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Apple MagSafe Battery Pack

168 points by kondro 5y ago

bitcoinGod88 5y ago
it doesn't say how much battery life it adds...
- kylemh 5y ago
  very critical miss
- mholm 5y ago
  Likely varies too much to give a fair estimate. I'd guess this is somewhere around 3000-4000mah, then minus the wireless charging inefficiency? So it might give the 12 Mini a full day, but only half a day for the 12 Pro Max. EDIT: Apparently just under 1500mah, so likely half a day for the mini, and a few hours for the max? I'd be curious too.
danso 5y ago
Am I missing the tech specs section? I see that it can charge 15W wireless when plugged in, but how big is the battery? For comparison's sake, here's the Anker 5,000 mAH magsafe battery pack for just $45. However, it doesn't appear to charge above 5W even if plugged in. I bought one during Prime Day but haven't had much need to use it. It definitely looks beefier than the Apple version. https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Magnetic-Wireless-Portable-PowerCore/dp/B08TW7BRTJ https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Magnetic-Wireless-Portable-Powe... OTOH, at least it comes with a USB-C cable! edit: the Anker pack has a standard USB-C port, which you can charge directly from far more efficiently. The Apple charger appears to charge via lightning port...I'm assuming there's no way to directly wire charge your phone from it, nor power any other non-magsafe device
- kondro 5y ago
  I can’t find the source right now but I believe it’s around 12Wh.
  - vernie 5y ago
    It's visible in one of the photos (11.13Wh)
- ni-hil 5y ago
  1460 mAh https://imgur.com/1khiiEj https://imgur.com/1khiiEj
  - cbsmith 5y ago
    Damn, talk about reading the fine print.
  - Kirby64 5y ago
    To note, that it's 7.62V (i.e., 2S), so it's equivalent to most ~3000mAh packs. Still not great for the money, but not as bad as it sounds.
    - skavi 5y ago
      Why did the mobile industry decide to use mAh instead of Wh.
      - stevenpetryk 5y ago
        I think that's just the battery industry. Whenever I shop for batteries for robotics or RC vehicles they're in mAh too.
        foobarian 5y ago
        Maybe it's slightly more convenient because the same value applies no matter how many cells are in the battery pack. So it helps distinguish the packs by electrical current output capacity which we can't get from a power value because power combines two different measures.
        notatoad 5y ago
        mAh doesn't change as you add cells to the battery pack? i'm pretty sure that's not correct.
        5y ago
- gimmeThaBeet 5y ago
  Yeah, kinda bizarre that they don't specify, that's like...the spec. Sites have said it's 11.13Wh (~comparable to a iPhone 12), but then even at that, how efficient is the Qi charger itself? How much of that capacity do you actually get?
  - arcticbull 5y ago
    Qi charger efficiency is roughly 50% right, I suspect that should be a good approximation.
    - addaon 5y ago
      This seems a bit low, do you have a source? While I haven't worked with the Qi standard directly, I've used 200 kHz inductive power transfer in other contexts, and efficiency numbers in my experience are in the 75% - 85% range for well-aligned coils. The total efficiency will be a bit less than this (moving charge in and out of a battery is pretty good, but not 100%), but I'd be surprised to see 5W transfer with a total efficiency much less than 70%.
      - arcticbull 5y ago
        This article is a bit sensationalist, but they claim to have gotten mid-60s efficiency [1]. I think I misread them initially when they said "47% more power" - I took that to mean 47% efficiency, but on re-reading it's closer to 66%. My bad! [1] https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-48afdde70ed9 https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-...
- Tagbert 5y ago
  Yes, this new Apple pack holds less charge than that Anker one, but it is much slimmer and attaches with magnets. It’s meant to give you some extra battery life in a sleek form that fits on your pocket. If you are going to be away from a power source for days, the Anker might be a better choice but if your just looking for some extra juice on a long day of use and don’t want something bulky to carry around, this would fit the bill.
  - laurent92 5y ago
    Thank you for the explanation. I’m already frustrated that the iPhone doesn’t include enough battery for a full day of work (when the iPhone 7 could last several days initially), I find it amusing that Apple proposes an additional “short-term” battery.
    - billyhoffman 5y ago
      Apple has had smart battery cases since the iPhone 6/7 era. I think it depends on usage. In my home city, my phone goes all day no problem. On business trips to NYC with all the tall buildings and taking more ride shares than normal, the battery gets hammered and dies. I had a smart battery case for years that I just used on trips. The simplicity of Apple's design was (to me) worth the premium. (no extra wire from battery to phone. no turning the battery case on and off, one wire to charge both, etc)
    - Jcowell 5y ago
      My iPhone 11 certainly could last an entire day of use when it first came out (and it released with the fats charger so it was an insane jump)
  - Someone1234 5y ago
    The linked Anker one also attaches via magnets.
  - layer8 5y ago
    > it is much slimmer Apple neither states the dimensions nor provides a picture with a 90° side view, so I’m wondering how slim it really is.
frakkingcylons 5y ago
I hope this works well. I backed the Kickstarter for an external swappable iPhone battery case (CoBattery [0]) and I loved the thing. It was bulky and looked weird, but it was so nice having such long battery life. They shut down a while ago but it was great while it lasted. [0]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cobattery/cobattery-never-plug-in-your-iphone-again https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cobattery/cobattery-nev...
- turtlebits 5y ago
  Same- the Cobattery was great (except for the bulk). I actually never wall-charged my phone and just had several battery packs (relatively inexpensive Samsung packs) that I kept topped off and just swapped out.
- bserge 5y ago
  With fast charge being common these days, why not just carry a portable battery (or two or three, for less than $99)?
- dbbk 5y ago
  There are lots of battery cases on Amazon. They work great.
  - frakkingcylons 5y ago
    I edited my post to be more explicit, but the batteries in the CoBattery case were swappable. That was the killer feature for me.
- stordoff 5y ago
