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Apple's latest MagSafe accessory is a $99 iPhone 12 battery pack
It starts shipping the week of July 19th.
Apple has quietly started selling a MagSafe Battery Pack for its iPhone 12 lineup. Spotted by 9to5Mac, the new accessory costs $99, with deliveries beginning early next week. Instead of a case you put on your iPhone, this latest battery pack attaches to the back of your device.
The accessory is available in a single size that features a 1,460mAh battery, meaning it can’t change any model in the iPhone 12 family to full. When using the battery pack on the go, it will charge your phone at about 5 watts. Plugging it into a power adapter while it’s still attached to your iPhone will increase that speed to about 15 watts. Either way, it’s not the fastest way to top up an iPhone 12, but it should still help in a pinch.
According to an official support document, you need iOS 14.7 to use the battery pack. Apple has yet to release that update. The company also recommends using a 20 watt or higher USB-C power adapter and USB-C to Lightning cable for charging the device.
When it’s attached to your iPhone, you’ll see how much power it has left to give on the battery widget you can add to your Home Screen and Today View. Interestingly, Apple also notes you may get a notification from your device that the accessory won’t charge it past 90 percent. You can bypass that limit enabling by low power mode through the Control Center.
Apple isn’t the first company to offer a battery pack that attaches magnetically to the iPhone 12 and its siblings. However, after Amazon removed many of the most popular brands on its marketplace earlier in the year, those have been harder to find. And if you visit the website now, you’ll find that many of the battery packs listed don’t have an estimated availability.
