There’s more to MagSafe than just a magnetic cable

Apple’s MagSafe Duo Charger is designed to charge the iPhone, along with AirPods or an Apple Watch.

APPLE HAS AN annoying habit of removing popular or useful features from its products — often just so it can make them a little bit slimmer and more elegant. The headphone socket on the iPhone and the HDMI port on the MacBook Pro have both been ditched in recent years so Apple can shave a couple of millimeters off the size of the device.

But, every now and then, Apple acknowledges that people actually liked these features and will then triumphantly declare that it’s bringing the feature back. There was rapturous applause when Apple announced that the 14–inch and 16–inch MacBook Pro models introduced in 2021 would get their HDMI ports back — and the new MacBooks also saw the return of another popular feature, in the form of the MagSafe charging port.

Another factor in the return of MagSafe was the introduction of the Qi wireless charging technology for smartphones and other mobile devices. Apple likes to do things its own way, so it introduced MagSafe on the iPhone 12 to provide its own superior form of wireless charging. Some AirPod models now include MagSafe charging cases too. And, of course, Apple never misses an opportunity to sell premium accessories, and now makes its own range of MagSafe cases and chargers for iPhones, AirPods and the Apple Watch. This has also given rise to a small industry of MagSafe charging devices from third–party companies such as Belkin and Twelve South, which are often cheaper than Apple’s own accessories, as well as providing a wider range of features — including many “multi–charger” devices that can charge an iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch all at the same time.