  I've got an Apple Smart Battery Case[1] for my iPhone 11, which is a similar idea, and the extra battery life can definitely be handy. Doing it with a swappable battery is a neat twist though - I haven't seen that done before. [1] I picked up a cheap used one - they're rather expensive at full price (£129). It can charge my iPhone from 10% to 60% though, so it's current capacity roughly matches its design capacity.
neither_color 5y ago
How strong is the magnet, can you pick the phone up by the battery pack or vice versa? Seems less practical than the battery case that doubles as protection for the device and charges faster too.
- mholm 5y ago
  While I can't speak for this one in particular, all the magsafe accessories I've used so far have been more than enough to support the entire weight of the phone, without any wiggle. I'd much rather have this than a battery case, as this is much more convenient to just slap on and slap off, rather than removing/applying a full phone case. More storage efficient too.
  - xattt 5y ago
    What is the physics textbook math behind this? Is there a certain magnetic force needed to induce a coefficient of static friction that prevents wiggle?
    - mholm 5y ago
      For the accessories I've used, it's been the texture of the materials providing most of the static friction, leather/rubber both have high static friction combined with the amount of force pressing them to the back glass. I have a magsafe car mount, and I'm pretty sure I could get in a car accident without it moving, but with a fairly simple twist I can pull it right off.
  - passivate 5y ago
    How often do you need to remove a phone case? For people who purchase one, I don't think its all that common to do so.
skohan 5y ago
How efficient is wireless charging? As a pandemic hobby, I've gotten into building batteries to power light vehicles, and it's an interesting problem to try to fit the maximum capacity you can into as small a package as possible. Efficiency is a huge concern here, as the more energy you lose to, for instance, a voltage conversion, the bigger your battery has to be to meet the required use-case. So this kind of wireless charging is neat, but if there's a significant efficiency difference to just plugging in a power bank, it would be hard to feel like it's worth it. This might be cool for something like a camera, where hot-swapping batteries faster has a major benefit to the use-case.
- sithadmin 5y ago
  Not especially efficient in practice. In general you can expect in the ballpark of a 50% loss in efficiency with consumer electronics. This is mostly due to design/usability compromises though. In theory you can get 90+% efficiency with ideal conditions.
  - arcticbull 5y ago
    It's just a transformer right so under ideal-ideal circumstances you could get 99% or more. Large power transformers are ~99.7% IIRC.
    - etrautmann 5y ago
      There's no possibility of a core here though, which makes it inductive coupling, not a transformer, and reduces the coupling efficiency.
      - arcticbull 5y ago
        Indeed, thank you for the clarification! Electrical engineering is more of a hobby for me, so I'm always eager to learn more.
- a_conservative 5y ago
  Can you tell us more about what kind of vehicles you are building? Are they big enough for people? I'd love to hear more about your experiences around this!
minimaxir 5y ago
I recommend reading the support document because it is weird: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212174 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212174 - 15W charging when plugged into the battery (effectively serving as a MagSafe charger), but 5W when not (effectively the same as a normal 3rd-party battery) - It may only charge to 90% (with the workaround being to put the iPhone into Low Power mode?) - If plugged into the phone, it can charge the battery (is this the first use of "reverse charging" for the iPhone?) It also requires iOS 14.7 which isn't out yet; the RC was released today so will likely be out next week.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- fuzzy2 5y ago
  > is this the first use of "reverse charging"? It's not, the Pencil does it, too. Various other accessories are also bus-powered.
  - minimaxir 5y ago
    Edited to clarify for the iPhone (since the Pencil is a fair counterexample for iPad)
    - fuzzy2 5y ago
      You can also charge the pencil from an iPhone. It's just another Lightning device.
      - minimaxir 5y ago
        The second generation Pencil is inductive only. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211019 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211019
      - nofunsir 5y ago
        I prefer to charge my pencil via my lightning earpods.
sib 5y ago
Here are the FCC materials (but the data related to capacity is in the confidential sections): https://fccid.io/BCGA2384 https://fccid.io/BCGA2384
deregulateMed 5y ago
Just commenting on the copywriting since Apple is a master of marketing (according to my MBA program). There are 4 messages about being able to buy this on credit/monthly payments. Veblen goods don't target the wealthy, but they need to appear to. I feel like this has mixed messaging, or maybe this is a necessity to make the sale.
- dbbk 5y ago
  It's $99, I wouldn't say it's for 'the wealthy'.
  - steve_adams_86 5y ago
    Considering it's only accessory to a $1000+ device, it seems like it isn't really for poor people, either.
    - scarface74 5y ago
      1. Hardly anyone in the US pays for their phone outright. It’s a combination of interest free payment plans and subsidies/rebates 2. The iPhone 12 mini is $699 3. Half of the US is not “rich”. But somehow they manage to have iPhones.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - stalfosknight 5y ago
      The iPhone 12 starts at $699.
      - steve_adams_86 5y ago
        My mistake, I’m thinking in CAD and the starting price is $979. To me that still seems like a lot of money.
      - 5y ago
wellthisisgreat 5y ago
Does the 15W magsafe powerbank even exist?
inlikealamb 5y ago
As a dumbass that always forgets to charge their phone until I need to go somewhere, I could imagine using this (as long as I can remember to keep it on the charging pad).
verytrivial 5y ago
Is there some Apple induction charging magic which removed the something like 40% wasted energy that occurs when using fields instead of conductors to charge? If anything this would surely matter more if you're carrying around the charge instead of parking it on your night-stand.
progbits 5y ago
Am I just unable to find it or are the dimensions not listed on the page (or the listed support page)? The pictures also avoid any side-on view, giving just a very shallow angle picture with lighting that makes it hard to estimate. How thick is it? And how heavy?
