Apple really buried the lede when it didn't tell anyone the MagSafe Battery Pack could transform into a dock

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Parker Battery
Parker Battery (Image credit: Parker Ortolani)

Apple's fancy new MagSafe Battery Pack is now here and people can walk into an Apple Store and buy one. But the battery pack has received some hate for a few reasons — and all of that could have been avoided if Apple hadn't buried the lede when it announced this thing.

For example, did you know that the MagSafe Battery Pack can turn into an iPhone dock? Neither did I. And then this happened and I kind of wish I'd bought one now.

See, there's one thing that the current MagSage Wireless Charger does that drives me up the wall. Every time I pick my iPhone 12 Pro up, the charger comes with it. I'm far too busy and important — obviously! — to have to then use another hand to remove said charger, and I've even considered buying accessories to stop this madness from happening. But the MagSafe Battery Pack can already do that, and Apple hasn't told anyone!

As we covered yesterday, putting the MagSafe Battery Pack onto an iPhone and then connecting the whole thing to a Lightning dock is enough to turn said battery pack into a makeshift stand and dock affair. It's all pretty magical and means your battery pack will always be charged and ready to go, too.

Check it out and tell me this isn't the best thing you've seen all week. Nay, month!

Yes, I'm now considering buying a Lightning dock and a MagSafe Battery Pack. Sure, it'll cost a lot, but it'll still be cheaper than anything with 'proper' MagSafe support, complete with 15W wireless charging. That's something the cheap Amazon jobs can't boast.

If both your iPhone and MagSafe Battery Pack need to be charged, you can charge them at the same time. Attach your MagSafe Battery Pack to your iPhone and then plug the MagSafe Battery Pack into a power adapter. Using a 20W or higher power adapter, the MagSafe Battery Pack can charge your iPhone with up to 15W of charging power. You can also charge both if you attach your MagSafe Battery Pack to your iPhone, then plug your iPhone into a power source.

So, yeah. I reckon Apple should have marketed this as some sort of modular MagSafe charging dock stand. I reckon people would have been all over it! Still not convinced by the MagSafe Battery Pack? There are still some great iPhone 12 battery cases around that could do a great charging job instead.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
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Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.