Poll: What are your thoughts on Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack?

By Stephen Warwick
published

Apple Magsafe Battery Pack Back
Apple Magsafe Battery Pack Back (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12 is here, and whilst early impressions of the accessory seem to be good, I for one remain unconvinced of the device's value. This week in our poll, we want to find out what you make of it. Have you bought one, and if so what do you think? Is it one of the best MagSafe portable batteries available, or a worthless gimmick? Maybe you haven't bought one, we want to know why! Before you sound off, here are some things to consider, from our review:

Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack will help extend your iPhone's battery for a few more hours, but don't expect it to quickly charge your iPhone unless it's plugged in. The size is pretty compact, and the hard plastic has a soft-touch finish that feels nice.

The Magsafe Battery pack comes with full iOS 14.7 integration, is compact and has strong magnets, and can be used in reverse whilst you charge your iPhone. However, it's very expensive at $99, has a very small capacity compared to rivals like Anker's PowerCore Magnetic 5K and the mophie snap+ juice pack.

To me, I simply can't understand why you'd paid twice as much for a battery with a third of the capacity unless you're absolutely desperate for a battery pack that's white and has Apple's logo on it. Which brings me to another point, why is this only available in white? Sure it's distinctive but I can't imagine it will age well with dirt and grime without constantly need to be cleaned. I just don't see any benefit to Apple's offering over the existing competitors which are considerably cheaper and offer more actual charge... Is there something I've missed? Take our poll below and let us know what you think of Apple's latest MagSafe offering. If you're on mobile, be sure to click here if you can't see the poll.

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9

3 Comments
  • Started using one a few days ago and here are my thoughts. (previously using 3 Anker MagSafe packs that I swap out full time so the phone stays at 100% all the time) 1. The weird click that "activates" the battery in lieu of a power button is a bit un-Apple. You'd think they figure out how to make it silent. Almost sounds like something is loose in there when you attach it. 2. The battery meter (with percentage readout, cause I'm OCD) on the home screen is nice. Anker only gives my 1-2-3-4 dots to show battery status. 3. I'm not used to letting the phone drop below 99% but the way the battery drops the phone to 89-91% before kicking in seems to work well. 4. The ability to charge the pack by plugging in just the phone (reverse-charging) is very cool. Clearly iPhones 12 can do this, but it took buying a $100 battery pack from Apple to enable this just for this and nothing else. 5. Size is about right (smaller than Anker) and magnets hold well when connected to an Apple case or naked, although only savages carry their phone naked. The hard plastic finish is preferred to the soft rubberized finish they commonly use on previous battery cases, which looks and feels nice but cruddy once the rubber bits begin to chip off from use. 6. $60 Apple case and $100 battery gets you to $160 for both and not far from the price of a new iPhone 12 after discounts from carriers during decent promotions (i.e. Verizon $450 off). 7. The hack I saw of putting your battery pack on a lighting dock and turning both into an Apple brand wireless charger for your phone works well but a little flimsy as you'd expect since only the one lightning port on the battery is holding both on the dock.
  • #4 interests me. Clearly 'reverse' charging is built in. It just needs some negotiation to kick it off. Wonder when the $69 reverse charging AirPod case will be available. Don't hold your breath for reverse charging the watch though. That thing is inexplicably not Qi.
  • I'd love to get one if they made black or space gray. I know people get white cases but I mainly see dark color cases on phones.