Hands-On With Anker’s Portable Magnetic Inductive Charging Battery Pack

I don’t see the appeal of this dingus at all. It’s magnetic, and it works with MagSafe iPhones, but the charger itself doesn’t support MagSafe. It’s just a lousy 5W Qi charger that has a circle of magnets to help it stay in place — charging is going to be very slow compared to actual MagSafe, and even slower compared to using a Lightning cable charger. When I use a portable charger to top off my phone, I want it to work fast. It also seems very inefficient — why would a 5,000 mAh charger only be able to charge an iPhone 12 Mini once? (I also don’t know why MacRumors is promoting this as “MagSafe”. Yes, in the review, they do mention that it’s not MagSafe, but the headline says “MagSafe” and the promotional graphic for the review just say “$40 MagSafe”.)

Let’s hope Apple is nearing completion on the portable MagSafe charger that Gurman said they were working on.

★ Friday, 16 April 2021