For the casual iPhone user, is a MagSafe charger worth it?

[colleen8463]

Just ordered a 12 mini. I don't plan on using the MagSafe wallets at least for now, because I have to carry a purse anyway. I have always just used the lightening cord to charge and have a few very long ones at home. It seems like MagSafe wouldn't be that much different from just plugging into a cord? Am I missing something here?

 

[Coffeesforclosers]

For me it wasn’t worth the extra cost, it doesn’t charge as quickly and it also bugged me that you can’t charge the watch on it, you’d think this could have been incorporated considering that they’re both similar designs but no. You have to have two separate chargers.

Edit - They seem to be leaving rings on people’s leather cases as well although I’ve not experienced this yet.

 

[bubulol]

Before Magsafe, i never used QI charger before, i thought it was useless because its still a pad/base with cord, ''Wireless charging'' that is misleading
Then i eventually bought some Magsafe accessories, i must say, i have changed my mind
Before getting an iPhone 12 Mini, i had iPhone SE first gen + Airpods Pro, i have two brick charger + cables for three devices (iPad + iPhone + Airpods)
It was annoying when i need to charge all together!
Why not just buying new charger with more ports? I know it was the right thing to do, however i do not charge all my devices together, my iPad usually lasts several days, maybe a week if light usage, my Airpods Pro, every two days, my iPhone SE every day because of worn battery
With Magsafe charger, so convenient, i dont have to worry about plugging the cable into my iPhone/Airpods, especially in the dark which is painful to see
The magnets let the iPhone to be fully aligned and it holds quite strong
The other reason which Magsafe could be convenient and practical for a casual: Magsafe car mount
Although Apple didnt release an official car mount, you have plenty of models from third party (ESR, Belkin, Aliexpress generic brands...)
Its wireless and magnetic, plug the cable onto cig lighter, put ur phone on the holder and here we go
All i can say about my experience with Magsafe, its convenient!
For those casuals who has multiple Apple devices such as Airpods/Apple Watch, these Magsafe nightstand (from Belkin) are quite practical
Yeah its overpriced but you have plenty of Magsafe stands on Aliexpress as well (if you like DIY, you can even mount a Magsafe stand for cheap)
I did not mention battery powerbank already there (Anker just release their own model), wallet (its personal but i find it quite useless)...
If you buy official Magsafe products, it will be expensive tho but you can try unofficial products to start and see if it will be convenient for you

 

[jr866gooner]

I personally haven’t been fully on board with wireless charging as a whole. I bought a few when it was first on the scene but was always wary of the fact the phones get warm.

My boss had a windows phone a few years back and he would only charge wirelessly and his battery went to trash in the end. Granted it may not have been solely that as the root cause but I bet it didn’t help.

I’m happy to continue cable charging tbh. It’s no inconvenience and I can use the phone happily at the same time.

MagSafe accessories such as the wallet etc. Now that’s something I’d try in future I’m sure.

 

[Robbosan]

My 11 pro had 100% battery after 13 months using a wireless charger only.

 

[LFC2020]

No it’s garbage, charges to slow, people saying phone gets to hot, damaged cases, not worth the money, heard good thing about the belkin 3-1 MagSafe charger, apparently charges a lot quicker than apples MagSafe puck charger.

 

[macdogpro]

My 11 pro had 100% battery after 13 months using a wireless charger only.

How was your charging habit? Did you follow the 20-80% rule?

Could it be Qi wireless charging for iPhone that only allows 7,5W also contributed to unharming your battery? 🤔

 

[Robbosan]

How was your charging habit? Did you follow the 20-80% rule?

Could it be Qi wireless charging for iPhone that only allows 7,5W also contributed to unharming your battery? 🤔

just charged overnight

 

[lordhamster]

Just ordered a 12 mini. I don't plan on using the MagSafe wallets at least for now, because I have to carry a purse anyway. I have always just used the lightening cord to charge and have a few very long ones at home. It seems like MagSafe wouldn't be that much different from just plugging into a cord? Am I missing something here?

Magsafe for sure charges slower than a cable. But speed may not be your only consideration. I currently have four magsafe OEM pucks, as well as two 3rd party magsafe "compatible" chargers.

