MagSafe has allowed more innovative things to come out than I imagined. It’s become more than the pointless plug that was introduced alongside the iPhone 12. Apple built a pretty great range of accessories. It’s bound to be improved upon over the years, but before that happens, can we please go back to the iPhone battery case.

Before everyone yells at me to tell me how horrible it looks, I get it. It was ugly, heavy and a bit of a nightmare to get in your pocket – but the iPhone battery case sold alongside iPhone from 7 to 11 was an excellent solution. It is an exceptional application of function over form and far exceeds the usefulness of the current MagSafe battery.

For around £130 you could boost the battery of your iPhone by around 80%. This depended on your usage, but by using one on my iPhone 7 I could double the battery life easily and also have a case around my phone at all times. Admittedly, this wasn’t the nicest case in the world. Made from a very grippy rubber that seemed to pick up pocket lint like it couldn’t bare to be away from it – it still kept your phone protected.

The MagSafe battery pack in comparison costs around the same as the old battery case, but doesn’t function nearly as well. Arguably it is a more elegant solution, you can slap the battery pack on as and when required instead of carrying around the battery all day. With the MagSafe magnets keeping it attached to the back of your iPhone 12/13 or 14. However, in reality it barely clings to the phone, and you have to handle it with care to actually keep charging your phone.

There is no case to keep the battery pack attached to the back of your phone, leading to loss of charge and a much less economical way to charge your phone. By using wireless charging to charge the phone instead of the Lightning method used by the battery case, the MagSafe battery pack gives you around another 40-60% charge. Possibly more, but the rate and level of charge is dictated far more by phone usage and temperature.

Should you need to recharge your MagSafe battery pack, it needs to be plugged into Lightning, thus kind of defeating the whole point of it. You can’t wirelessly charge the wireless battery, but you can charge both at the same time, albeit very slowly. The battery case does require the same Lightning charging, but charges both your phone and your battery at the same time and much quicker than MagSafe. With no issues with loss of connectivity nor heat.

I also think the case is a much more pleasing solution than the white battery stuck to the back of your phone. The battery case was not the nicest looking case in the world, far from it, but the MagSafe Battery is much worse. It doesn’t fit to the back of the phone very well and, although it arguably looks OK on an iPhone Mini, it looks ridiculous on the iPhone Pro Max versions.

What they both do have going for them however is excellent support built into iOS itself. Being able to see the charge of both batteries at glance makes them both much better options than many third-party versions. If Apple sold a separate case to fit over both phone and battery pack, the MagSafe battery would be much more usable, but frankly they should just go back to using the battery case full stop.