- layer8 5y ago
  They seem to withhold that information on purpose, so I guess the pack is not very slim. We’ll know in a week or so.
egypturnash 5y ago
I like how it comes in a bunch of colors that don't match the range of colors the phones come from, nice job guys.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  I like how it comes in a bunch of colors I'm not seeing any color options besides white. What are you seeing?
  - Ashanmaril 5y ago
    I'm guessing they scrolled down to the generic MagSafe promo above the product info section and thought the MagSafe wallets (that have been out for a while) were battery packs
    - egypturnash 5y ago
      Ah, yeah, that's what I did. I haven't had any reason to ditch my 6s so I don't keep up with this stuff too much.
      - Ashanmaril 5y ago
        To be fair, it's not a great design choice to shove an ad in between the purchase section and the product/compatibility info
thefounder 5y ago
>> Just plug a Lightning cable into the MagSafe Battery Pack 2021 still not usb-c...greed has no limit
- nexuist 5y ago
  Why would the battery pack use USB C if the actual phone doesn't?
  - umisays 5y ago
    Why should they sell USB-C power adapters then? Shouldn't they be lightning adapters?
    - Jcowell 5y ago
      I’m not understanding the question here. USB-C is used on products where lightning won’t be able to do the job.
- Tagbert 5y ago
  No greed here. Apple is making this so the argument that they get money for lightning cables is irrelevant. The phone uses lightning. It would be weird if the battery pack used something else. You can make an argument that Apple should switch their phones to USB-C but they seem to be heading toward a cable-less solution instead. If they were to change to USB-C tons of people would scream that Apple were doing this just to sell new cables. That is exactly what happened when they switched from the 30-pin connector to lightning. I would like to see them switch on the Pro model phones, at least. That market is likely more ready to switch.
  - arihant 5y ago
    Apple makes good money from MFi program, of which lightning connector seems to be a vital cog. The day they shift to USB-C manufacturers will stop paying them for lightning accessories.
  - EarthLaunch 5y ago
Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
I wish Motorola wouldn't cancel their superb Z line of phones. MotoMods were a great idea, which worked especially well for batteries. I never had to worry to run out of power for the last 4 years I use these devices.
eugeniub 5y ago
After looking at the specs, I'm really disappointed. MagSafe by itself already heats up my iPhone 12 mini tremendously compared to a normal wired charger, which can charge up to 20W instead of just 15W (or 12W for my mini). But this battery doesn't do even 12W/15W when not plugged in, it only goes to 5W, the same as the Anker battery, which is less than half the price. Also it only comes in white.
- samatman 5y ago
  I don't see any compelling reason to choose this over the Anker battery either, but some people don't even consider off-brand accessories and Apple is happy to charge them double or triple for the privilege. I think 5W is a deliberate design choice, though, for exactly the reason you mention: heat. You can slap the battery on and stick it back in your jeans without roasting your thigh, and the point is to keep your phone working, not to make the battery meter go back to green ASAP.
ValentineC 5y ago
Looks like Apple is once again doubling down on Lightning, because the battery pack gets charged with one, instead of with micro-USB or USB-C. I like how it also works as a MagSafe charging pad, but it's a shame that they didn't use a single bidirectional USB-C port, and have a way to allow other devices to be charged from that port.
- cududa 5y ago
  I REALLY want Apple to switch to USB-C, but having one cable for a battery pack stuck to your phone and one for the phone itself would be obnoxious
- tomjen3 5y ago
  I can kinda see how this would make sense in the case, as long as the iPhone has Lightning, you will have to bring that charger anyway. Though this might be a good way to ease people in by selling two versions.
jonplackett 5y ago
Has anyone else found that battery packs with wireless charging kinda suck? I lost my non-wireless one so just bought a new 10,000 Anker one with wireless charging. I was expecting that to keep my phone going for a few days easily but it was dead after 1 and a half wireless charges. Is this just the inefficiency of wireless or am I doing something wrong? Is this what MagSafe is trying to make better? Better alignment = less wasted energy?
- techrat 5y ago
  Inefficiency at several steps. Battery voltage to charging voltage is a step. Charging method (wireless) adds a step. Input voltage to battery voltage is a step. Plus you have the extra circuitry of Wireless to power. Nothing runs straight off 5v of USB or 3.7v (nominal) of LiPo. There's little converters for everything, every step of the way. This is why you'll never see a 3.7-4.2v battery pack delivering 1:1 charge to a smartphone over 5v USB. I did the math a long time ago and the capacity conversion is around 74% to 84%. So if you have a 10,000 mAh battery, expect it to charge about ~8000mAh worth of your phone. For wireless, it's even worse.
  - jonplackett 5y ago
    Thanks! I should get at about 2.16 charges then (based on 8000) got only 1.5 which seems pretty dire! I’ll take a cable next time! The other thing I found was I couldn’t use the phone while changing. That seems to be a weird oversight for wireless/MagSafe charging in general.
    - techrat 5y ago
      That puts it pretty damn close to the 50-55% wireless efficiency figure I keep seeing thrown around. Yay! Wireless!
exabrial 5y ago
I'll move to Apple and iPhone as soon as they have USB-c. This lightning connector nonsense is getting ridiculous.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- wil421 5y ago
  If I can help from destroying another iPhone I will wait it out until USB C. I was pissed last year when I had to buy another iPhone with a lightening port.
- otterley 5y ago
  Why would they move quickly from a cable connector that has a massive installed base and that works well for most people (or, as you put it, "nonsense") to one that doesn't have nearly as much market penetration?
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    In the past, Apple was happy to make forwardlooking decisions regardless of today's market penetration (remember the floppy to CD uproar? And the removal of DVD drives?). It's kinda humorous that today my MacBook Pro's plug-in accessories (dongles, chargers, headphones, etc) work better with my Android phone than they would if I was totally bought into Apple's ecosystem