The OEM pucks are at my bedside as well as my wife's, plus one in each of our cars. I love them. Here's why:

• In the car, when I get in, I just pop the phone onto the magsafe charger puck which is mounted to my dash. Instant charging without having to fumble for the cable. When I get out, I just pull my phone off, again no needing two hands to yank a cable out. Furthermore, it also MOUNTS my phone in an area I can easily see the GPS maps etc. Previous to magsafe, I used a magnetic plate in my phone to achive the mounting goal... but had to plug in a cable every time. This solution saves me some hassle. Is the incremental savings in hassle worth $40? To me it was, it may not be to you.
• At the nightstand: On my side of the bed, I have my puck secured to the nightstand with a 3rd party accessory. This allows me to plunk my phone down in the middle of the night without fumbling for a cable. The nice magnetic confirmation of the phone hitting the correct spot to charge is nice and easy. If I wake up in the middle of the night and need to run downstairs or something with my phone, I just pick it up... then place it right back on the charger after. It has all the ease of traditional wireless charging, without the problems related to poor alignment or phones getting knocked off the charger overnight I experienced before. Yes a cable would work just as well here but again convenience. My wife has her puck unsecured. She likes being able to pick up the phone without going off-charge... or being able to one-handed just flick the puck off the back when she wants that. There have been times where the wife and I grabbed our phones (when we used the cord) forgot they were plugged in and walked off with them. Several times that resulted in dropping a phone. My kids did a similar thing with their iPad and damaged the lightning connector when it bungied them back.
  
  I may switch some of my 3rd party chargers to nightstand duty though because at night I certainly don't need the full 15w of charging power. The 7.5w the 3rd party chargers deliver is plenty for overnight, while giving me the same benefits.
• Spare bedroom: I have a Ravpower magsafe compatible puck in the spare bedroom. When my two kids decide they want to sleep with mommie, I sleep in the spare bedroom. There my 3rd party magsafe puck charges the phone overnight at 7.5w.
• At my desk. At my desk I use a Choetech 2-in-1 magsafe compatible stand. The stand holds my phone at the ideal angle to see notifications or watch a quick youtube how-to-video, while also charging my airpods. Again, easy to quickly mount and dismount... no danger of forgetting I plugged the phone in, and walking off.

So in summary: TLDR I like magsafe for several reasons:

• It is safer... no worries about forgetting to unplug and then having the cord yanked out.
• It MOUNTS my phone. Great for in car or desk use to hold the phone where I want it.
• It is more convenient. Saves me the hassle of trying to plug my phone in constantly. This is my least important consideration though.

 

[Radeon962]

I typically just charge at night, so it works well for that. Issue I had is I put my phone on the table next to my bed on the MagSafe charger so face up.

Notifications at night wake up the screen so it lights up and then goes off. Didn’t bother me as I am a heavy sleeper but it did bug my wife, so I went back to corded charging so I could lay the phone face down at night.

I could just have turned on DND at night but then I forget to turn it off in the morning half the time, so just as easy to go back to corded charging at night.

At my desk I use a Samsung wireless charging stand as you can view the phone while charging.

 

[bubulol]

Magsafe for sure charges slower than a cable. But speed may not be your only consideration. I currently have four magsafe OEM pucks, as well as two 3rd party magsafe "compatible" chargers.

The OEM pucks are at my bedside as well as my wife's, plus one in each of our cars. I love them. Here's why:

• In the car, when I get in, I just pop the phone onto the magsafe charger puck which is mounted to my dash. Instant charging without having to fumble for the cable. When I get out, I just pull my phone off, again no needing two hands to yank a cable out. Furthermore, it also MOUNTS my phone in an area I can easily see the GPS maps etc. Previous to magsafe, I used a magnetic plate in my phone to achive the mounting goal... but had to plug in a cable every time. This solution saves me some hassle. Is the incremental savings in hassle worth $40? To me it was, it may not be to you.
• At the nightstand: On my side of the bed, I have my puck secured to the nightstand with a 3rd party accessory. This allows me to plunk my phone down in the middle of the night without fumbling for a cable. The nice magnetic confirmation of the phone hitting the correct spot to charge is nice and easy. If I wake up in the middle of the night and need to run downstairs or something with my phone, I just pick it up... then place it right back on the charger after. It has all the ease of traditional wireless charging, without the problems related to poor alignment or phones getting knocked off the charger overnight I experienced before. Yes a cable would work just as well here but again convenience. My wife has her puck unsecured. She likes being able to pick up the phone without going off-charge... or being able to one-handed just flick the puck off the back when she wants that. There have been times where the wife and I grabbed our phones (when we used the cord) forgot they were plugged in and walked off with them. Several times that resulted in dropping a phone. My kids did a similar thing with their iPad and damaged the lightning connector when it bungied them back.
  
