Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Says MagSafe Charger Limited to 12W for iPhone 12 Mini

Jimmy James said:
Also, it’s more convenient to use your phone while plugged in.
Click to expand...
except when you are asleep, and get a camera security warning on your phone in the night, pick phone up stare at it half asleep, put it back on MagSafe and it charges properly without missing the thing putting the phone centrally on some other Qi chargers and waking up to no extra charge or missing the thing altogether as your phone slides off the non magnetic ones.

Its an aide, when you don't need a cable or fast charge. Yes it has limitations but they are not that bad as its meant for downtime or desk time charging not speedy in a rush moments. Jeez how many years back did people get 5W chargers and not moan as much as this thread has. See it for what its meant to be used for, not as a 20W charger replacement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jimmy James, polyphenol and ikir
Deinocheirus said:
Just stop with this trite nonsense. You can't demonstrate materially how that is bad for "the environment", just this vague concept that anything other than peak efficiency is somehow translated to "bad". Just stop. You have no idea what you're talking about, and neither does anyone else that belabors this empty talking point.
Click to expand...

Apple should stop the trite nonsense that they removed the power adapter and EarPods due to ‘environmental’ reasons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: decypher44
MagSafe is clearly one of those iterative steps Apple are taking (to get to wireless-only charging perhaps) but it really does seem like a lame solution to me. If the ‘puck’ had been a dock from the start I’d see the appeal, but a charging puck displeases me in more ways than my current Qi chargers ever could.
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: decypher44 and ikir
ikir said:
Why? It charge faster than before? Yes. Do you have to center the phone? Nope? Very handy. I have 3 wireless chargers and while they are handy compared to lightning, magsafe would be an upgrade. I don't care about 12 or 15W if I use this near the bead for night charging.
Click to expand...
But if you charge near your bed for overnight charging, what’s the point?

You could pick your phone up if it had a cable attached. You could use an upright Qi dock that doesn’t have an alignment issue, or you can use the puck and have to do an awkward finger movement to remove the puck that lifts up with your phone, and have to pick it up off the floor/bedside table later to reattach it to the back of the phone because it landed magnet side down.

I don’t get it. 🤷‍♂️
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: decypher44 and ikir
polyphenol said:
The article says:



If your phone stops charging due to a powercut, the charger will (likely) be unable to verify it is safe to deliver maximum power. Then, likely rather than proved, it could restart charging at some extremely low but universally safe power level. Which might well result in only partly charged phones - for example, if the powercut occurs shortly after falling asleep and you do not notice until the morning. Maybe it has spent the time charging at a meagre two watts or something.
Click to expand...

My reading of it is that because it won't sense that the power has been interrupted, it won't attempt to re-verify anything so will just continue charging as it was doing before. I think verification only occurs at the time when the phone is placed on the charger, it's not an on-going process during charging. I placed my iPhone 12 Pro on the MagSafe charger, switched the 20w charger off and back on at the wall (to simulate a power cut), and it still seems to be charging at a similarly quick rate as far as I can tell.
 
This year's iphone lineup is very lackluster. Even more so if you are coming from an 11 or 11pro. To each their own but I am sticking with my 6s.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: decypher44
NightFox said:
My reading of it is that because it won't sense that the power has been interrupted, it won't attempt to re-verify anything so will just continue charging as it was doing before. I think verification only occurs at the time when the phone is placed on the charger, it's not an on-going process during charging. I placed my iPhone 12 Pro on the MagSafe charger, switched the charger off and back on at the wall (to simulate a power cut), and it still seems to be charging at a similarly quick rate as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...
I do appreciate your thinking about it and, most particularly, your real experience.

However, I can't see how it would "know" to charge at a high rate rather than dropping down unless it re-verifies. And if it re-verifies, why would Apple's advice be needed?
 
  • Like
Reactions: ikir
BootsWalking said:
So you're saying millions of phones that require upwards of 50% more energy to charge is not materially bad for the environment?
Click to expand...
The average household uses 10,909 kWh per year. The average person uses 1 kWh per year charging their phone.

Wired chargers are 80-90% efficient. The Qi chargers are 70-85% efficient. It has yet to be seen how this charger compares in efficiency to a normal Qi charger (based on the precise coil alignment, etc).

But yes, for the average person the difference is most likely10% of 1kWh difference in their household, or 0.0009% of their household usage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: polyphenol
There are obviously battery implications when charging wirelessly and it is just ridiculous for anyone to assume that Apple was crippling their wireless charging tech because of other reasons. Is faster charging possible. Yes. Are there drawbacks to fast charging wirelessly. Yes. Is Apple happy to make the trade-off. No. Apple has no interest in servicing faster ageing batteries nor slightly increased numbers of damaged phones. Same goes for their current move to make the phone less serviceable. No one wants to service a phone that has been tinkered with and customer claiming ‘I didn’t do anything’.

If you want a feature phone which just does everything you can imagine and you love replacing your own batteries and fixing stuff, get a cheap Chinese Android phone.
 
dwaite said:
The average household uses 10,909 kWh per year. The average person uses 1 kWh per year charging their phone.

Wired chargers are 80-90% efficient. The Qi chargers are 70-85% efficient. It has yet to be seen how this charger compares in efficiency to a normal Qi charger (based on the precise coil alignment, etc).

