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Review: Belkin's MagSafe Car Charger Brings Faster Wireless Charging to Your Vehicle

I have and use a magsafe car mount, and yeah I enjoy the convenience. I don’t like how unsafe it feels though. Have you ever dropped your phone on your face laying in bed? Now imagine it at 40MPH. If you get into an accident, the magnet is not going to hold the phone. Your iPhone WILL become a projectile in your vehicle. If it hits you, you will never have to worry about upgrading your iPhone again.

Honestly it is enough to make me want to put my phone back in the glove box and just plug it in, which I would gladly do if I had a car with CarPlay, but right now I don’t.
 
xxray said:
Imagine how degraded the battery would get running GPS with screen at full brightness while wireless charging at 15W on a hot summer day.
Click to expand...
The battery charging would have no effect as the power is modulated automatically if temperature increases to unacceptable levels. That being said having air conditioning coming from behind should help keeping the phone cool.
 
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Who is this for that has done basically any research?

Lightning cables charge not only the newer iPhones with MagSafe backs, but also older phones that go back many years which is useful for if you have guests and they want to plug their phone in to CarPlay. MagSafe chargers limit who can put their phone on the mount if you have company. People wanting to use their phone on your car mount may seem like a niche case, but this happens way more often than I would have thought.

MagSafe's magnetic grip, even on third party stronger ones, is nowhere near as strong as a simple physical claw mount and it probably never will.

The price of this is obscene.

It charges slower than a lightning cable.

It still has a cable...

If anything, this mount has *less* portability than a simple claw mount, because with lightning cables+claw mounts you can take the phone off the mount and still have it charging. With this MagSafe mount, you would need to take the whole mount off to have the phone still charging yet still attached to it, which is just awkward.

I honestly don't understand MagSafe chargers for anything other than a bedside table. Maybe if you took really long car trips really often, but most trips are not really long, so most people probably want their phone to charge as fast as possible... which would mean lightning, not this.
 
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MrRom92 said:
I have and use a magsafe car mount, and yeah I enjoy the convenience. I don’t like how unsafe it feels though. Have you ever dropped your phone on your face laying in bed? Now imagine it at 40MPH. If you get into an accident, the magnet is not going to hold the phone. Your iPhone WILL become a projectile in your vehicle. If it hits you, you will never have to worry about upgrading your iPhone again.

Honestly it is enough to make me want to put my phone back in the glove box and just plug it in, which I would gladly do if I had a car with CarPlay, but right now I don’t.
Click to expand...
It’s extremely unlikely your phone would hit or anyone else in an accident, unless you crashed when reversing (and good luck trying to reverse at 40 miles per hour 😂).
 
PowerMacBook said:
100 dollar??? lol, and the funny thing is that it will sell!
Not to me: just plug in a USB-A <-> lightning cable, and charge faster.
Really don't get this way of charging, guess it exist because they can...
Click to expand...
MagSafe exists because it is a huge improvement, not because they can. Lightning ports can clog with pocket lint over time. For me (cotton pants, not the polyester stuff so many folks wear) lint clogging was always a PITA. Since MagSafe, no issues; and IMO the magnet is hella more convenient than plugging it in.

In the car a flat basic MagSafe puck just stays on the shelf below the speedometer. When driving the iPhone lives there, and it turns out to be a perfect location for hands-free comms because the iPhone mic is close to and aimed right at the driver. And one is not trying to support the weight of an iPhone with a car's vent grille that was not designed to hold weight.
 
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xxray said:
Imagine how degraded the battery would get running GPS with screen at full brightness while wireless charging at 15W on a hot summer day.
Click to expand...
No problem as it is attached to a vent and you are no doubt running AC through said vent.

I’ve used a regular magsafe puck with a cheap plastic vent holder made for the puck for a year now and it has been brilliant. It attaches quickly, it charges while driving, when you leave the car you’ll always can take your phone with you.
This Belkin one - with extra strong magnets and a longer cable - will be even better.
 
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I don't understand the point of this updated version when they already had a "MagSafe compatible" version that is still available for purchase at $36. The only major difference I see is that it charges at 10w vs 15w

smile.amazon.com

Belkin Magnetic Wireless Car Charger - MagSafe Compatible Car Mount Wireless Charger - Air Vent Mount with Included Power Supply for iPhone 14, iPhone 13 & iPhone 12 - Phone Mount Charger

Belkin Magnetic Wireless Car Charger - MagSafe Compatible Car Mount Wireless Charger - Air Vent Mount with Included Power Supply for iPhone 14, iPhone 13 & iPhone 12 - Phone Mount Charger
smile.amazon.com
 
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xxray said:
Imagine how degraded the battery would get running GPS with screen at full brightness while wireless charging at 15W on a hot summer day.
Click to expand...
Always getting the "charging has been paused" message now using my onn qi charger. I guess requiring a vent connection makes sense so it can be kept cool. :rolleyes:
 
Nice that the design provides a little distance between the vent and the phone. I never like it when super cold air is blowing directly on my phone when mounted in my current vent-mount.
 
xxray said:
Imagine how degraded the battery would get running GPS with screen at full brightness while wireless charging at 15W on a hot summer day.
Click to expand...
If you’ve got applecare+ they will replace the battery for free under 80%, so that needn’t be a deterrent if you’re already paying for AC+.
 
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I don’t get this product. There seems to be a lot of interfering technologies making this product obsolete save for a few situations.
1. It is definitely slated for a vehicle.
2. It uses USB-C style cord.
3. Most vehicles that have adopted USB-C also adopt CarPlay.
4. This magsafe charging protocol does not allow for CarPlay at the same time.
5. So the use case is wireless CarPlay, MagSafe charging with this device.
6. Another use case is MagSafe charging and Bluetooth audio but no CarPlay and my car has to have USB-C

Most cars with wireless CarPlay have MagSafe like charging already.

I don’t get it.
 
If I put a MagSafe case on my phone, can I still set my phone down onto a Qi charger if needed? Or do I have to remove the MagSafe case to use a Qi charger?
 
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icanhazmac said:
I am fairly sure that wired carplay led to the early demise of my 8's battery. I travel extensively for work and the phone is plugged in almost the entire work day. We really need a way to be connected to wired carplay without charging the entire time. Does a cable exist that is data only with no power?

Edit: or a way to shutdown charging.
Click to expand...
With the power management features, this shouldn't happen - those are all newer than the 8.
 
MallardDuck said:
With the power management features, this shouldn't happen - those are all newer than the 8.
Click to expand...

We'll see as I just upgraded to the SE. One thing I can say so far is that when charging in the car the SE is HOT! It even stopped charging one day and while it was about 40 degrees outside it was in the sun, my 8 never did that.
 
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