    - Jcowell 5y ago
      If you were to buy an iPhone today you would get a USB-C cable to Lightning. Your iPad would be USB-C. The only independent device not pluggable would be the Apple Watch which has no purpose being plugged in anyway I believe.
      - Rebelgecko 5y ago
        Cool, I didn't know that. Does the USB-lightning cable work for plugging in things like M+K and video out?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
umisays 5y ago
Giraffes are great
- jackson1442 5y ago
  Hm? The battery pack charges with Lightning, which is a point of contention in your fellow top-level comments.
mvanaltvorst 5y ago
As a sidenote, does anyone know whether something like an "optimal" Qi charging wattage exist, as in highest efficiency? Power lost due to resistance increases with current squared. Therefore I would imagine charging <5W would be best for high efficiency. However, Qi is based on quickly alternating magnetic fields. Does the circuitry involved make Qi charging inefficient once the power gets low enough? Or is Qi charging at 0.1W preferable over 2.5W?
i1856511 5y ago
I'm confused about this: You can also charge both if you attach your MagSafe Battery Pack to your iPhone, then plug your iPhone into a power source. You might want to charge this way if you need to connect your iPhone to another device while charging, like if you're using wired CarPlay or transferring photos to a Mac. Does this imply... if you MagSafe this to your phone, and then connect the Lightning cable to the Battery Pack to charge, the Lightning port on the iPhone cannot be used for CarPlay? Does it get turned off?
- vlozko 5y ago
  It means if you’re using CarPlay, you can charge the phone and the MagSafe. It’s trying to say that it’s safe to charge your phone while plugging the cable in for purposes other than explicit charging.
arihant 5y ago
So as I understand it, I'd have to choose between this and MagSafe charging setup I've invested in? This does not seem to have magnets/coil on the outside so I can't keep my phone with this attached on the MagSafe charger it seems. I wonder if I detach them can I keep the isolated pack on MagSafe to charge? This is more confusing than it needs to be. At least there is reverse charging so I don't have to choose between charging and CarPlay.
- Tagbert 5y ago
  This is not a general purpose charging system. This is a mobile power pack to extend your phone’s battery life while you are on the go. It’s similar to carrying a power pack like the Ankers around but is slimmer and attaches with magnets.
  - arihant 5y ago
    Yes, but since there is no way to charge this thing in a setup with only MagSafe chargers, I’ll have to bring wire back in my life. The phone will only charge this when plugged in, this will only charge the phone when plugged in, and it can only be independently charged when plugged in. There should have been a charging coil at the back so the power bank itself could be charged via MagSafe charger.
Unklejoe 5y ago
I would have rather had a new Smart Battery Case with a MagSafe coil on the outside.
manifoldgeo 5y ago
Would anyone else just be fine with a thick phone that had a better internal battery? I would prefer that. To me, this battery pack is a symptom of a systemic design flaw. Consumers and companies are obsessed with thinner, sleeker devices, but the costs are obvious-- slimmer phone, smaller battery. When the Xbox 360 came out, it was substantially smaller than the original Xbox. But, most of the space savings came from moving a huge chunk of the power supply unit into the power cable! So now you had a massive cable and a smaller device, so it was really just for show. The overall system itself was still the same damn size! Another consequence of thinner phones is less protection. Drop your phone once, and the chances you shatter the screen are high. There's an entire protection economy around phones-- everything from insurance to cases to glass screen protectors. All of these expenses and "opportunities" could be circumvented if they just made a fat, ugly, functional phone.
- notimetorelax 5y ago
  I got iPhone 12 Pro Max a few months back, and I must say I don’t see a need for another battery pack. It easily lasts me a whole day of heavy usage.
- lowercased 5y ago
  agreed 100%. but the move to thinness keeps a 'wow' factor going every year or so.
- ot 5y ago
  For me it’s more of a weight issue. Current iPhones are already heavy enough to be slightly uncomfortable when scrolling for long times, I definitely wouldn’t want anything heavier.
- andrepew 5y ago
  I agree, I'd rather just have a bigger phone with a better battery. Although I don't think bigger inherently means more durable/more protection. Bigger means when dropped, whatever part of the chassis hits the ground first has a lot more energy to absorb.
- _ph_ 5y ago
asciimov 5y ago
This sure is a garish looking device. They also are trying to be clever and not show how thick it is.
historyloop 5y ago
A Canyon 5000 mAh is of comparable size and costs $12. It's not MagSafe, but frankly the cable is not a problem at all. I'm an iPhone/Mac user, but this thing costs $99 and they didn't even bother to write out the damn capacity on the page (reportedly less than 4000 mAh). I like Apple, but their accessories are truly reserved for people with either too much money, or too little intelligence.
- Ayesh 5y ago
  I have a $25-ish Xiaomi 20,000 mAh power bank. It is thicc and can crush your toes if you drop, but it's reliable to hold power enough for a week for my phone, has two outputs supporting fast charging, and has microUSB _and_ USB-c inputs.
  - historyloop 5y ago
    For the money this 3000 mAh Apple bank costs, you can have 4 of these lasting you literally a whole month. Kinda hilarious.
beezischillin 5y ago
I must say, I’m not a fan of MagSafe accessories that attach to your phone especially since easy pocketaility seems important for an external battery.
- Tagbert 5y ago
  This looks pretty slim. Definitely takes up less space than one the larger power packs that connect with a cable.
physicsguy 5y ago
It's kinda cool? But I mean, why not just buy an Anker 20k mAh 20W battery pack that you can use with every other USB device... at less than half the price: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Essential-External-Compatible/dp/B08LG2X98F/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=anker+20w+power+bank&qid=1626248189&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Essential-External-...

