iPhone 12 Isolating the magnets field in iPhone 12 Mini

[asiga]

The only point stopping me from ordering an iPhone 12 Mini is the magnets (yes, they are -supposedly- not strong enough for erasing a credit card, but they are strong enough for erasing hotel keys --so, sorry but no, I don't want to have magnets that strong in my pocket).

The iFixit teardown clearly shows that actual physical removal of the magnets is very difficult: they are at the bottom of the cake, with lots of delicate items and connectors before you can reach them, so actual physical removal would be only suitable when you start hating the whole phone rather than just the magnets.

Now, a "MacGyver idea" came to my mind: what if I could use a rigid leather sleeve (not case, sleeve) loose enough so that I can take my iPhone out of my pocket with only one hand, leaving the sleeve inside my pocket --and vice versa, putting the phone back in my pocket making it slide inside the sleeve with only one hand. Then, I could put some extra isolation in the back side of the sleeve if needed for neutralizing the magnets more effectively.

Ideally, the sleeve shouldn't be full size, but just up the height where the circle of magnets ends, so that it's easier to take the phone with only one hand.

Do you know of any sleeve that could do this trick?

Do you think of any other mechanisms for neutralizing the magnets?

(Yes, I could wait for iPhone 13, but I don't feel confident they will remove the magnets..., and besides, I have serious battery life issues in my SE1) Side note: my SE1 is starting to have serious problems in battery life (I think it's not a hardware problem, or at least not severe because iOS says the battery health is 81%, so my belief is that the serious reduction I'm seeing in battery comes from high CPU usage in the SE1 compared to more efficient newer A13/A14 chips --in fact my SE1 gets warm when using some apps, and then battery goes down, so I think it's related to its CPU being too old for current apps).

 

[RRC]

The magnet really isn't that strong. When is it ever likely going to be near a hotel key card? Just make a conscious effort to avoid putting anything in the same pocket as your phone? Something you should be doing anyway to prevent any scratches or case marking etc (if you use one).

I'm sure something will come along to reduce the magnetic field - one option would be to get a non-magsafe case and inside of it put something that magnetises with the phone itself, thus cancelling out the magnetic strength.

 

[klasma]

In hose hotel-key card situations, using the MagSafe wallet would make more sense.

Anecdotally, I already had key cards erased by having them next to my SE1 in a pocket. I’ve since been using a card protection sleeve (one of those).

 

[Kendo]

I think this is a stretch. Apple has the smartest engineers in the world (not saying they are god) but still, I'm sure this has been thought of. Frankly I would be more worried about radiation from cell signals or the AirPods in my ears and Bluetooth signals more than worrying about the magnets. Not that the radiation part worries me, just saying that seems more plausible than magnets screwing up hotel keys.

 

[asiga]

In hose hotel-key card situations, using the MagSafe wallet would make more sense.

Anecdotally, I already had key cards erased by having them next to my SE1 in a pocket. I’ve since been using a card protection sleeve (one of those).

Thanks a lot for the link to cards protection sleeves. Actually, maybe the best strategy is not to isolate the magnets field, but instead to have a protected area in my pocket (maybe one of those sleeves, for example), so that I can put inside a protected sleeve everything that should be better away from magnetic fields.

This could actually clear my purchase and I'll be able to order the Mini that way.

 

[johnnylarue]

I’ve seen a number of cases that fail the MagSafe compatibility test—i.e. they’re too thick or dense to allow a proper connection. With that in mind, those cases would probably neutralize the magnetic field enough to protect a hotel card. 🤷‍♂️

 

[bubulol]

I wonder if the iPhone 12 magnets can interfere with the anti-theft gate?
Or even worse, using it to remove the anti-theft?
I think its too weak

 

[Sam in SoCal]

We’ll get tony stark on the case

 

[asiga]

The magnets are apparently strong enough for the iPhone 12 to be able to behave as a fridge magnet, so I wouldn't call them "weak" magnets, and this reaffirms that special isolation measures are in order not only for hotel keys, but I'd say even for credit cards (maybe not in Apple tests, but think in everyday use), and of course for any device that can suffer from magnetic fields. See: