Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan!

Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan!
11 min read
24 October 2020

Apple’s MagSafe charger, it’s basically a very compact wireless charger. Except that it uses magnets to attach to the back of the iPhone 12. And while that seems fairly simple. It’s actually part of a huge master plan by Apple, both for the iPhone 12 and future iPhones, and I personally think MagSafe is the absolute most important feature of the iPhone 12, at least in the eyes of Apple.Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan!

Let me talk about how MagSafe works and why it has so much potential. By far, the biggest issue with wireless chargers is that sometimes, if you don’t get the placement perfect, it won’t charge. And if you don’t notice, you’ll come back to an iPhone that hasn’t charged one bit.Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan! MagSafe is the perfect solution because the magnets in the charger line up perfectly to the magnets inside of the iPhone 12, giving it the most efficient charging possible. This not only gives you a very reliable connection, but it allows the very slim charger to hold on by itself so that you can actually lift up your iPhone and use it while it’s wirelessly charging, which is something you can’t do with any other wireless charger.

Making it even better, MagSafe supports wireless charging up to 15W, twice as fast as before, and while it does support every iPhone since the 8, you’ll be limited to 7.5W, and you’ll be missing the whole point of MagSafe, which is the magnetic connection, so don’t even bother with buying it for an older iPhone.

While this charger is a really cool addition from Apple, I think the even bigger deal is the new MagSafe accessories. The most unique new product is the MagSafe Wallet, which can attach to the back of a completely naked iPhone, using nothing but magnets.Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan! And yes, Apple did add shielding to it so that the magnets don’t mess with your credit cards, so I actually ordered the MagSafe wallet for my wife instead of an actual case, since it should give it some drop protection for the back of the iPhone.

Apple also came out with a lineup of cases which actually have MagSafe magnets built in, which ensure that the magnetic connection between the charger and the iPhone is strong enough to hold on through a case, compared to basic cases which will weaken the magnetic strength between the iPhone and the car mount.

You might be thinking, I’m just gonna wait for a third-party magnetic wireless charger to come out for half the price. Well, you might not know that the MagSafe system built into the iPhone also comes with an NFC chip which checks for official MagSafe accessories, or you can buy rokform magsafe case.

So if you’re not using a MagSafe branded charger, you won’t get the full 15W of charging power, you’ll be limited to 7.5W just like any other wireless charger.Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan! As far as other MagSafe charger options, there’s the MagSafe Duo from Apple which will be coming soon and there’s also the MagSafe 3-in-1 charger from Belkin, and each of those will support 15W charging.

As far as the cases, Otterbox has already announced some new ones for the iPhone 12 that support MagSafe, and currently, it seems like accessory makers don’t have to pay Apple royalties unless it’s a MagSafe charger or anything more than a simple magnet attachment. And getting even deeper, Popsockets will also support MagSafe, offering a much better system for holding onto your iPhone or case compared to using a sticky adhesive that starts to wear off over time.

With MagSafe, you can easily take the popsocket off and use the wireless charger. Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan!So I have a feeling that there are many more accessory possibilities coming in the future. Just off the top of my head, there could be a selfie stick that uses MagSafe, a gimbal for video recording that uses MagSafe, a finger ring attachment with MagSafe, a tripod that holds on using MagSafe, a MagSafe kickstand, a MagSafe belt clip, or a selfie light attachment.

All of those things and much more are possible, and once some of them start getting in the hands of consumers, people are gonna go crazy for the iPhone 12 and future iPhones with MagSafe support. And this finally brings us into the main point of this article. Why MagSafe is Apple’s Master Plan.

Apple got rid of the power adapter in the box, and they said it’s to save the environment, but what if this is actually part of an elaborate Master Plan to set everyone up and get them ready for a massive change within the next two years?  I’m talking about the rumors of a portless iPhone, and thanks to MagSafe, it’s now possible.

You might think that’s crazy. But due to all of the leaks and rumors we’ve been seeing, it’s clear that Apple is making a portless iPhone within the next two years. And here're the steps they absolutely needed to take to achieve it.

