Photo: Andrew Liszewski – Gizmodo
Features like being able to check its charge level directly in iOS and automatically starting charging when the battery is connected to the iPhone made the Apple MagSafe battery pack a top pick last year, but we did lament its slower charging when unplugged: a limitation Apple passed A recent firmware update made improvements.
Competing MagSafe batteries such as the Mophie Snap+ Juice Pack Mini and Zens Magnetic Dual Powerbank are both capable of charging at 7.5W. When plugged in (greater than 20W), the Apple MagSafe battery pack can actually charge the iPhone at 15W via its magnetic connection, but this negates the portability offered when the cord is cut, reducing the charging speed of the Apple battery to just 5W .
But according to a recent update to the “How to use a MagSafe battery pack” support page on Apple’s website, a recent firmware update to version 2.7 now boosts the portable speed of the Apple MagSafe battery pack to 7.5W, a match.
Heat is an unwelcome by-product of wireless charging that not only wastes power, but also reduces battery life and capacity, which is one of the reasons Apple initially limited charging to 5W. Apple didn’t detail what changed in the v2.7 firmware update to remove this limitation, but it either stopped worrying about the heat from faster charging, or introduced some new ways to alleviate it with updates.
After connecting the Apple MagSafe battery pack to your MagSafe-compatible iPhone, you can check its firmware version by opening iOS’s settings and going to General > About > MagSafe Battery Pack, which should show up in the “Carrier” Lock” message. According to Apple, its MagSafe battery packs should update automatically when connected to an iPhone with an internet connection, but this could take about a week as the update rolls out. For the less impatient, Apple’s support page states that users can also “plug a Lightning to USB cable into the Lightning connector on the battery pack and into a Mac or iPad”, which should download and install the firmware update in about five minutes later, but so far we haven’t managed to go that route.