  I may switch some of my 3rd party chargers to nightstand duty though because at night I certainly don't need the full 15w of charging power. The 7.5w the 3rd party chargers deliver is plenty for overnight, while giving me the same benefits.
• Spare bedroom: I have a Ravpower magsafe compatible puck in the spare bedroom. When my two kids decide they want to sleep with mommie, I sleep in the spare bedroom. There my 3rd party magsafe puck charges the phone overnight at 7.5w.
• At my desk. At my desk I use a Choetech 2-in-1 magsafe compatible stand. The stand holds my phone at the ideal angle to see notifications or watch a quick youtube how-to-video, while also charging my airpods. Again, easy to quickly mount and dismount... no danger of forgetting I plugged the phone in, and walking off.

So in summary: TLDR I like magsafe for several reasons:

• It is safer... no worries about forgetting to unplug and then having the cord yanked out.
• It MOUNTS my phone. Great for in car or desk use to hold the phone where I want it.
• It is more convenient. Saves me the hassle of trying to plug my phone in constantly. This is my least important consideration though.

Couldnt say more than you did
To summary: Magsafe combines magnetic and wireless
That makes convenient
The only downside: its proprietary as always, it would be nice if Magsafe becomes a standard for the whole industry but it wont gonna happen

 

[tgara]

Just ordered a 12 mini. I don't plan on using the MagSafe wallets at least for now, because I have to carry a purse anyway. I have always just used the lightening cord to charge and have a few very long ones at home. It seems like MagSafe wouldn't be that much different from just plugging into a cord? Am I missing something here?

I think your question pertains to wireless charging generally, not just MagSafe.

For me, wireless charging was an unexpected game-changer. Even though it's a little thing, I never realized what a friction point plugging in your phone could be until wireless charging became available. Now, I just plop my phone onto the charging surface and it gets charged. No more fumbling for a cable, requiring two hands be free in order to plug it in. For me, this was an unexpected convenience that I now cannot live without.

As for MagSafe specifically, its pretty good because it locks the phone into the correct spot for best charging. I like it, its a great feature IMHO.

 

[lordhamster]

Couldnt say more than you did
To summary: Magsafe combines magnetic and wireless
That makes convenient
The only downside: its proprietary as always, it would be nice if Magsafe becomes a standard for the whole industry but it wont gonna happen

Thanks!
As far as standard. I think the magsafe magnet geometry will become a defacto standard amongst QI chargers. I already own two third party QI chargers (Ravpower and Choetech) that while not "magsafe" adopted the correct magnet geometry and give me all of the benefits...albeit as a slightly slower charging speed of 7.5w.

 

[TechLord]

It's an extra cost for slower, warmer less efficient charging over the 20W wired one. Since you need to buy the 20W brick anyway, might as well just use that. It also has issues with wear/tear. I'd say wait to see what 2nd gen magsafe tech apple bring.

 

[jr866gooner]

I typically just charge at night, so it works well for that. Issue I had is I put my phone on the table next to my bed on the MagSafe charger so face up.

Notifications at night wake up the screen so it lights up and then goes off. Didn’t bother me as I am a heavy sleeper but it did bug my wife, so I went back to corded charging so I could lay the phone face down at night.

I could just have turned on DND at night but then I forget to turn it off in the morning half the time, so just as easy to go back to corded charging at night.

At my desk I use a Samsung wireless charging stand as you can view the phone while charging.

Have you considered DND schedule?

 

[bubulol]

It's an extra cost for slower, warmer less efficient charging over the 20W wired one. Since you need to buy the 20W brick anyway, might as well just use that. It also has issues with wear/tear. I'd say wait to see what 2nd gen magsafe tech apple bring.

Any additional accessories will be seen like an extra cost, furthermore, Magsafe doest mean purchasing Apple or any third party that attempt to sell it at higher price (Belkin i am looking at you)
I got a nice clear case, magsafe car (tweaked now it becomes my Magsafe charging stand/base) for less than official Magsafe charger (45$)
Less efficient than wired but more efficient than QI
You dont need necessarily 20w brick
Magsafe can charge up to 15w, it doesnt mean you must charge at this speed
You compared apples to oranges, mixing wiring charging and wireless charging
-> Magsafe is more efficient than QI but its proprietary and by any means, no standard at all
-> Magsafe is more convenient than magnetic, you dont need those magnetic plate or specific case for holding phone and support

The bad thing: its proprietary (well it comes from Apple, you know it) and it can get warm indeed
Magsafe ring is ugly (on clear case)

 

[TechLord]

