iPhone 12 MagSafe inconveniences

[kognos]

I am getting the iPhone 12 and I like the idea of MagSafe on the iPhone but I'm heavily concerned about the practical-ness of it. It doesn't take a physics expert to figure this out, but I think I've put my finger on something that has been touched on in places but ... here goes.

How can MagSafe be strong enough to hold up in car appliances (reference to Belkin's car mount here https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-WIC002/ ) and yet not strong enough to be annoying as all heck for Apple's own MagSafe charger, or potentially annoying in nearly all other situations? We're supposed to trust MagSafe to reliably hold a wallet yet not pull the charging mount/stand with it when you pull on the phone...?

Here's the flow, if anyone doesn't understand what I'm getting at: Right now I have a Qi charger. I place my phone on it. I pick the phone up when I go. Granted, I have that risk that I didn't place it "just right" on the charger ... but when I pick up the phone, it's not a struggle. There's no challenge. I pick up and go. Qi stays on the desk. Phone comes with me. Simple. One handed.

With Apple's MagSafe charger I'll need quality tape to force the charging puck to stay on the desk. OR every single time I pick up the phone, I'll have to pull off the puck with another hand. It's no longer a grab-n-go. All the convenience of the lock-in charging is outweighed by the inconvenience of actually having to have two hands to remove it, or hard-mount the magsafe to your desk.

Sure, we don't necessarily have to use MagSafe. I'm just annoyed with the mandated link of Magsafe with 15w. The new Belkin 3-in-1 with Magsafe looks good simply because I expect the stand to weigh like a brick, but even that has me worried for pulling the stand with me if I grab the phone and go. It seems almost unfair to trade 15w charging for something that creates an inconvenience for us, or alternatively has to effectively be weighty or strong enough to counteract the magnets. That's my point here, is that one could easily argue that Qi isn't going away - I can totally continue to use my existing devices - but the advantages of MagSafe are not without their own disadvantages.

I fully expect to start seeing threads about how annoying MagSafe is. It's a goldilocks problem that only provides one true real benefit - 15w charging. If the magnets are too strong, which they should be, it becomes inconvenient to disconnect the phone from the MagSafe, if it's too weak it'll fall off in cars, or wallets fall off of phones. I'm hoping Apple got it "just right" but lets just say I've seen the videos of the Apple provided charging puck and I'm thinking this is somewhat off-mark. I know there are use-cases for this that are amazing, but I'm just walking through some simple practical uses of Qi charging and without going too far I see this being more annoying than useful. Maybe no more or less practical than Lightning-connected device, but I guess I'm spoiled by assuming it would be Qi-like and easier to handle.

With no hands-on for this and no advance reviews of any kind, we're walking into this blind. Thoughts?

 

[nicho]

I fully expect to start seeing threads about how annoying MagSafe is. It's a goldilocks problem that only provides one true real benefit - 15w charging. If the magnets are too strong, which they should be, it becomes inconvenient to disconnect the phone from the MagSafe, if it's too weak it'll fall off in cars, or wallets fall off of phones. I'm hoping Apple got it "just right" but lets just say I've seen the videos of the Apple provided charging puck and I'm thinking this is somewhat off-mark.

Have you considered that there might be different amounts of magnets used in each of these applications...

 

[zhenya]

Let’s reserve judgement until people actually have the full setups in their hands and have lived with them for a while.

Currently this smacks of “Apple couldn’t possibly have thought of this, what were they thinking?” which often turns in to “wow, Apple really nailed this experience” once people actually have the products themselves.

 

[mrklaw]

I’ve been thinking about this. As the accessories themselves have magnets, maybe there are multiple strengths depending on the use case? eg wireless charger uses weak magnets so its enough to push into position but easy to pull off. Car mount has strong magnets to hold it securely in place with vibrations etc and being held vertically. Wallet case maybe inbetween

I’m curious to know - have one a magsafe charger on order but hopefully I’ll hear impressions before mine arrives so I can return if necessary

 

[SalisburySam]

Isn’t this what the return period is all about?

