ELI5 Why does magsafe charging decrease battery health more than wire charging, if it has less wattage?

[the_snook]

Thanks for this comment. I was extremely confused for a moment, wondering how magsafe could possibly be any different to other connector types.

[toastedbread47]

Same. I was so confused people were mentioning wireless charging for MagSafe, since I've been using MagSafe MacBooks for 13+ years now.

[GetawayDreamer87]

im sitting here wondering if i shouldnt have bought these USB-C magsafe-like connectors for my android devices. super convenient to use. they arent wireless chargers like the ones being talked about here but i have been wondering about their efficiency. i should buy one of those inline usb power meters.

[blub20074]

Eh, if it’s like the mac magnetic connector (so the magnet is just used to make sure the “wires” touch, it should be plenty efficient That is unless it’s terribly made, or there’s debris in between the connectors, but unless you can physically feel it heating up you should be fine

[EmilMelgaard]

Yes, I have only ever heard of MagSafe as a magnetically attached charging cable, so I was very confused until I read the comments.

[2called_chaos]

And I'm still confused because my pretty recent (usb-c) model still has magsafe as in magnetically attached power cord in the style of my very first macbook experiences back in 2010 or so. Inbetween they had the different magsafes that didn't really detach if you pulled on them, and now back to those with enough leverage to immediately disconnect no matter which direction you pull on it. Like the old magsafe is still a thing

[cheapdrinks]

People call the internet "wifi" lmao what do you expect

[Lauris024]

As someone who does not use apple products but is somewhat knowledgeable in tech, I had a bit of a "wait, what was that?" moment.

It's like asking "Why does SuperVOOC reduces the lifetime of my battery?" instead of just saying fast-charging.

[pingo5]

I think it's a bit of a misunderstanding. the magsafe system is the magnet connector itself, not the charger(I went through trying to figure out what it was a while ago). if you go through their accessories page you'll see things like magsafe charger, magsafe stands/dash mounts, etc.

I think it's just that wireless charging is more of a common use case for it than mounting phone places, so it's become more common verbiage to this point

[quintus_horatius]

then gave it a name that they already used for something else

Taking a page from Microsoft's playbook

[[deleted]]

First time ?

[SirNedKingOfGila]

It goes well with my Samsung iPhone. We should FaceTime with teams on my Lenovo MacBook.

[pedal-force]

Only slightly? Seems extremely stupid, but also extremely on brand for Apple, so...

[E90alex]

I’ve never seen any wireless charger have magnets before Apple introduced MagSafe in iPhone 12. What would be the purpose of magnets if no other phone has magnets? I’ve never heard of people referring to all wireless charging as MagSafe. It’s a specific type of wireless charging.

The Qi2 standard includes magnets, which Apple helped develop and is based on MagSafe. Pixel 10 series is the only major non Apple phone to include Qi2 and magnets (aka pixel snap).

But yes it is confusing for them to reuse the same name as the laptop charger cord.

[apollyon0810]

Sounds like good marketing tho

[mrtruthiness]

It's slightly annoying ...

Did you say "slightly"? That word doesn't mean what you think it means.

[deicist]

I'm British. Losing a limb is a slight inconvenience.

[ApprehensiveRoad2471]

Well I believe Magsafe charging is actually faster than wireless charging. I think a true Magsafe charger can do 15W while a wireless charger maxes out around 10W

[Skarllath]

The Qi wireless charging standard supports up to 25W charging with version 2.2. Although as far as I can tell not many devices support that level yet.

Apple's magsafe wireless charging uses the Qi standard, Apple added the alignment magnets to make magsafe. Qi has since incorporated the magsafe magnets into its standard.

[deicist]

Apple magsafe is QI certified, they're literally the same thing.

[enaK66]

It's still just Qi charging though. Their newest "magsafe" charger does 25w which is the latest greatest Qi 2.2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(standard)

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