The MagSafe Battery Pack attaches magnetically to the back
of one of the iPhone 12 models, with the magnets keeping it aligned to your
iPhone. It's available in a white color, and it
appears to be covered with a silicone coating. Based on images of the MagSafe
Battery Pack, the accessory has an 11.13Wh battery, which will offer a partial
charge for Apple's iPhones. For comparison, the iPhone 12 has a 10.78Wh
battery, but Qi charging is inefficient, resulting in power loss.
Apple has apparently been working on the MagSafe Battery
Pack for some time. Unlike the battery cases meant for older iPhone models that
had a Lightning connector for charging, the new battery pack carries magnets
that are aligned to fit with iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and
iPhone 12 Pro Max to offer wireless charging while on-the-go.
Normally, the MagSafe Battery Pack is capable of providing
up to 5W of power to your iPhone 12 model. Apple, however, recommends using a
power adapter higher than a 20W one to get faster charging of up to 15W.
It is important to point out here that the MagSafe Battery
Pack is not bundled with a power adapter and a Lightning cable. This simply
means that you need to spend more on those; you can also use the ones you
already have at your home.
The MagSafe Battery Pack will show an amber status light
when it is charging. But once it's fully charged, the battery pack will briefly
show a green status light. When attached to your iPhone, the MagSafe Battery
Pack will also show its battery level and charging status from the Lock screen.
Additionally, you can see the charging status in Today View or the Home Screen by adding the Batteries widget. Your iPhone, however, needs to run on at least iOS 14.7 (that was not available at the time of filing this story) for showing the charging status virtually on the screen.
Apple has not yet provided any details on how much
additional battery life you would get from the MagSafe Battery Pack. But
nonetheless, one of the images of the battery pack available on the Apple site
shows that it has a 1,460mAh battery. This is enough to give plenty of extra
usage hours on iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12.
In addition to the iPhone 12 models, the MagSafe Battery
Pack may be able to charge accessories including AirPods if it has the same
underlying technology that Apple has provided on its MagSafe wireless charger.
The company has not provided any such details through its public channels,
though.
The MagSafe Battery Pack is priced at $99 and will begin
delivering to customers on July 19.