I think it’s important to remember all of the features this product has over the competitors, which is always what you get from first party Apple products. The coolest thing this can do, in my opinion, is that it can be on the back of an iPhone 12 series phone, and can be recharged wirelessly from the iPhone itself. Which means that iPhones can reverse wirelessly charge other Qi compatible devices, but Apple has never turned the feature on in the operating system.

You can also charge your iPhone 12 while the battery pack is recharging with a lightning cable, it basically turns into a MagSafe charging puck when being used that way, delivering the full, 15 watts of wireless power to your iPhone (12 series only, of course). It will also charge any Qi capable devices like Airpods 2 or AirPods Pro.

While this is attached to your phone and neither the iPhone or battery pack are charging with a cable, this will deliver only 5 watts of power to your iPhone. This is disappointing and kind of defeats the purpose of making a MagSafe wireless charger in the first place. The whole point of MagSafe is convenient, faster wireless charging. But I think it’s important to remember the benefits of this product too.

You get a nice animation when you attach it to your iPhone, and the battery pack will show up in the battery widget, next to your Apple Watch and Airpods. It really is awesome that you never have to turn it on and that it communicates with iOS using the NFC part of MagSafe. Another plus is the safety of this device, it is designed to protect your internal iPhone battery and not put performance over longevity. By default it will only charge your iPhone to 90%, you can get around this by long pressing on the battery saver button within quick settings and an option appears that only shows up while the battery is connected. It will stay enabled and can’t be turned off but it will reset back to only charging to 90% the next time you use it. Most of the damage done to our iPhone batteries occurs between the 90% and 100% charge level. Apple is protecting our devices by making this the default behavior of this battery pack.

While there are alternatives out there, even a few really good ones, none are safer or nicer to use than this one from Apple. It’s incredibly thin and feels super soft to the touch. I know it’s expensive, but I honestly feel like it’s worth the price, and I’m loving mine. Apple focuses more on overall experience and sometimes price is an afterthought. I think they wanted to make a really great product and weren’t concerned about people who might be sensitive to the price. If you love Apple and buy everything they make, go ahead and pull the trigger because you know you want it. If you need speed(and/or are on a budget), go with a USB C to Lightning, 20 watt wired charger. The 15 watts from the MagSafe cable (when connected to a 20 watt wall charger) will also be faster than this battery pack.

Pros➕

Strong Magnets 🧲

Automatically turns on/off 🤓

Silky smooth finish 🧈

Tight integration with iOS 📱🤝

Protects battery health 🔋

Thinner than similar products ➡️🍎⬅️

Lightweight 🪶

Doubles as a wired MagSafe charger (if you own a USB C to Lightning cable + 20 watt charger)🔌

Can be recharged wirelessly, but only from an iPhone 12/13 series model (while the iPhone is connected to a wired charger with 20+ watts of power)⚡️

Cons➖

Cannot fully recharge a 12/12 pro (55%-60% recharge capacity) 🙁

Only charges at 5 watts or less, most of the time🐢

Magsafe Battery Pack itself, cannot be charged wirelessly EXCEPT from the iPhone 12/13 series models, so if you place this on a Qi charger or the $40 MagSafe cable, it will NOT charge 🚫⚡️

Expensive 💵