 

[Tulani]

maybe there should have been an option to buy iPhone 12 that has no magnets
i predict a rework in the next iteration when the criticism starts rolling in

 

[mrklaw]

- Buy case with magsafe built in
- reverse the magnets
- floating wireless charger!

 

[johnoffthewall3]

- Buy case with magsafe built in
- reverse the magnets
- floating wireless charger!

Science!

 

[kognos]

Let’s reserve judgement until people actually have the full setups in their hands and have lived with them for a while.

Currently this smacks of “Apple couldn’t possibly have thought of this, what were they thinking?” which often turns in to “wow, Apple really nailed this experience” once people actually have the products themselves.

I'm not deliberately trying to catch Apple at anything here, but the point is that they had a chance to show it off a bit at the presentation, but deliberately did not. You can see the Apple-sold MagSafe charger now. There's no way that's going to be a one-handed operation on a desk or nightstand. Right now we're all like "Ooh magnets!" but then realize it's more annoying than useful.

So just looking at the comparisons here and the few experiences that are presented -- yes, it's a concern.

As a responder said, it could be non-standardized and determined by how many magnets are actually in the 3rd party devices, and that makes some sense. But still, there's no way this ends up being convenient except in some fringe cases. Like I said, it's a real goldilocks problem, and Apple isn't known for nailing this kind of thing...

I suspect that's why the Apple magsafe duo charger isn't out yet, because the experience of using it would be substandard as a day-to-day device, perhaps good only as a travel kit, which I do appreciate, but as a desk/nightstand/countertop device, no way.

Qi charging is pitched in and of itself as "effortless, safe, reliable, easy" but Apple just pitches it as "easy to connect." Uh huh... try disconnecting it.

 

[Tulani]

I'm not deliberately trying to catch Apple at anything here, but the point is that they had a chance to show it off a bit at the presentation, but deliberately did not. You can see the Apple-sold MagSafe charger now. There's no way that's going to be a one-handed operation on a desk or nightstand. Right now we're all like "Ooh magnets!" but then realize it's more annoying than useful.

So just looking at the comparisons here and the few experiences that are presented -- yes, it's a concern.

As a responder said, it could be non-standardized and determined by how many magnets are actually in the 3rd party devices, and that makes some sense. But still, there's no way this ends up being convenient except in some fringe cases. Like I said, it's a real goldilocks problem, and Apple isn't known for nailing this kind of thing...

I suspect that's why the Apple magsafe duo charger isn't out yet, because the experience of using it would be substandard as a day-to-day device, perhaps good only as a travel kit, which I do appreciate, but as a desk/nightstand/countertop device, no way.

Qi charging is pitched in and of itself as "effortless, safe, reliable, easy" but Apple just pitches it as "easy to connect." Uh huh... try disconnecting it.

I personally understand where you are coming from. Perhaps some would prefer not to be objective about it.

Notwithstanding that we all like Apple products and this concern is by no means to be interpreted as the usual forum jibes.

We shall see this unfolding soon as the early buyers and reviewers get their phones and see how it goes.

 

[Tulani]

There are also practical examples where Apple has come up with very questionable design decisions before.

Examples being the charging of the first generation Pencil and the Magic Mouse.

 

[zhenya]

I'm not deliberately trying to catch Apple at anything here, but the point is that they had a chance to show it off a bit at the presentation, but deliberately did not. You can see the Apple-sold MagSafe charger now. There's no way that's going to be a one-handed operation on a desk or nightstand. Right now we're all like "Ooh magnets!" but then realize it's more annoying than useful.

So just looking at the comparisons here and the few experiences that are presented -- yes, it's a concern.

As a responder said, it could be non-standardized and determined by how many magnets are actually in the 3rd party devices, and that makes some sense. But still, there's no way this ends up being convenient except in some fringe cases. Like I said, it's a real goldilocks problem, and Apple isn't known for nailing this kind of thing...