168 points by kondro 5y ago

bitcoinGod88 5y ago

it doesn't say how much battery life it adds...

kylemh 5y ago
very critical miss
mholm 5y ago
Likely varies too much to give a fair estimate. I'd guess this is somewhere around 3000-4000mah, then minus the wireless charging inefficiency? So it might give the 12 Mini a full day, but only half a day for the 12 Pro Max. EDIT: Apparently just under 1500mah, so likely half a day for the mini, and a few hours for the max? I'd be curious too.

danso 5y ago

Am I missing the tech specs section? I see that it can charge 15W wireless when plugged in, but how big is the battery? For comparison's sake, here's the Anker 5,000 mAH magsafe battery pack for just $45. However, it doesn't appear to charge above 5W even if plugged in. I bought one during Prime Day but haven't had much need to use it. It definitely looks beefier than the Apple version. https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Magnetic-Wireless-Portable-PowerCore/dp/B08TW7BRTJ https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Magnetic-Wireless-Portable-Powe... OTOH, at least it comes with a USB-C cable! edit: the Anker pack has a standard USB-C port, which you can charge directly from far more efficiently. The Apple charger appears to charge via lightning port...I'm assuming there's no way to directly wire charge your phone from it, nor power any other non-magsafe device

kondro 5y ago
I can’t find the source right now but I believe it’s around 12Wh.
- vernie 5y ago
  It's visible in one of the photos (11.13Wh)
ni-hil 5y ago
1460 mAh https://imgur.com/1khiiEj https://imgur.com/1khiiEj
- cbsmith 5y ago
  Damn, talk about reading the fine print.
- Kirby64 5y ago
  To note, that it's 7.62V (i.e., 2S), so it's equivalent to most ~3000mAh packs. Still not great for the money, but not as bad as it sounds.
  - skavi 5y ago
    Why did the mobile industry decide to use mAh instead of Wh.
    - stevenpetryk 5y ago
      I think that's just the battery industry. Whenever I shop for batteries for robotics or RC vehicles they're in mAh too.
      - foobarian 5y ago
        Maybe it's slightly more convenient because the same value applies no matter how many cells are in the battery pack. So it helps distinguish the packs by electrical current output capacity which we can't get from a power value because power combines two different measures.
        notatoad 5y ago
        mAh doesn't change as you add cells to the battery pack? i'm pretty sure that's not correct.
        5y ago
gimmeThaBeet 5y ago
Yeah, kinda bizarre that they don't specify, that's like...the spec. Sites have said it's 11.13Wh (~comparable to a iPhone 12), but then even at that, how efficient is the Qi charger itself? How much of that capacity do you actually get?
- arcticbull 5y ago
  Qi charger efficiency is roughly 50% right, I suspect that should be a good approximation.
  - addaon 5y ago
    This seems a bit low, do you have a source? While I haven't worked with the Qi standard directly, I've used 200 kHz inductive power transfer in other contexts, and efficiency numbers in my experience are in the 75% - 85% range for well-aligned coils. The total efficiency will be a bit less than this (moving charge in and out of a battery is pretty good, but not 100%), but I'd be surprised to see 5W transfer with a total efficiency much less than 70%.
    - arcticbull 5y ago
      This article is a bit sensationalist, but they claim to have gotten mid-60s efficiency [1]. I think I misread them initially when they said "47% more power" - I took that to mean 47% efficiency, but on re-reading it's closer to 66%. My bad! [1] https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-48afdde70ed9 https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-...
Tagbert 5y ago
Yes, this new Apple pack holds less charge than that Anker one, but it is much slimmer and attaches with magnets. It’s meant to give you some extra battery life in a sleek form that fits on your pocket. If you are going to be away from a power source for days, the Anker might be a better choice but if your just looking for some extra juice on a long day of use and don’t want something bulky to carry around, this would fit the bill.
- laurent92 5y ago
  Thank you for the explanation. I’m already frustrated that the iPhone doesn’t include enough battery for a full day of work (when the iPhone 7 could last several days initially), I find it amusing that Apple proposes an additional “short-term” battery.
  - billyhoffman 5y ago
    Apple has had smart battery cases since the iPhone 6/7 era. I think it depends on usage. In my home city, my phone goes all day no problem. On business trips to NYC with all the tall buildings and taking more ride shares than normal, the battery gets hammered and dies. I had a smart battery case for years that I just used on trips. The simplicity of Apple's design was (to me) worth the premium. (no extra wire from battery to phone. no turning the battery case on and off, one wire to charge both, etc)
  - Jcowell 5y ago
    My iPhone 11 certainly could last an entire day of use when it first came out (and it released with the fats charger so it was an insane jump)
- Someone1234 5y ago
  The linked Anker one also attaches via magnets.
- layer8 5y ago
  > it is much slimmer Apple neither states the dimensions nor provides a picture with a 90° side view, so I’m wondering how slim it really is.

frakkingcylons 5y ago

I hope this works well. I backed the Kickstarter for an external swappable iPhone battery case (CoBattery [0]) and I loved the thing. It was bulky and looked weird, but it was so nice having such long battery life. They shut down a while ago but it was great while it lasted. [0]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cobattery/cobattery-never-plug-in-your-iphone-again https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cobattery/cobattery-nev...

turtlebits 5y ago
Same- the Cobattery was great (except for the bulk). I actually never wall-charged my phone and just had several battery packs (relatively inexpensive Samsung packs) that I kept topped off and just swapped out.
bserge 5y ago
With fast charge being common these days, why not just carry a portable battery (or two or three, for less than $99)?
dbbk 5y ago
There are lots of battery cases on Amazon. They work great.
- frakkingcylons 5y ago
  I edited my post to be more explicit, but the batteries in the CoBattery case were swappable. That was the killer feature for me.
stordoff 5y ago
I've got an Apple Smart Battery Case[1] for my iPhone 11, which is a similar idea, and the extra battery life can definitely be handy. Doing it with a swappable battery is a neat twist though - I haven't seen that done before. [1] I picked up a cheap used one - they're rather expensive at full price (£129). It can charge my iPhone from 10% to 60% though, so it's current capacity roughly matches its design capacity.

