MagSafe Charges 2x Slower Than Wired 20W USB-C Charger - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

MagSafe Charges 2x Slower Than Wired 20W USB-C Charger

Apple's MagSafe charger charges over two-times slower than a wired 20W USB-C charger, according to a new iPhone 12 video review from the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern.

magsafe 50 percent slower

Screencap from video review

The review of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro was generally critical of Apple's ‌MagSafe‌ technology, explaining that the idea seems to be better in theory than in practice.

Although Stern found that the ‌MagSafe‌ charger charged the iPhone 12 faster than a traditional 7.5W Qi wireless charger, it was still slower than plugging directly into a 20W charger. The 20W charger charged an empty iPhone to 50% in only 28 minutes, while the ‌MagSafe‌ took 1 hour.

The full video review covers other aspects of the new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro:

The review was also critical of the fact that the combined cost of the ‌MagSafe‌ charger and a 20W power adapter was $58 combined, and that the ‌MagSafe‌ charger's cable is less than a yard in length.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Has Now Unveiled Eight New Products This Month

Tuesday March 17, 2026 9:25 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone...

Top Rated Comments

lestmak Avatar
71 months ago
Umm, no surprise there.... 20W wired vs 15W MagSafe vs 7.5W Qi. What would one expect?
Score: 60 Votes (Like | Disagree)
71 months ago
Induction charging has always been slower than a direct connection. MagSafe should be no different.

Personally I see no inconvenience in wired charging for half an hour.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
71 months ago
2x slower is a really bad way of saying 'half the speed'
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mutepointer Avatar
71 months ago
No one should be shocked by this non story.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kylo83 Avatar
71 months ago
ive said its just a gimmick and pointless
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
luccalabs Avatar
71 months ago
Well no ****. Induction charging is also terrible for the environment comparably. I believe in the best tests they got 30-40% more energy being used.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Related Apple News: Mac | News | Business | Technology | Iphone