The best magnetic chargers to buy for your MagSafe iPhone - The Verge

Wireless charging is inefficient successful galore ways. It charges your telephone much dilatory than utilizing a cable, uses much energy, and requires near-perfect alignment connected a charging pad to adjacent work. But inefficiencies aside, it’s conscionable truthful dang convenient. So erstwhile Apple added a ringing of magnets to the iPhone 12 and dubbed it “MagSafe,” things got overmuch much interesting. Not lone bash the magnets warrant cleanable alignment each clip but also, with a MagSafe-certified charger, your iPhone tin complaint astatine up to 15W — treble the 7.5W they get with different wireless chargers. And the magnets besides let for nifty accessories, similar car mounts and detachable paper wallets. 

The iPhone 14 is the 3rd procreation of MagSafe phones, but the ecosystem is inactive a small messy. It tin beryllium confusing to fig retired whether a charger is “with MagSafe” (Apple’s operation meaning real 15W MagSafe) oregon conscionable compatible with MagSafe (read: a basal Qi charger with magnets slapped on). But the options connected connection present — authoritative and different — are mostly beauteous good. We’ve recovered the champion MagSafe and MagSafe-compatible wireless chargers for your iPhone. Because erstwhile you spell magnetic, it conscionable starts to consciousness pragmatic.

Best MagSafe charger for astir people

Belkin’s caller BoostCharge Pro with MagSafe is $10 much than Apple’s ain MagSafe Charger, but it outclasses the Apple puck successful astir each way. It’s the lone different magnetic charging puck “with MagSafe,” which means it has the aforesaid 15W wireless accelerated charging arsenic Apple’s charger, alternatively of being constricted to 7.5W. But the BoostCharge Pro has a 6.5-foot (two-meter) braided cablegram — doubly arsenic agelong arsenic Apple’s — and it includes a fold-out kickstand to prop your iPhone up successful scenery predisposition for watching oregon playing worldly arsenic you charge.

Since this charger came out, it’s go vanishingly hard to spot wherefore you’d bargain Apple’s ain MagSafe Charger. Okay, Apple’s charger is cheaper, astir 10mm thinner, and a small sleeker — fine. But it’s besides hamstrung by a terribly abbreviated cable: astatine conscionable 3.28ft / 1m, it feels similar you’re connected a abbreviated leash to your partition outlet if you privation to usage the telephone arsenic it charges, and it’s not agelong capable to scope a partition outlet from immoderate furnishings taller than a tiny nightstand. The Belkin BoostCharge Pro with MagSafe fixes the Apple puck’s biggest issue, and if you privation that 15W charging, it makes consciousness to walk the other wealth connected the longer cable. (If you don’t request the 15W charging — say, for overnight charging — you tin get a magnetic charger with a longer cablegram for overmuch little money, but much connected that successful the adjacent section.)

Apple’s MagSafe Charger does spell connected merchantability from clip to clip for astir $30 oregon little — creating a bigger terms delta betwixt it and the BoostCharge Pro. But frankly, it’d person to beryllium overmuch cheaper for maine to urge it implicit this Belkin without somewhat gritting my teeth. Make definite you besides get a prime 20W USB-C powerfulness adapter — neither Belkin nor Apple pucks travel with their own. 

Best magnetic (non-MagSafe) Qi chargers — besides champion for overnight charging

You don’t request to wage the other wealth for a MagSafe-certified charger if you mostly complaint overnight. Unless you’re getting a dangerously debased magnitude of slumber each night, your telephone is going to beryllium topped disconnected by greeting careless of which charger you use. In fact, adjacent if you usage a 15W MagSafe charger for overnight charging, your iPhone will automatically dilatory its complaint speed to decorativeness charging a small spot earlier you request it.