But yes, for the average person the difference is most likely10% of 1kWh difference in their household, or 0.0009% of their household usage.
Click to expand...
Replacing one regularly used tungsten filament lamp by an LED could easily end up reducing consumption by more than MagSafe uses. (Of course, doing that even without using MagSafe would also make that saving!)

But we also need to appreciate how much electricity is used by things like the chargers themselves if they are left connected/switched on even when not being used. However, as some sort of charger is obviously required whether or not we use MagSafe, we can do ourselves a favour by switching them off when not in use. (Easier if the socket outlet is switched, of course.) Newer ones might use very little indeed, but some older ones were less efficient.
 
polyphenol said:
But we also need to appreciate how much electricity is used by things like the chargers themselves if they are left connected/switched on even when not being used. However, as some sort of charger is obviously required whether or not we use MagSafe, we can do ourselves a favour by switching them off when not in use. (Easier if the socket outlet is switched, of course.) Newer ones might use very little indeed, but some older ones were less efficient.
Click to expand...
My mordern chargers (3rd party as well as Apple's) don't use any power at all if there is nothing connected to it. Measured with a power meter over 24 hours.
 
  • Like
Reactions: decypher44
I've used Qi charging for phones since, like, 8 years ago with the Google Nexus 4...and have never had an issue with accident charger misalignment

People are inventing a problem akin to those cheesy TV infomercials
 
  • Like
Reactions: decypher44
thettareddast said:
I've used Qi charging for phones since, like, 8 years ago with the Google Nexus 4...and have never had an issue with accident charger misalignment

People are inventing a problem akin to those cheesy TV infomercials
Click to expand...

Well, I have used wireless charging on my 8+ since 2017, and while I have woken up a few times to find that my phone did not charge overnight because it somehow got displaced from its charging point, I can’t say it has happened often enough to be anything more than a minor annoyance (since I am able to charge my phone at work).

Can probably count the number of times it has happened each year on one hand?
 
I don't understand all the anger in this thread. Magsafe isn't great for fast charging but it's awesome for overnight charging. It does charge faster than other Qi chargers and it's more efficient and probably doesn't degrade the battery as much as other Qi chargers. The technology itself allows for a lot of other options like car mounts, tripod mounts, etc. Seems like a great thing to me. And who cares about 3W difference with the mini, still a lot more than a standard Qi charger.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: decypher44
Had my doubts about MagSafe before, and the bad keeps piling up. Each thing alone isn’t a dealbreaker (non detachable cable, pricey w/adapter, not working well with 3rd party adapters, charging older iPhones very slowly, how badly the wallet “works”, and now not charging the mini at full speed). It is enough for me now to hold off and I'll keep with my Qi charging setup for now as it isn't worth investing in.
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: decypher44 and ikir
boss.king said:
...EDIT: just out of interest, I went through the process with Verizon, the lowest amount I can pay upfront to get an iPhone 12 from them $861. They charge $20 just to activate the phone (and that's half-off, it's usually $40), and then the cheapest plan I could while adding to cart find was $80/month. So if we're going with your a sale is a sale is a sale logic, the numbers aren't on your side.
Click to expand...
There is a lot of fine print, but the price isn't incorrect. You actually have to go to checkout. Verizon gives you a 0% apr rate on the phone and then credits the money back to you. So if you are the demographic that will fit this scenario, it will work out as advertised.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U
techfirth said:
But if you charge near your bed for overnight charging, what’s the point?

You could pick your phone up if it had a cable attached. You could use an upright Qi dock that doesn’t have an alignment issue, or you can use the puck and have to do an awkward finger movement to remove the puck that lifts up with your phone, and have to pick it up off the floor/bedside table later to reattach it to the back of the phone because it landed magnet side down.

I don’t get it. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
You don't get it but it is quite simple. In this situation wireless chargers are more handy, when you wake up or when you are sleepy. Sometimes, you don't center the pad and charge slow or not at all. Magsafe is better in speed, security and alignment. So it is an upgrade. Simple.
 
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: I7guy and decypher44
azentropy said:
Had my doubts about MagSafe before, and the bad keeps piling up. Each thing alone isn’t a dealbreaker (non detachable cable, pricey w/adapter, not working well with 3rd party adapters, charging older iPhones very slowly, how badly the wallet “works”, and now not charging the mini at full speed). It is enough for me now to hold off and I'll keep with my Qi charging setup for now as it isn't worth investing in.
Click to expand...
It works great with third party quality adapters, it needs fast charge 3.0
 
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: I7guy and decypher44
azentropy said:
Had my doubts about MagSafe before, and the bad keeps piling up. Each thing alone isn’t a dealbreaker (non detachable cable, pricey w/adapter, not working well with 3rd party adapters, charging older iPhones very slowly, how badly the wallet “works”, and now not charging the mini at full speed). It is enough for me now to hold off and I'll keep with my Qi charging setup for now as it isn't worth investing in.
Click to expand...
- Non detachable cable: not really a deal-breaker to me.
- pricey with adapter: $60. I've seen QI chargers going for much more. The one I bought years ago to test out was $40. So I don't consider $60 out of the ball park.
- Not working with 3rd party adapters: This simple isn't true.
- Charging older phones slowly. This could be the only issue that Apple really needs to iron out. Assuming the correct charging brick, should be able to charge at 7.5W.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back