I suspect that's why the Apple magsafe duo charger isn't out yet, because the experience of using it would be substandard as a day-to-day device, perhaps good only as a travel kit, which I do appreciate, but as a desk/nightstand/countertop device, no way.

Qi charging is pitched in and of itself as "effortless, safe, reliable, easy" but Apple just pitches it as "easy to connect." Uh huh... try disconnecting it.

I suspect that there may end up being different strength magnets for different applications. Ie. weaker for a desk charger, stronger for a phone mount, etc. Also, for the desk charger, there isn’t really one right answer. Some people want it easy to pick up one handed, others are excited about the ability to use the phone while charging again.

There are also practical examples where Apple has come up with very questionable design decisions before.

Examples being the charging of the first generation Pencil and the Magic Mouse.

View attachment 968666

I still am the holdout who must insist that the first Apple Pencil charging method was the best option available given the technological limits of the time it was designed in. Wireless charging wasn’t ready. Every other method would have required an additional cable to charge. While awkward, it made it impossible to have an iPad with a Pencil with a dead battery. And Apple included the female to female lightning adapter in the box; if you wanted the cable charging experience, simply replace your normal cap with the adapter, and carry a cable around.

The mouse, well, the Magic Mouse has always been awful in every way, like every Apple mouse ever made. I think Apple must have some kind of personal vendetta against the mouse as an input type.

 

[jclardy]

This is why it sucks that there is no "hands on" after the keynote now. But my guess is the magnetic strength comes from the attachment, and less from the phone itself.

Meaning the "puck" can be weaker than the car mount.

One thing I think they are missing is a "puck mount" which basically lets you put down/pickup your iPhone like a normal Qi charger, but with magnetic alignment. Then with more force you can remove the puck from the dock and use your phone while charging - that is what I want for my nightstand charger, because sometimes I miss the Qi charger, but I still want to be able to pick up the phone with one hand.

 

[mrklaw]

The cable is only 1m long - you aren’t really going to be taking phone calls with it attached. Maybe a quick check of a notification but you can do that in situ with a tap of the screen

 

[DotCom2]

The cable is only 1m long - you aren’t really going to be taking phone calls with it attached. Maybe a quick check of a notification but you can do that in situ with a tap of the screen

USB-C extension cable?

 

[Runs For Fun]

- Buy case with magsafe built in
- reverse the magnets
- floating wireless charger!

Apple, hire this guy!

 

[Wizec]

I’ve had some of the exact same concerns. It seems like a solution in search of a problem. If it has any hold at all, it will be far inferior to existing wireless Qi type charging.

If the magnets are very strong, I see a lot of people just yanking it off by the cord, which will then lead to cord fraying “cord-gate”.

MagSafe review video:

 

[Tulani]

I’ve had some of the exact same concerns. It seems like a solution in search of a problem. If it has any hold at all, it will be far inferior to existing wireless Qi type charging.

If the magnets are very strong, I see a lot of people just yanking it off by the cord, which will then lead to cord fraying “cord-gate”.

MagSafe review video:

The cable looks short and "cheap"; so does the pad where you put the phone on.
Might end up breaking at some point if you will be using it all the time.

Is it a good user experience that you need to shake off the phone?

It's in no way better than plugging in the cable.

 

[IconIc215]

Yea I am not sure I am buying the whole MagSafe hype. I just don't see the benefit over the traditional lighting charge or even continuing to use Qi charging (although its slower). Having to peel off the magnet as opposed to just lifting the phone off a wireless charging base would become annoying fairly quick in my opinion. I need to hear more feedback before buying a $40 dollar cord with a magnet.

 

[jclardy]

The cable looks short and "cheap"; so does the pad where you put the phone on.
Might end up breaking at some point if you will be using it all the time.