neither_color 5y ago

How strong is the magnet, can you pick the phone up by the battery pack or vice versa? Seems less practical than the battery case that doubles as protection for the device and charges faster too.

mholm 5y ago
While I can't speak for this one in particular, all the magsafe accessories I've used so far have been more than enough to support the entire weight of the phone, without any wiggle. I'd much rather have this than a battery case, as this is much more convenient to just slap on and slap off, rather than removing/applying a full phone case. More storage efficient too.
- xattt 5y ago
  What is the physics textbook math behind this? Is there a certain magnetic force needed to induce a coefficient of static friction that prevents wiggle?
  - mholm 5y ago
    For the accessories I've used, it's been the texture of the materials providing most of the static friction, leather/rubber both have high static friction combined with the amount of force pressing them to the back glass. I have a magsafe car mount, and I'm pretty sure I could get in a car accident without it moving, but with a fairly simple twist I can pull it right off.
- passivate 5y ago
  How often do you need to remove a phone case? For people who purchase one, I don't think its all that common to do so.

skohan 5y ago

How efficient is wireless charging? As a pandemic hobby, I've gotten into building batteries to power light vehicles, and it's an interesting problem to try to fit the maximum capacity you can into as small a package as possible. Efficiency is a huge concern here, as the more energy you lose to, for instance, a voltage conversion, the bigger your battery has to be to meet the required use-case. So this kind of wireless charging is neat, but if there's a significant efficiency difference to just plugging in a power bank, it would be hard to feel like it's worth it. This might be cool for something like a camera, where hot-swapping batteries faster has a major benefit to the use-case.

sithadmin 5y ago
Not especially efficient in practice. In general you can expect in the ballpark of a 50% loss in efficiency with consumer electronics. This is mostly due to design/usability compromises though. In theory you can get 90+% efficiency with ideal conditions.
- arcticbull 5y ago
  It's just a transformer right so under ideal-ideal circumstances you could get 99% or more. Large power transformers are ~99.7% IIRC.
  - etrautmann 5y ago
    There's no possibility of a core here though, which makes it inductive coupling, not a transformer, and reduces the coupling efficiency.
    - arcticbull 5y ago
      Indeed, thank you for the clarification! Electrical engineering is more of a hobby for me, so I'm always eager to learn more.
a_conservative 5y ago
Can you tell us more about what kind of vehicles you are building? Are they big enough for people? I'd love to hear more about your experiences around this!

minimaxir 5y ago

I recommend reading the support document because it is weird: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212174 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212174 - 15W charging when plugged into the battery (effectively serving as a MagSafe charger), but 5W when not (effectively the same as a normal 3rd-party battery) - It may only charge to 90% (with the workaround being to put the iPhone into Low Power mode?) - If plugged into the phone, it can charge the battery (is this the first use of "reverse charging" for the iPhone?) It also requires iOS 14.7 which isn't out yet; the RC was released today so will likely be out next week.

deleted 5y ago
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fuzzy2 5y ago
> is this the first use of "reverse charging"? It's not, the Pencil does it, too. Various other accessories are also bus-powered.
- minimaxir 5y ago
  Edited to clarify for the iPhone (since the Pencil is a fair counterexample for iPad)
  - fuzzy2 5y ago
    You can also charge the pencil from an iPhone. It's just another Lightning device.
    - minimaxir 5y ago
      The second generation Pencil is inductive only. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211019 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211019
    - nofunsir 5y ago
      I prefer to charge my pencil via my lightning earpods.

sib 5y ago

Here are the FCC materials (but the data related to capacity is in the confidential sections): https://fccid.io/BCGA2384 https://fccid.io/BCGA2384

deregulateMed 5y ago

Just commenting on the copywriting since Apple is a master of marketing (according to my MBA program). There are 4 messages about being able to buy this on credit/monthly payments. Veblen goods don't target the wealthy, but they need to appear to. I feel like this has mixed messaging, or maybe this is a necessity to make the sale.

dbbk 5y ago
It's $99, I wouldn't say it's for 'the wealthy'.
- steve_adams_86 5y ago
  Considering it's only accessory to a $1000+ device, it seems like it isn't really for poor people, either.
  - scarface74 5y ago
    1. Hardly anyone in the US pays for their phone outright. It’s a combination of interest free payment plans and subsidies/rebates 2. The iPhone 12 mini is $699 3. Half of the US is not “rich”. But somehow they manage to have iPhones.
    - deleted 5y ago
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  - stalfosknight 5y ago
    The iPhone 12 starts at $699.
    - steve_adams_86 5y ago
      My mistake, I’m thinking in CAD and the starting price is $979. To me that still seems like a lot of money.
    - 5y ago

wellthisisgreat 5y ago

Does the 15W magsafe powerbank even exist?

inlikealamb 5y ago

As a dumbass that always forgets to charge their phone until I need to go somewhere, I could imagine using this (as long as I can remember to keep it on the charging pad).

verytrivial 5y ago

Is there some Apple induction charging magic which removed the something like 40% wasted energy that occurs when using fields instead of conductors to charge? If anything this would surely matter more if you're carrying around the charge instead of parking it on your night-stand.

progbits 5y ago

Am I just unable to find it or are the dimensions not listed on the page (or the listed support page)? The pictures also avoid any side-on view, giving just a very shallow angle picture with lighting that makes it hard to estimate. How thick is it? And how heavy?

layer8 5y ago
They seem to withhold that information on purpose, so I guess the pack is not very slim. We’ll know in a week or so.

egypturnash 5y ago

I like how it comes in a bunch of colors that don't match the range of colors the phones come from, nice job guys.

