasty and I did see the output throttling at various points (as low as single digits according to my meter). I was able to get 87% total after 1.5 hours, which was twice as long as I expected. Pretty much the same performance as the Anker Nano but thicker/bigger, runs hotter and has a wire dongle.
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This was true up till the iPhone 14 Pro or 15 Pro. Since these generations, the phone (and iPads) can run off of wall power completely - not touching the battery.
iOS 26's battery does a better job of showing this than 18 did.
Note, 2.5 hours of screen active time, 2 hours 20 mins of idle - 0% battery used. Because it spent all day being plugged in.
How it looked on iOS 18:
Note 0% battery used despite 4.5 hours of screen on time on that Saturday - because it was plugged in. Previous days - despite 6+ hours of screen on time, tiny bit of battery used because it was plugged in most of the time.
If I leave it plugged in, it won't use any battery despite tons of screen on time ( see below ):
Perks of a desk job (personal health fails tho). lol.
One reason why my 15 Pro Max has 196 cycles despite a fair amount of use (I've read several 600+ page books on it).
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Very nice. That explains the lower than expected cycles on my 16P after a year.
When the original MagSafe battery came out, the iPhone Pro Max at the time was the 12PM and that was rated for 20 hours video playback. Every other iPhone was less than that.
The 17PM is rated for 33 hours. It's just one metric, but if you look at the battery life of phones 5+ years ago, it wasn't great. People were carrying batteries around for a reason.
Nowadays almost nobody actually needs to carry around extra battery because battery life is so good. Even the Air is rated for 27 hours.
When you think about it that way, would you even want to carry anything except the absolute slimmest and lightest battery pack? Probably not. I'm only expecting to use my MagSafe Air battery once a month, if that. I don't need it to provide a full charge. I just need it to get me through an extremely heavy day.
If you need more than a day's charge in a battery pack it's probably time to skip wireless charging and get an actual battery bank.
The 17PM is rated for 33 hours. It's just one metric, but if you look at the battery life of phones 5+ years ago, it wasn't great. People were carrying batteries around for a reason.
Nowadays almost nobody actually needs to carry around extra battery because battery life is so good. Even the Air is rated for 27 hours.
When you think about it that way, would you even want to carry anything except the absolute slimmest and lightest battery pack? Probably not. I'm only expecting to use my MagSafe Air battery once a month, if that. I don't need it to provide a full charge. I just need it to get me through an extremely heavy day.
If you need more than a day's charge in a battery pack it's probably time to skip wireless charging and get an actual battery bank.
I'm not seeing the contradiction. I think the MagSafe battery is just willing to pump 20w into your phone if it is being supplied with a 30w or higher source of power.
Based on what I’m reading here, why not just set your charge limit to 95% and buy the Anker battery for like 1/3 the cost of the Apple one? Seems like the iPhone doesn’t use up the phone’s battery when it’s connected to power from the post above anyways so it doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with whether you use Apple’s battery or a USB-C cable.
My (Air) battery ran down the other day so I did a little testing from 0% with the Anker Nano:
30min: charged to 34%
% Anker charged Air to: 84%
Time to fully discharge: 1:45
Time to recharge Anker: 1:25
Got a bit warm near the end but nothing concerning.
30min: charged to 34%
% Anker charged Air to: 84%
Time to fully discharge: 1:45
Time to recharge Anker: 1:25
Got a bit warm near the end but nothing concerning.
I bought the Anker and the Apple one and this video is pretty misleading. The only difference I can tell is that the Apple one shows the charge amount in the battery widget and it automatically sets the charge limit to 90% so if you're someone who has to keep it at 100% normally then those are your benefits at 2x the price.
If you already have a charge limit set at all times, the Anker one acts in the exact same way that you are describing. It charges to your set limit, then it trickle charges the phone and maintains the battery at your charge limit. Obviously if you attach it when the phone is already highly charged, like 80% or whatever, the heat is going to be low. If you attach the battery when the phone is 20%, both get just as hot because it charges much faster from low percentage than when it's at a higher percentage. When you're trickle charging at 90% or 95% (or whatever your limit is set at), both batteries have negligible heat output.
Personally I would just get the Anker one since it's 1) less than half the price, 2) higher capacity, 3) maybe 1-2mm thicker but shorter and narrower, 4) works with every other phone. The only thing I don't like is that the plastic on it feels kinda slippery and cheap but I hope it wears down a bit and gets grippier over time.
However, it might be worth spending on the Apple version if you plan to use it very regularly, like every few days or even daily, because it does fit the Air better and the materials feel better to me. I personally try to avoid wireless charging if I can help it just to preserve battery health so I use it more for random days where I know I'm going to be out all day.
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I been using the Apple battery a few times a week but probably don’t have to. The phone lasts all day for me even without it and without a top off unless I’m really heavily using it.
So for me having the extra 6 to 7ish hours of life that the Apple battery pack provides, it’s more than enough.
As you said, the materials are nice for Apple and I like that it’s easy to hold since the size matches perfectly.
The battery level shown in the OS is a very useful feature. Many battery banks just give you the 4 dots which often are misleading and inaccurate.
Ultimately it comes down to this: if you are value conscious and want the most charge for your dollar, sure go for the Anker.
If you’re more practical and just wanna extend life once in a while, and aren’t obsessed with having a battery bank you’ll maybe never use up to the full capacity of, Apple is by far the superior choice.
Obviously with the Apple it costs a bit more but I see a $50ish difference to be very minor if you’ve already spent thousands getting into the ecosystem.
So for me having the extra 6 to 7ish hours of life that the Apple battery pack provides, it’s more than enough.
As you said, the materials are nice for Apple and I like that it’s easy to hold since the size matches perfectly.
The battery level shown in the OS is a very useful feature. Many battery banks just give you the 4 dots which often are misleading and inaccurate.
Ultimately it comes down to this: if you are value conscious and want the most charge for your dollar, sure go for the Anker.
If you’re more practical and just wanna extend life once in a while, and aren’t obsessed with having a battery bank you’ll maybe never use up to the full capacity of, Apple is by far the superior choice.
Obviously with the Apple it costs a bit more but I see a $50ish difference to be very minor if you’ve already spent thousands getting into the ecosystem.
This. Apple just does it better regardless of 'stats'. Just look at the new Xiaomi 17 with almost twice the battery capacity. BARELY makes a difference.
I purchased the Anker one originally for my Air but returned it a got the Apple one. The Apple one is deffo the cooler temp wise whilst attached to the phone. However I wanted to return the Apple one but they wouldn’t let me so they refunded me in full and let me keep the battery pack. So in the end I got a free Apple battery pack, can’t complain.
The Apple Store wouldn't let you return? What was the reasoning?
I purchased the Apple battery pack online directly so it was delivered to me to my door. They couldn’t arrange an UPS collection to my location for the return pick up so they said you can keep the battery pack and they refunded the cost. A few days after they refunded.
Yes, I think I agree.
I actually am leaning towards keeping the Apple one because I vastly prefer the feel of it but I also do have a lot of disposable income. For most normal people, I think they're probably better off with the Anker because it's not limited to a single phone... I wouldn't even be surprised if they changed the shape of the next Air (if it even still exists) so that the battery becomes useless.
I really wanted make my post to make sure that people aren't buying the Apple one based on some video that's claiming some nonsense about it being a battery extender vs. a battery charger which makes absolutely no sense. Buy the Apple one because you prefer a premium product that was designed specifically for the phone. You can achieve the exact same "battery extender" claims by manually limiting your charging to 90%.