Oliver Haslam·

Testing Shows MagSafe Only Charges iPhone 12 At 15W When Using Apple’s 20W Wall Charger

The arrival of MagSafe alongside the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro is something that we’ve all been super interested in and we’ve seen a few people testing the new charger and posting to YouTube.

One of those is Zollotech’s Aaron Zollo and he spotted something interesting – powering the MagSafe charger isn’t as easy as you might have thought.

The $39 MagSafe Charger doesn’t come with any kind of power brick. Instead, it plugs into another brick via a USB-C cable. So what do you use to power it? According to Zollo’s testing, you need to use Apple’s own 20W charger. Otherwise things might not go according to plan.

Zollo tested a few different chargers of different ratings and these are the results.

  • Apple’s 18W Power Adapter – Charged at 13W
  • Apple’s 20W Power Adapter – Charged at 15W
  • Apple’s 96W MacBook Pro Power Adapter – Charged at 10W
  • Anker’s 30W PowerPort Atom PD 1 – Charged from 7.5W to 10W
  • AUKEYs 65W Power Adapter – Charged from 8W to 9W
  • Pixel Charger – Charged from 7.5W to 9W
  • Note 20 Ultra Charger – Charged from 6W to 7W

The MagSafe Charger is rated for 15W wireless charging, so you might think that anything rated for more power than that would be good to go – including Apple’s own 18W charger. But it turns out you’ll need to use Apple’s own 20W brick for things to work properly – no third-party one will work.

That’s a real shame and means anyone buying a MagSafe Charger will need to also buy Apple’s own 20W brick.

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