Any additional accessories will be seen like an extra cost, furthermore, Magsafe doest mean purchasing Apple or any third party that attempt to sell it at higher price (Belkin i am looking at you)
I got a nice clear case, magsafe car (tweaked now it becomes my Magsafe charging stand/base) for less than official Magsafe charger (45$)
Less efficient than wired but more efficient than QI
You dont need necessarily 20w brick
Magsafe can charge up to 15w, it doesnt mean you must charge at this speed
You compared apples to oranges, mixing wiring charging and wireless charging
-> Magsafe is more efficient than QI but its proprietary and by any means, no standard at all
-> Magsafe is more convenient than magnetic, you dont need those magnetic plate or specific case for holding phone and support

The bad thing: its proprietary (well it comes from Apple, you know it) and it can get warm indeed
Magsafe ring is ugly (on clear case)

My commute is by train into London so I don't have a use case for a magsafe charging base in my car. All that matters for me is the result of a charger which is speed from 0-100, not whether its wired vs wireless; and magsafe is slower, more inefficient and needlessly expensive when compared to my 20W brick. When Apple improve magsafe in the future and give it faster than 20w charging plus fix the issues with wear/tear I'll consider it. I get the feeling we will get a vastly improved gen 2 magsafe charger next year along with a portless iPhone.

 

[iGeneo]

I haven't plugged my 12 Pro into a Lighting connection in at least 3 months. No need... I embraced wireless charging a couple years ago. MagSafe is an upgrade in that it always "locks in" place.

Home? Wireless charger bedside, Office... MagSafe on desk, Car... wireless charging and CarPlay

 

[Ta0jin]

Is it worth it? I don’t know maybe? Depends on the individual. I actually just got a Mag safe charger and I actually kind of like it because 1. My current wireless charger has been acting finicky and doesn’t wanna charge my phone sometimes and 2. I’m not the biggest fan of inserting the lightning connector in the bottom of my phone. I don’t like that design because I feel like there’s a possibility of causing stress on that port and potentially damaging the port. I have an apple silicone case and an apple leather case and I’m actually looking forward to getting that ring on my Apple leather case. I know it sounds ridiculous to some but I think that looks really cool personally.

 

[macdogpro]

Between the risk of damaging the lightning port and hurting the battery with magsafe heat, I chose the first.

Haven’t found problem of any Apple ports for a decade. But heat really concerns me, even I don’t use fast wired charging on daily basis. So I just use wired 5W. Not that terribly slow on 12 mini.

So the only thing that keeping me off from using magsafe is heat. I don’t mind slow charging, and I don’t usually charge while using my phone, so I most probably can use it without magsafe compatible cases.

 

[Radeon962]

Have you considered DND schedule?

Yes but with COVID my schedule can vary depending if I go into the office or not.

Ended up selling it as I had not used it for over a month.

 

[Ifti]

I personally haven’t been fully on board with wireless charging as a whole. I bought a few when it was first on the scene but was always wary of the fact the phones get warm.

My boss had a windows phone a few years back and he would only charge wirelessly and his battery went to trash in the end. Granted it may not have been solely that as the root cause but I bet it didn’t help.

I’m happy to continue cable charging tbh. It’s no inconvenience and I can use the phone happily at the same time.

MagSafe accessories such as the wallet etc. Now that’s something I’d try in future I’m sure.

This hit the nail on the head for me.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Between the risk of damaging the lightning port and hurting the battery with magsafe heat, I chose the first.

Haven’t found problem of any Apple ports for a decade. But heat really concerns me, even I don’t use fast wired charging on daily basis. So I just use wired 5W. Not that terribly slow on 12 mini.

So the only thing that keeping me off from using magsafe is heat. I don’t mind slow charging, and I don’t usually charge while using my phone, so I most probably can use it without magsafe compatible cases.

Exactly this. I don’t need fast charging as it’s always just made sense to me to charge it while I sleep. I cherish my sleep and get 8 to 10 hours so 5W charging is plenty.

Not to mention I have a million of them so there’s a charger within reach pretty much everywhere you can sit in the house.

 

[colleen8463]

Thanks all. Sometimes I think the main appeal of the MagSafe is the cool factor, and then also the mounted by a magnet aspect for those who already have gone wireless. For me, I have not yet made the transition to wireless charging, and having the mini I definitely don't want to do any damage to the battery through heat, so it may be something I just hold on for now.

 

[bubulol]

Most of unofficial Magsafe chargers dont let you go above 10w (and often under 5/6w)
It little warmer than wired charging but i think less than charging with official Magsafe puch at 15w
Keep in my mind Magsafe is new horizon/ecosystem which is pretty cool