The first MagSafe teardown is here

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Magsafe Charger Internal Packaging
Magsafe Charger Internal Packaging (Image credit: Joe Wituschek/iMore)

What you need to know

  • iFixit has torn down a MagSafe Charger.
  • The device was very difficult to take apart.
  • There's quite a lot inside that small charging puck.

We might be waiting for an iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro to be torn down by iFixit but we can at least take a look at the insides of a MagSafe charger while we wait. That's how the folk at the repair outfit thought as well, so they decided to take one of Apple's new wireless chargers apart.

That, it turned out, was more difficult than you might expect. Starting with the fact they could only find one seam with which to work.

The only seam to be found is where the rubber meets the metal, making that the obvious entry point. Optimistically, we blast it with some heat in order to soften the adhesive which, presumably, holds this thing together. Then we attach two perfectly-fitting suction cups, one to either side, and start tug-of-warring.

That didn't do much, but after taking a knife to it the MagSafe Charger finally started to give up its secrets and, as expected, it's full of wireless charging coils. Who knew?

Ifixit Magsafe Charger

Ifixit Magsafe Charger (Image credit: iFixit)

There's also the circuit board that handles the charging and that part confirms the 15W wireless charging capabilities Apple boasts.

The little circuit board houses a chip labeled STWPSPA1. This is likely a close cousin to STMicroelectronics' STWBC-EP, their 15 W wireless charger IC.

So there we have it. Now we sit back and wait for iFixit to do the business on an iPhone or two!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.