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Hands-On With Apple's MagSafe Charger for iPhone 12
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I see. Well I guess they're not willing to give up potential sales there despite this being clearly a poor choice for anyone with anything other than iPhone 12.
Why is a portless iPhone treated like such an inevitability? I highly doubt Apple feels the same way. The Lighting port is simply too useful to be traded off for whatever hypothetical improvements could come from a portless iPhone.
- Better water/dust resistance: Does it even need this? It can already survive under water for quite some time. That's more than adequate.
- Generic unnamed engineering gains from additional free space: Sure, we're fully aware that removing unused components from this small space open up new design possibilities. But unless we know what those are, we can't really advocate for it.
There are so many aspects of iPhone that are not ready for a permanent wireless experience that I don't see this happening the way others seem to. Some people seem to think that AirPods + a decent wireless charger = no need for a physical tether at all and that's simply not true.
How is this a poor choice? It’s not the most economical choice for standard Qi charging, but it sounds like it works fine.
If you like the design of this more than the 3rd-party alternatives, and/or you think you might get into the Apple ecosystem in the next few years, there’s nothing wrong with choosing this option.
Because it looks like a very poor design if the magnet is not in play. It's far too small to be a normal Qi charger if the magnet is not being used to aid in positioning.
Ha, that's funny. That's exactly what I did. Wife got a Caudabe Lucid Clear, I got a Caudabe Sheath. The MagSafe stuff is pretty "meh" to us.
Not seeing the issue. By virtue of it working with Qi at all, we can assume it meets the “normal” minimum coil size.
As far as how devices sit on it or deal with the magnets, I’ll hold my assumptions until I handle one in real life.
I agree with your points and I very much hope you're right.
But this is after all the company that got rid of the headphone jack and, with a straight face, sold a MacBook with a single USB-C port that was also the only way to charge the battery. This is also the company that for several years put one of the worst keyboards in recent memory into its flagship laptops. I would not at all put it past them to sell a sealed glass slab and say "deal with it" to anyone who wants to plug their phone into anything else.
They saw 400+ comments on another thread and scrambling a video. 🤣
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You prefer to needlessly remove your phone from its external power supply?I think the MagSafe puck can be used in any orientation. It's circular... so it shouldn't matter what direction the cable is.
But... the MagSafe puck is probably not the best charger for nightstand charging duties. According to Apple's marketing videos... it looks like it's designed to stay attached to the phone when you use the phone.
That's the exact opposite of what I want from a Qi charger. I don't want the charger to stick to the phone when I grab it from the nightstand.
What’s different than typical Qi charging, which is also called “wireless” for many years and no one complained?
Qi is still plenty sufficient, and consumers will likely to opt for the cheap Amazon third party chargers before they pay Apples price. However, in terms of convenience, MagSafe is an entirely different application.
If I pick up my phone from a Qi charger... I don't want the charger to come with it.
This MagSafe charger, however, is designed to stick to the phone. It's got magnets. It's a different type of charger. That's what I was explaining to the previous poster.
If that's the point, it's not a very good one.
1m cord is way too short.
Charging speeds are really slower and inefficient (wasted power/heat in Qi-based charging)
Qi can absolutely charge the device while it's being used, just not conveniently in the hand. If that was the intent, they would've made a much longer cable.
hmmmm, can any company (i.e. Apple or third party) make a MagSafe compatible case for older iPhone? I don't mind the charging power is not at maximum (15W) for older iPhone. I purely love the idea of magnet case which allow the charger or some accessory like the card pouch attached firmly.
Only companies like Apple can make so many robust claims about being so eco-friendly and so on and so on...... But yet at the same time they just keep increasing their profits year to year by providing less but charging more $$$. In this case it's about the lack of a wall charger in all iPhone 12 boxes buy yet they're advising their customers to buy their $20 20W charger to get optimal charging speeds.
Again, only Apple......