Might get some heat for this, but... MagSafe Duo is WAY more practical than AirPower was.
First, to get this aside, yes it’s overpriced. But, keep in mind that the airpower’s price was rumored to be between 249 and $299. Over double the price of the duo.
Secondly, for what this is mainly going to be used for, which is traveling, it’s way more compact than the airpower was. The airpower was a big, wide oval mat that you could slide into your bag. This thing is a tiny square that you can slide into your pocket.
Thirdly, when it comes to usability, the duo is just simpler. With the airpower, if you used a Closed Loop, Apple Watch band, it was basically useless. Plus, at least if prototyping is a good example, AirPower got hot! I would rather not have a tiny foreman grill on my nightstand, thank you very much.
And for anyone who wants to complain about charge speed or the adapter not being included in the box, I guarantee you that air power would have “required” an adapter that was sold separately, and it would’ve had to be a big one to actually power the thing properly. So in that case, these are really not that different of products. Except that this one’s smaller, more simple, less dangerous, and half the price.
oh and another thing, you can use your iPhone while it’s on the duo. The Watch portion will fold backwards into itself, which is nice. You couldn’t exactly use your phone if it’s sitting on the air power.
Personally, the only complaints that I have with it is that it’s made out of that crappy material Apple likes to use, and that it uses lightning M1 job instead of USB-C.