JohnBooty 5y ago
I like how it comes in a bunch of colors I'm not seeing any color options besides white. What are you seeing?
- Ashanmaril 5y ago
  I'm guessing they scrolled down to the generic MagSafe promo above the product info section and thought the MagSafe wallets (that have been out for a while) were battery packs
  - egypturnash 5y ago
    Ah, yeah, that's what I did. I haven't had any reason to ditch my 6s so I don't keep up with this stuff too much.
    - Ashanmaril 5y ago
      To be fair, it's not a great design choice to shove an ad in between the purchase section and the product/compatibility info

thefounder 5y ago

>> Just plug a Lightning cable into the MagSafe Battery Pack 2021 still not usb-c...greed has no limit

nexuist 5y ago
Why would the battery pack use USB C if the actual phone doesn't?
- umisays 5y ago
  Why should they sell USB-C power adapters then? Shouldn't they be lightning adapters?
  - Jcowell 5y ago
    I’m not understanding the question here. USB-C is used on products where lightning won’t be able to do the job.
Tagbert 5y ago
No greed here. Apple is making this so the argument that they get money for lightning cables is irrelevant. The phone uses lightning. It would be weird if the battery pack used something else. You can make an argument that Apple should switch their phones to USB-C but they seem to be heading toward a cable-less solution instead. If they were to change to USB-C tons of people would scream that Apple were doing this just to sell new cables. That is exactly what happened when they switched from the 30-pin connector to lightning. I would like to see them switch on the Pro model phones, at least. That market is likely more ready to switch.
- arihant 5y ago
  Apple makes good money from MFi program, of which lightning connector seems to be a vital cog. The day they shift to USB-C manufacturers will stop paying them for lightning accessories.
- EarthLaunch 5y ago

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago

I wish Motorola wouldn't cancel their superb Z line of phones. MotoMods were a great idea, which worked especially well for batteries. I never had to worry to run out of power for the last 4 years I use these devices.

eugeniub 5y ago

After looking at the specs, I'm really disappointed. MagSafe by itself already heats up my iPhone 12 mini tremendously compared to a normal wired charger, which can charge up to 20W instead of just 15W (or 12W for my mini). But this battery doesn't do even 12W/15W when not plugged in, it only goes to 5W, the same as the Anker battery, which is less than half the price. Also it only comes in white.

samatman 5y ago
I don't see any compelling reason to choose this over the Anker battery either, but some people don't even consider off-brand accessories and Apple is happy to charge them double or triple for the privilege. I think 5W is a deliberate design choice, though, for exactly the reason you mention: heat. You can slap the battery on and stick it back in your jeans without roasting your thigh, and the point is to keep your phone working, not to make the battery meter go back to green ASAP.

ValentineC 5y ago

Looks like Apple is once again doubling down on Lightning, because the battery pack gets charged with one, instead of with micro-USB or USB-C. I like how it also works as a MagSafe charging pad, but it's a shame that they didn't use a single bidirectional USB-C port, and have a way to allow other devices to be charged from that port.

cududa 5y ago
I REALLY want Apple to switch to USB-C, but having one cable for a battery pack stuck to your phone and one for the phone itself would be obnoxious
tomjen3 5y ago
I can kinda see how this would make sense in the case, as long as the iPhone has Lightning, you will have to bring that charger anyway. Though this might be a good way to ease people in by selling two versions.

jonplackett 5y ago

Has anyone else found that battery packs with wireless charging kinda suck? I lost my non-wireless one so just bought a new 10,000 Anker one with wireless charging. I was expecting that to keep my phone going for a few days easily but it was dead after 1 and a half wireless charges. Is this just the inefficiency of wireless or am I doing something wrong? Is this what MagSafe is trying to make better? Better alignment = less wasted energy?

techrat 5y ago
Inefficiency at several steps. Battery voltage to charging voltage is a step. Charging method (wireless) adds a step. Input voltage to battery voltage is a step. Plus you have the extra circuitry of Wireless to power. Nothing runs straight off 5v of USB or 3.7v (nominal) of LiPo. There's little converters for everything, every step of the way. This is why you'll never see a 3.7-4.2v battery pack delivering 1:1 charge to a smartphone over 5v USB. I did the math a long time ago and the capacity conversion is around 74% to 84%. So if you have a 10,000 mAh battery, expect it to charge about ~8000mAh worth of your phone. For wireless, it's even worse.
- jonplackett 5y ago
  Thanks! I should get at about 2.16 charges then (based on 8000) got only 1.5 which seems pretty dire! I’ll take a cable next time! The other thing I found was I couldn’t use the phone while changing. That seems to be a weird oversight for wireless/MagSafe charging in general.
  - techrat 5y ago
    That puts it pretty damn close to the 50-55% wireless efficiency figure I keep seeing thrown around. Yay! Wireless!

exabrial 5y ago

I'll move to Apple and iPhone as soon as they have USB-c. This lightning connector nonsense is getting ridiculous.

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wil421 5y ago
If I can help from destroying another iPhone I will wait it out until USB C. I was pissed last year when I had to buy another iPhone with a lightening port.
otterley 5y ago
Why would they move quickly from a cable connector that has a massive installed base and that works well for most people (or, as you put it, "nonsense") to one that doesn't have nearly as much market penetration?
- Rebelgecko 5y ago
  In the past, Apple was happy to make forwardlooking decisions regardless of today's market penetration (remember the floppy to CD uproar? And the removal of DVD drives?). It's kinda humorous that today my MacBook Pro's plug-in accessories (dongles, chargers, headphones, etc) work better with my Android phone than they would if I was totally bought into Apple's ecosystem
  - Jcowell 5y ago
    If you were to buy an iPhone today you would get a USB-C cable to Lightning. Your iPad would be USB-C. The only independent device not pluggable would be the Apple Watch which has no purpose being plugged in anyway I believe.
    - Rebelgecko 5y ago
      Cool, I didn't know that. Does the USB-lightning cable work for plugging in things like M+K and video out?