Is it a good user experience that you need to shake off the phone?

It's in no way better than plugging in the cable.

Think about it from next years perspective, when we get the iPhone with no Lightning port.

With your current Qi charger and a dead battery, how do you use your phone? You put it on the table and lean over it. With MagSafe, you snap it on and use it like you used to with a wired lightning cable.

What people don't seem to get is the point of MagSafe is to provide a ton of future options and open up an entirely new accessory market. Think of a stabilizer gimbal that you just drop your phone on and the camera app opens via NFC. Or a new airpods case that attaches to the back via magsafe and charges in reverse. Or a battery pack that just sticks on top of any existing case.

In the next year we will see "heavy" magsafe chargers, where the intent is to be a better Qi charger as you can just drop your phone and have it magnetically align. If you want that, just wait a few months for accessory manufacturers to catch up.

 

[DotCom2]

Yea I am not sure I am buying the whole MagSafe hype. I just don't see the benefit over the traditional lighting charge or even continuing to use Qi charging (although its slower). Having to peel off the magnet as opposed to just lifting the phone off a wireless charging base would become annoying fairly quick in my opinion. I need to hear more feedback before buying a $40 dollar cord with a magnet.

Think about it from next years perspective, when we get the iPhone with no Lightning port.

With your current Qi charger and a dead battery, how do you use your phone? You put it on the table and lean over it. With MagSafe, you snap it on and use it like you used to with a wired lightning cable.

What people don't seem to get is the point of MagSafe is to provide a ton of future options and open up an entirely new accessory market. Think of a stabilizer gimbal that you just drop your phone on and the camera app opens via NFC. Or a new airpods case that attaches to the back via magsafe and charges in reverse. Or a battery pack that just sticks on top of any existing case.

In the next year we will see "heavy" magsafe chargers, where the intent is to be a better Qi charger as you can just drop your phone and have it magnetically align. If you want that, just wait a few months for accessory manufacturers to catch up.

FINALLY! Someone with a brain!

 

[Tulani]

Think about it from next years perspective, when we get the iPhone with no Lightning port.

With your current Qi charger and a dead battery, how do you use your phone? You put it on the table and lean over it. With MagSafe, you snap it on and use it like you used to with a wired lightning cable.

What people don't seem to get is the point of MagSafe is to provide a ton of future options and open up an entirely new accessory market. Think of a stabilizer gimbal that you just drop your phone on and the camera app opens via NFC. Or a new airpods case that attaches to the back via magsafe and charges in reverse. Or a battery pack that just sticks on top of any existing case.

In the next year we will see "heavy" magsafe chargers, where the intent is to be a better Qi charger as you can just drop your phone and have it magnetically align. If you want that, just wait a few months for accessory manufacturers to catch up.

Absolutely the future will come and we shall move on from there.

At the moment I am still skeptical of investing in this ....yet.

This is my Qi wireless charger that I am currently using.

My iPhone will never be misaligned and fail to charge. Otherwise it will fall over.

And it’s a one handed pick and go.

And I can interact with the phone as opposed to this Apple solution that make makes it lie flat on the table.

 

[DotCom2]

I am getting the iPhone 12 and I like the idea of MagSafe on the iPhone but I'm heavily concerned about the practical-ness of it. It doesn't take a physics expert to figure this out, but I think I've put my finger on something that has been touched on in places but ... here goes.

How can MagSafe be strong enough to hold up in car appliances (reference to Belkin's car mount here https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-WIC002/ ) and yet not strong enough to be annoying as all heck for Apple's own MagSafe charger, or potentially annoying in nearly all other situations? We're supposed to trust MagSafe to reliably hold a wallet yet not pull the charging mount/stand with it when you pull on the phone...?

Here's the flow, if anyone doesn't understand what I'm getting at: Right now I have a Qi charger. I place my phone on it. I pick the phone up when I go. Granted, I have that risk that I didn't place it "just right" on the charger ... but when I pick up the phone, it's not a struggle. There's no challenge. I pick up and go. Qi stays on the desk. Phone comes with me. Simple. One handed.

