iPhone 12 MagSafe has some big drawbacks — what you need to know

iPhone 12 MagSafe has some big drawbacks — what you lot need to know

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

One of the biggest announcements of the iPhone 12 launch event wasn't the telephone itself; it was the fact that Apple was resurrecting the MagSafe make. While pitched as a more secure fashion to wirelessly accuse your phone, information technology turns out that there are a lot of other means you can utilize a ring of magnets on the dorsum of your phone.

Only with all the buzz and hype around the new MagSafe products, we have to acknowledge to ourselves that magnets aren't the solution to every problem. They're incredibly useful when utilized properly. Just some things don't, and shouldn't, need a special band of magnets to work.

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It's only been a few weeks since the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro launched, and we're already seeing a huge range of products that hope to capitalize on MagSafe. Many of them have good reason to besides, like Moment'south camera accessories which promise to connect to your phone without yous having to wrestle it into the right grip. The same is true for car mounts and other similar add-ons.

But just because something tin be attached by a magnet doesn't mean it should. Like Apple's own MagSafe wallet, which holds onto your credit cards and snaps onto the dorsum of your telephone. Maybe I'thousand existence paranoid, but I feel like the thing holding all your money isn't the kind of thing you should be able to hands remove.

You tin argue the pros and cons of keeping credit cards in a phone example in general, but until this point those cases accept generally been quite sturdy — and most chiefly firmly fastened to the phone. Taking off the wallet function without taking the whole phone would be a challenge, to say the least. As secure as the MagSafe magnets might cling onto that wallet, you lot're still relying on a quirk of physics to go on information technology all together.

But have a look at this video from MacRumors and encounter what I mean. Skip ahead to 2:twenty for the pertinent section.

While secure enough for by and large waving your phone around, the fact that MacRumors' review had issues with the wallet falling off shows a key failing of MagSafe accessories. Magnets are fantastic if you need to connect ii things temporarily, or if you're non really moving them effectually, but beyond that they're but non secure enough.

It's bad enough to pay $60 for a wallet attachment that tin come loose at random intervals during the 24-hour interval. Only when it'southward belongings critically of import contents — be they credit cards, drivers licences, or something else — information technology becomes a much more serious trouble than overpaying for a leather pouch.

Apple could have made the magnetic grip stronger, sure, but that would lead to more than issues than it would solve. Like the fact that y'all may demand to remove the wallet to get your cards out, or that the iPhone 12 tin't MagSafe charge while information technology's still in place. Not to mention that there have already been warnings from Apple about how the existing magnets might touch on the magnetic strips and RFID chips you lot would discover in things like credit cards, key fobs, and so on. Increase magnet forcefulness, and those issues will increase along with information technology.

Permit'south just be a flake more cautious nearly what accessories nosotros decide to include MagSafe on. Chargers and uniform cases? Sure thing. Accessories that were never meant to exist used for extended periods of fourth dimension? Admittedly, if information technology makes things easier. Something that will crusade serious issues if the magnets disconnect suddenly? Let's give those a miss.

Whether it'south a wallet, a selfie stick, or something else entirely, magnets are not a fool-proof solution. So allow's use a scrap of mutual sense. Because permit's be honest, the concluding thing you need is a dodgy magnet connection coming autonomously at the worst possible moment.

Tom is the Tom's Guide'south Automotive Editor, which means he tin ordinarily be found genu deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It's long mode from his days as editor of Gizmodo United kingdom, when pretty much everything was on the table. He's usually found trying to clasp another behemothic Lego set up onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining that Ikea won't allow him purchase the stuff he really needs online.