So unless you program to usage the aforesaid charger for some speedy top-ups and overnight charging, you tin prevention wealth by buying either the Anker 313 Magnetic Wireless Charger oregon the modular Belkin BoostCharge Magnetic Wireless charger. These non-MagSafe magnetic chargers complaint iPhones astatine the aforesaid 7.5W complaint arsenic immoderate different Qi wireless charger, and they some enactment conscionable fine. The Belkin has a six-foot cable, but the Anker has a somewhat thinner charging pad and its five-foot ligament is capable for astir situations. 

What makes some of these exceptional is their value: you tin prime up either puck for astir $25 with a 20W USB-C powerfulness adapter oregon astir $15 without one. They’re affordable capable that you tin warrant 1 (or more) adjacent if you besides ain a fancier MagSafe charger for erstwhile you really request the speed. 

You’ll convey maine erstwhile you tin prime up your telephone from your bedside array for your nightly doomscrolling without yanking the cablegram retired of the wall. (Wait, I mean your in-bed guided meditation and breathing exercises.)

Best MagSafe charger for travel

Any charger tin travel, but that doesn’t mean it travels well. The Mophie 3-in-1 Travel Charger with MagSafe opens similar a trifold wallet to complaint your phone, Apple Watch, and AirPods each astatine once. It’s pricey astatine $149.95, but it’s an all-in-one question solution: its folding multicharger pad, 30W powerfulness adapter, and USB-C cablegram each battalion into a brushed cloth carrying case. 

It’s hard to overstate however useful this Mophie charger is if you question with immoderate frequency. I’m the benignant that stresses endlessly erstwhile packing for a large trip, and knowing I had each my charging essentials successful this small grey satchel gave maine a tiny consciousness of calm — similar having a afloat prepacked toiletry bag.

And since this charger really supports MagSafe charging speeds, it’s bully for speedy top-ups erstwhile you’re lone backmost astatine your edifice for a abbreviated break. You tin besides compression a abbreviated USB-C to Lightning cablegram into the carrying lawsuit with the different accessories truthful you ever person somewhat faster 20W wired charging connected reserve successful an emergency.

While Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger takes up adjacent little abstraction successful your question container — it’s astir fractional arsenic heavy arsenic the Mophie — it lone charges up to 2 devices astatine once. The $129 Duo besides costs astir the aforesaid oregon much erstwhile you origin successful a 20W USB-C powerfulness adapter and carrying case, some of which the Mophie bundle covers.

My lone gripe with the Mophie 3-in-1 Travel Charger, speech from its precocious price, is that, similar Apple’s MagSafe Duo, it lifts up from a array arsenic you disconnect your telephone — truthful you person to clasp it down with different digit arsenic you propulsion distant from the magnets. That’s acold from a deal-breaker, but beryllium wary that trying to snooze an aboriginal alarm portion severely jet-lagged could nonstop your AirPods and Apple Watch crashing down to a edifice country floor.

Best MagSafe 3-in-1 basal for home

Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 MagSafe charging stand is different pricey solution for charging your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods each astatine once. But what makes this quirky modern art-like magnetic histrion particularly bully is its MagSafe 15W charging, Apple Watch fast-charge enactment (for the Series 7, Series 8, and Ultra), and the information that it puts your telephone and ticker astatine a readable level connected a table oregon table. 

In fact, the spacing of the telephone and ticker supra the bottommost 5W Qi pad means you tin acceptable a full different telephone down determination — making this basal particularly bully if you person a mixed iPhone / Android household and privation to stock a small of the wireless charging love.

The Belkin histrion is built solidly, with capable value to forestall your telephone oregon ticker from tugging oregon toppling the full happening implicit erstwhile removing them. My biggest gripes with it are the precocious terms of $149.99 and the information that its accepted 12V AC adapter with built-in cablegram seems larger than it needs to beryllium compared to overmuch smaller USB-C powerfulness adapters utilized by different chargers. Though, since you’re astir apt planting this histrion successful 1 spot of your location and not moving astir with it, the partition wart is mostly forgivable.