With Apple's MagSafe charger I'll need quality tape to force the charging puck to stay on the desk. OR every single time I pick up the phone, I'll have to pull off the puck with another hand. It's no longer a grab-n-go. All the convenience of the lock-in charging is outweighed by the inconvenience of actually having to have two hands to remove it, or hard-mount the magsafe to your desk.

Sure, we don't necessarily have to use MagSafe. I'm just annoyed with the mandated link of Magsafe with 15w. The new Belkin 3-in-1 with Magsafe looks good simply because I expect the stand to weigh like a brick, but even that has me worried for pulling the stand with me if I grab the phone and go. It seems almost unfair to trade 15w charging for something that creates an inconvenience for us, or alternatively has to effectively be weighty or strong enough to counteract the magnets. That's my point here, is that one could easily argue that Qi isn't going away - I can totally continue to use my existing devices - but the advantages of MagSafe are not without their own disadvantages.

I fully expect to start seeing threads about how annoying MagSafe is. It's a goldilocks problem that only provides one true real benefit - 15w charging. If the magnets are too strong, which they should be, it becomes inconvenient to disconnect the phone from the MagSafe, if it's too weak it'll fall off in cars, or wallets fall off of phones. I'm hoping Apple got it "just right" but lets just say I've seen the videos of the Apple provided charging puck and I'm thinking this is somewhat off-mark. I know there are use-cases for this that are amazing, but I'm just walking through some simple practical uses of Qi charging and without going too far I see this being more annoying than useful. Maybe no more or less practical than Lightning-connected device, but I guess I'm spoiled by assuming it would be Qi-like and easier to handle.

With no hands-on for this and no advance reviews of any kind, we're walking into this blind. Thoughts?

Watch the event again and at a little after the 35 minute mark, the presenter says that the iPhone 12 can sense the magnetic force of the device being attached and adjust automatically! (I'm going by memory so the wording can be a little different). This magnet thing is visionary and going to open the gates for a plethora of things you didn't even know you needed/wanted. Wait and see! It's the Apple Way!

 

[majus]

The cable is only 1m long - you aren’t really going to be taking phone calls with it attached. Maybe a quick check of a notification but you can do that in situ with a tap of the screen

Six foot cables are available.

 

[kognos]

I appreciate what Apple is trying to do here. The 1m cable and the weight of the Apple Magsafe charger that is available now makes that device, for me, a non-starter -- there is no way this is in any way more convenient than just getting a 2m lightning cable, if anyone were just being honest with themselves, plus you save $5 and get faster charging with a longer cable.

But I love the convenience of Qi and was hoping it would be universal 15w. I presume that 3rd party developers can probably get something going with minimal effort - I like Logitech 3-in-1 stands, but I don't want to fight against magnets to pull my phone away. There's got to be a middle ground here. Like honestly, can you be "magsafe" while still having incredibly weak magnets? I'm thinking of the kind of cradle systems like this one from Logitech.

It would seem unfair to be limited to 7.5w.

Watch the event again and at a little after the 35 minute mark, the presenter says that the iPhone 12 can sense the magnetic force of the device being attached and adjust automatically! (I'm going by memory so the wording can be a little different).

It's kind of related to the above reply. If the sensors don't detect perfect alignment it won't provide the 15w charge, or maybe a charge at all.

You have to consider -- what exactly will it "adjust"? The only thing it can .. the pull of wattage from the charger. It's not like little Apple gnomes pop out of your iPhone and adjust the phone on the MagSafe device. That would be magical.

Apple is basically answering the reason why Qi chargers are energy inefficient by slightly enforcing alignment via batteries. If you don't have perfect alignment it won't supply the juice - or at least not all 15w of it.

Six foot cables are available.

Not for MagSafe devices. 1m only at present.