If you’re gonna ditch the charging port on your iPhone, you need a couple of different things. The first is to make a reliable wireless charging solution that supports fast-charging, and that’s MagSafe. But in order to support fast-charging, you also need a power adapter capable of 15W charging. Now there’s a few very sneaky things that Apple did that don’t really make sense until you think about the potential for a portless iPhone coming soon.

Apple chose to include a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box of every single iPhone 12, which is very annoying since many people still have the old 5W charger that uses USB-A instead. This basically forces people into buying Apple’s new 20W USB-C charging brick if they want to use that new cable, and USB-C is actually what MagSafe uses.

What’s very interesting about Apple’s 20W charging adapter is that it’s just slightly upgraded from the 18W adapter that they used to ship with Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro, which is weird because it took them years to upgrade from that old 5W charger, so we have to ask why would they go through the trouble of slightly bumping up that power adapter from 18 watts to 20W?

If you know anything about wireless charging, you’ll know that it’s nowhere near as efficient as regular cable charging. So what if 18W of power on the previous adapter wasn’t enough to supply the full 15w of wireless power through the new MagSafe charger? That totally makes sense because on the back of the charger's box, it says to plug it into a 20W power adapter, which implies that you need a 20w brick to get the full 15W wireless charging.Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan! What’s even more interesting is that they’re shipping this 20w charger not only with the new iPad Air, but also the budget $329 iPad. And it’s also been confirmed that the HomePod mini actually comes with the same 20W charger in the box as well. So it seems like part of Apple’s Master Plan is to load as many people up as possible with that 20W charger, and if they succeed. A lot of people are going to be ready for a completely portless iPhone because that 20W charging brick is perfect for MagSafe charging.

And what’s even more interesting is that a lot of the third-party chargers like ones from Anker and Aukey have recently bumped up their 18W chargers to 20W, almost like they knew that having 20 watts would be very important.

So in the future, when Apple releases the portless iPhone, all they have to do is include the MagSafe charger in the box, and a lot of people will be ready to go with these new 20W power adapters.

But there’s still one more thing they need to solve to make a portless iPhone happen. Data transfer. And I believe that there are two solutions that Apple can come up with, the first is Apple’s U1 chip which is going into every Apple device, and it’ll enable superfast and precise wireless AirDrop transfer speeds between devices.

The second solution is that Apple can build new wireless transfer technology into the charging coil of the portless iPhone which will allow data to wirelessly transfer through the glass on the iPhone 12, into the MagSafe charger, and then into a computer, basically mimicking a wired data connection. So we know that it’s possible for Apple to create a portless iPhone. But why?

Well, there is simply way too much information on that topic to fit into this article. But I’ll give you a little hint. A portless iPhone has the potential to be the first smartphone ever to be water resistant in saltwater.

Apple was recently granted a patent for a new Smart battery case that uses MagSafe to both recharge your iPhone and the case itself by using the MagSafe charger.Why MagSafe for iPhone 12/Pro is Apple's Master Plan! And not only that, but you’ll be able to place AirPods on the case to charge those as well. And even better. What if they release a new AirPods case that literally attaches to the back of your iPhone or battery case and charges using MagSafe. That and every other accessory I mentioned in this article is possible thanks to MagSafe, and I have a feeling that once people see these accessories in action. They’re going to be blown away and intrigued into upgrading to the iPhone 12 or next year’s iPhone, even if they initially planned on keeping their older iPhone for much longer. And that is why MagSafe is Apple’s Master plan. And it doesn’t even stop at awesome accessories. The ultimate end-goal for MagSafe is to make the portless iPhone possible. And if you’re scoffing at the idea of a portless iPhone, I’m willing to bet that Apple is going to drop some huge long-awaited features like ProMotion 120hz and potentially slimming down the notch. And that will be enticing enough to get people to upgrade despite the lack of a charging port. And that right there. Is Apple’s MagSafe Master Plan.

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Den W. 3K
I'm a passionate tech enthusiast who loves diving into the world of software, programming, and tech reviews.
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