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umisays 5y ago

Giraffes are great

jackson1442 5y ago
Hm? The battery pack charges with Lightning, which is a point of contention in your fellow top-level comments.

mvanaltvorst 5y ago

As a sidenote, does anyone know whether something like an "optimal" Qi charging wattage exist, as in highest efficiency? Power lost due to resistance increases with current squared. Therefore I would imagine charging <5W would be best for high efficiency. However, Qi is based on quickly alternating magnetic fields. Does the circuitry involved make Qi charging inefficient once the power gets low enough? Or is Qi charging at 0.1W preferable over 2.5W?

i1856511 5y ago

I'm confused about this: You can also charge both if you attach your MagSafe Battery Pack to your iPhone, then plug your iPhone into a power source. You might want to charge this way if you need to connect your iPhone to another device while charging, like if you're using wired CarPlay or transferring photos to a Mac. Does this imply... if you MagSafe this to your phone, and then connect the Lightning cable to the Battery Pack to charge, the Lightning port on the iPhone cannot be used for CarPlay? Does it get turned off?

vlozko 5y ago
It means if you’re using CarPlay, you can charge the phone and the MagSafe. It’s trying to say that it’s safe to charge your phone while plugging the cable in for purposes other than explicit charging.

arihant 5y ago

So as I understand it, I'd have to choose between this and MagSafe charging setup I've invested in? This does not seem to have magnets/coil on the outside so I can't keep my phone with this attached on the MagSafe charger it seems. I wonder if I detach them can I keep the isolated pack on MagSafe to charge? This is more confusing than it needs to be. At least there is reverse charging so I don't have to choose between charging and CarPlay.

Tagbert 5y ago
This is not a general purpose charging system. This is a mobile power pack to extend your phone’s battery life while you are on the go. It’s similar to carrying a power pack like the Ankers around but is slimmer and attaches with magnets.
- arihant 5y ago
  Yes, but since there is no way to charge this thing in a setup with only MagSafe chargers, I’ll have to bring wire back in my life. The phone will only charge this when plugged in, this will only charge the phone when plugged in, and it can only be independently charged when plugged in. There should have been a charging coil at the back so the power bank itself could be charged via MagSafe charger.

Unklejoe 5y ago

I would have rather had a new Smart Battery Case with a MagSafe coil on the outside.

manifoldgeo 5y ago

Would anyone else just be fine with a thick phone that had a better internal battery? I would prefer that. To me, this battery pack is a symptom of a systemic design flaw. Consumers and companies are obsessed with thinner, sleeker devices, but the costs are obvious-- slimmer phone, smaller battery. When the Xbox 360 came out, it was substantially smaller than the original Xbox. But, most of the space savings came from moving a huge chunk of the power supply unit into the power cable! So now you had a massive cable and a smaller device, so it was really just for show. The overall system itself was still the same damn size! Another consequence of thinner phones is less protection. Drop your phone once, and the chances you shatter the screen are high. There's an entire protection economy around phones-- everything from insurance to cases to glass screen protectors. All of these expenses and "opportunities" could be circumvented if they just made a fat, ugly, functional phone.

notimetorelax 5y ago
I got iPhone 12 Pro Max a few months back, and I must say I don’t see a need for another battery pack. It easily lasts me a whole day of heavy usage.
lowercased 5y ago
agreed 100%. but the move to thinness keeps a 'wow' factor going every year or so.
ot 5y ago
For me it’s more of a weight issue. Current iPhones are already heavy enough to be slightly uncomfortable when scrolling for long times, I definitely wouldn’t want anything heavier.
andrepew 5y ago
I agree, I'd rather just have a bigger phone with a better battery. Although I don't think bigger inherently means more durable/more protection. Bigger means when dropped, whatever part of the chassis hits the ground first has a lot more energy to absorb.
_ph_ 5y ago

asciimov 5y ago

This sure is a garish looking device. They also are trying to be clever and not show how thick it is.

historyloop 5y ago

A Canyon 5000 mAh is of comparable size and costs $12. It's not MagSafe, but frankly the cable is not a problem at all. I'm an iPhone/Mac user, but this thing costs $99 and they didn't even bother to write out the damn capacity on the page (reportedly less than 4000 mAh). I like Apple, but their accessories are truly reserved for people with either too much money, or too little intelligence.

Ayesh 5y ago
I have a $25-ish Xiaomi 20,000 mAh power bank. It is thicc and can crush your toes if you drop, but it's reliable to hold power enough for a week for my phone, has two outputs supporting fast charging, and has microUSB _and_ USB-c inputs.
- historyloop 5y ago
  For the money this 3000 mAh Apple bank costs, you can have 4 of these lasting you literally a whole month. Kinda hilarious.

beezischillin 5y ago

I must say, I’m not a fan of MagSafe accessories that attach to your phone especially since easy pocketaility seems important for an external battery.

Tagbert 5y ago
This looks pretty slim. Definitely takes up less space than one the larger power packs that connect with a cable.

physicsguy 5y ago

It's kinda cool? But I mean, why not just buy an Anker 20k mAh 20W battery pack that you can use with every other USB device... at less than half the price: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Essential-External-Compatible/dp/B08LG2X98F/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=anker+20w+power+bank&qid=1626248189&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Essential-External-...