When Apple announced the iPhone 12 series would include something called MagSafe, I was excited to say the least. MagSafe is a trademark they used for power connections on previous MacBook models and was now making a comeback but this time for iPhone. Apple has had a fascination (as do I) with magnetism and how it can be used in products to enhance adsorption between products and accessories and this version of MagSafe is no exception to that enhancement. With MagSafe, now your wireless charger aligns perfectly to the phone so you know it will be a quality connection, wasting as little in the transfer as possible. The MagSafe ecosystem includes the chargers, cases, mounts, and more. Having spent a lot of money on the iPhone 12 Pro, I decided that an Apple clear case with MagSafe and Apple charger “puck” were the most I planned on spending on Apple official accessories and I would wait and see what third parties would produce. I knew I really wanted to make MagSafe a staple in how I interact with my new phone. I started searching for MagSafe on Amazon and initially all you could find were the items that launched with the phones which were prohibitively expensive in my eyes. Eventually many things started filling that search including but not limited to 3rd party chargers, mounts, cases, even stickers you can apply to iPhone 8 series on up to the 11 series to “MagSafe enable” those older phones. I was really looking for a few things in my search:
A good “soft” case as my clear case from Apple is rigid and brittle.
A car charger mount (more on that in another post forthcoming)
A bedside 3-in-1 dock for my phone, watch, and AirPods Pro.
Some kind of ring for holding onto my phone while playing games like Ingress or just generally to keep it stable when holding the phone.
Some kind of Desktop mount or flip foot for when I’m working in my home office.
A MagSafe Backup Battery for on the go charging.
There are now several options for item 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. Item 4 was a bit more elusive but I came up with a good option there I think and I will explain more below.
Soft case - I bought the KIKET Liquid Silicone case (linked here) for $19.99 on Amazon. It’s soft but has enough rigidity that it offers some protection. Fits snugly around my iPhone 12 Pro. Its only drawback so far is it attracts all kinds of lint as the soft rubber surfaces love to cling to that stuff. It has the magsafe compatible ring embedded in it and works well with the other accessories though it doesn’t prompt the phone to show the “MagSafe” animation when I put the case on. Not a big deal in my opinion.
Car Charger mount - I bought the COSOOS mount (linked here) for $21.99 on Amazon. It comes with the mount that clips in the car vent, a MagSafe compatible wireless charger puck that is attached to the vent clip, and a USB-A to USB-C cable for powering the charger mount. My car has a USB-A and USB-C port for connecting to CarPlay or just to charge devices so this would work. I also have a 2xUSB-A port plugged into the Cigarette lighter for extra USB ports in the car. This mount holds tight to where you put it, allows you to adjust the angle the mount points and holds well onto the phone with strong magnets. The charging works well and when the phone isn’t attached, a cool blue ring glows around the edge.
Bedside Dock - This one was harder for me to find as I wanted something that was wireless charging for all 3 devices. Many had wireless for the phone and watch but not the AirPods. I finally found the WAITEE 3 in 1 dock (linked here) for $43.99 on Amazon. This seems expensive but it’s not really when compared to all the others in this category that typically run much higher and probably don’t have as much functionality. This was the first one I found that did wireless on all 3 for a reasonable price. The construction is plastic mostly and yet the chargers all work and the MagSafe is strong and holds tight.
The ring for holding onto the phone was harder to find and eventually I located several of these metal discs that have MagSafe embedded magnets for either pop sockets or rings to attach to. I bought the METISINNO Magnetic Phone Pop Base for $15.99 (linked here) on Amazon and attached a ring I already had from another purchase in the past. This allowed me to attach a ring to the back of my phone without directly attaching it to my phone or to any one case, which means I have the versatility to add a ring to the back of my phone while using any MagSafe case.
Desktop mount - For this I got the brilliant idea to use my Apple official puck charger and just apply one of those MagSafe stickers to the back side of it, the ones intended for older iPhones, to give it the ability to accept MagSafe accessories and then sandwiched the puck between my phone and the aforementioned ring which then becomes a MagSafe desktop charger with flip foot. I love multitaskers. I got the Mag Safe Case Magnet Sticker (linked here) for $9.99 on Amazon. It sticks to the back of the charger puck well and the magnets are super strong, in fact it’s hard to remove the ring from the back so I have to twist and slide that off the back of the puck to remove it.
The last item I’m actually waiting for. It’s shipping from China and is called the Zeera MagSafe Power Bank (linked here) from zeerawireless.com as I don’t see their products on Amazon anywhere yet. I paid $55.99 for this 3000mAh battery, kickstand, and USB cable that come as a set and at the time of writing this, sold out on the site but check back often if you are interested in one. I’ve seen unboxing and reviews and when I compared this to all the other ones on Amazon, I was hard pressed to find this much value in the others so even though it seems expensive, for what you get it’s actually pretty reasonable. The Zeera option can also be used as a travel dock for your iPhone so I hope it arrives before our next vacation so I can really try that out. The kickstand it comes with is optional, stick-on, and can also be used as a ring to hold onto everything. I’m not sure yet if I will stick it on or get another of the stickers I bought for my puck and just stick that on the back of the Zeera battery and then use my MagSafe ring. Stay tuned.
So that’s it, a summary of my MagSafe experience so far. I will be posting a video showing some of these in action soon and will update this posting when I do. Do you have iPhone 12? Have you been looking into any of these accessories or ideas? Does any of this help you in figuring it out? If this has helped you, let me know and thanks for reading!
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