Most versatile MagSafe multicharger for location and travel

Anker’s caller 3-in-1 Cube is its archetypal to enactment due 15W MagSafe charging (not simply magnetic Qi), and its nifty compact plan makes it an fantabulous jack-of-all-trades for some location and question use. It charges your telephone successful an angled position, with conscionable capable abstraction down it to wirelessly complaint your AirPods, positive a slide-out broadside drawer for your Apple Watch. I’m blessed to spot that Anker took the tilt-top plan of its cute small soda tin 623 MagGo 2-in-1 charger and turned it into an adjacent amended 3-in-1. Sadly, successful summation to being much angular and overmuch little adorable, it got overmuch much costly successful the process; it costs $149.95 and is lone disposable from Apple oregon directly from Anker. That means the Cube whitethorn not get the predominant discounts we spot connected Anker products astatine Amazon oregon elsewhere.

The terms is simply a spot alarming, but $149.99 seems to beryllium the going complaint for MagSafe 3-in-1s. It comes with a 30W USB-C powerfulness adapter, and its pop-out Apple Watch charger supports accelerated charging connected compatible models. The charger itself is astir the size of a Rubik’s Cube, though it’s somewhat taller than it is wide oregon deep. (Yes, I regret to pass immoderate of you sticklers that the Cube is technically a rectangular prism, not a cube.) Mathematics heresy aside, it feels astir arsenic compact arsenic this plan tin be.

The Anker isn’t rather arsenic bully for question arsenic the fold-up Mophie 3-in-1, and the Belkin histrion happening is simply a amended 3-in-1 for location usage if you similar that elevated tallness and versatile 2nd Qi spot. But Anker’s Cube is the second-best MagSafe multicharger for location usage and travel, which makes it the astir versatile enactment if you question occasionally and privation a azygous 3-in-1 charger that does it all.

Best MagSafe-compatible artillery pack

I tested a full clump of magnetic artillery packs. They were each fine. The MagSafe-compatible options from Anker, Mophie, and Belkin each worked good capable for modular 7.5W wireless iPhone charging, and you’d astir apt beryllium a-okay picking whichever 1 works for your tastes erstwhile it comes to price, carnal size (some are chonky), and artillery capacity. It’s bully to person a artillery that clicks onto the backmost of your telephone without worrying astir cables.

I urge Anker’s 622 Magnetic Battery (MagGo) implicit the others I tested — adjacent Apple’s ain MagSafe Battery Pack — due to the fact that it strikes the close equilibrium of portability and artillery capacity. It’s hardly larger than the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack, but its 19.25Wh compartment is astir treble the capableness of Apple’s 11.13Wh. It supports passthrough charging portion it’s plugged in, and its built-in origami kickstand is simply a useful summation that doesn’t adhd overmuch bulk. The fold-out basal is adjacent beardown capable to enactment a hefty Max-sized iPhone successful a protective case, and the Anker 622 artillery comes successful immoderate amusive colors to lucifer your telephone — oregon astatine slightest basal retired among your different accessories.

Compared to the Anker 622, Apple’s kinda unspeakable MagSafe Battery Pack has precise small going for it. Sure, it’s a small smaller, and its choky iOS integration lets it amusement its nonstop artillery percent connected your fastener screen, which the Anker doesn’t offer. But it’s mostly for top-ups: the meager artillery could ne'er afloat recharge my iPhone 12 Pro Max that I was investigating it with. It doesn’t adjacent complaint your telephone immoderate faster than the Anker since Apple limits it to 7.5W erstwhile connected the go. That’s baffling for a $99 artillery pack.

If you privation true 15W MagSafe charging from a powerfulness bank, you tin get the Mophie Powerstation 10K basal with MagSafe for $129.95. It’s expensive, awkwardly chonky, and rimmed with cheap-feeling soft-touch rubber that whitethorn not property well, but it tin scope 15W wireless charging without the assistance of a powerfulness plug. Plus, the Mophie’s sturdy metallic basal means it could beryllium your desktop charging basal that you tin fold up and instrumentality with you connected the go. 

Other MagSafe and magnetic chargers worthy considering

While the ones supra are the best, present are immoderate much options that are inactive perfectly fine:

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge