Magnetic Wireless Charger, MagSafe Charging Station

Like many, we have multiple devices we use at any one time, such as:

• iPhone
• AirPods
• Apple Watch

And probably more besides!  The issues comes when one needs charging and the other does and so on.  So you end up with lots of cables, or swapping them about.  With the iPhone it’s a USB.  With the AirPods, it’s still Lightning, and with the Watch, is the Magsafe ‘disc’.  Three cables.

When at ones desk it’s just easier if they are all right there, with one cable slipping down the back of the desk.  So we decided to give this device a try, and boy was it worth it.  You sit there and your watch is a little low on power, or you know you will be out later, so want to give it a bit of a boost.  Pop it off your wrist and lay it over that right Station disc and it “sticks” to it and charges.  Effortless.

With the AirPods (these are the 3rd Gen), you just place the device on the front part and it just charges.  No real positioning or magnet needed.  Super convenient.

And then the Phone itself.  That snaps on quite firmly to the magnet, to the point you can navigate around the phone, without taking it off the Charging Station.

The amount of times those AirPods have gone to be used and they were low, so hunting around for the cable.  Or at the desk and you are going out a bit later, so you want it all topped up.  It does make that so much simpler.

When we looked at one, various requirements came to mind:

• Does it need to be Apple’s?
• They can be expensive – can you get cheaper ones that work just as well?
• How quickly does it charge?

We are a fan of Apple products… (you’d never know would you?), but sometimes they can be grossly expensive.  The one you see here was just £19.  It was not sponsored.  We bought it from Amazon.  As it was not sponsored, we won’t post a link back to it.  But this was it’s full Title:

Lovcoyo Magnetic Wireless Charger, Upgrade 5 in 1 MagSafe Charging Station with LED Lamp Compatible with Apple iPhone 15/14/13/12/Pro/Pro Max/Mini, Apple Watch SE/8/7/6/5/4/3/2, Airpods 3/2/Pro. 

Apple did do one, but man was it expensive.  We couldnt’ really see any benefit to the added cost (over £100).
So we looked at this one that was £30 but then found the same for £19 elsewhere.  Did the job.

Expensive ones may have a heavier bass.   This has just one bug bear, which is the weight of it. When you take the phone off the mount, you will always move the unit.  It’s not heavy.  It has a weight, but not enough.  But the fact it moves a bit is worth the saving in costs.

It charges like any MagSafe at a slowish rate, but charging any battery slowly is (we think) better for it anyway.  If you are at your desk for a good hour or two before getting up, that’s enough to give it plenty.

• The specs are:
• 15w – iPhone charge
• 3w – Watch charge
• 5w – Airpods charge
• 480 Grams

We pointed out the items weight.  We checked one from Belkin via Apple, and that was 490G, which was almost narrower, so maybe this is how it should be?

You can get some where the whole charger is a wide “plate”, but it takes up much more space, and has no light – and is £149!

And the light at the base of it?

It has a little party trick – an LED lamp that has three stages of brightness (as well as off).  The only negative on that is the position of it’s button – it’s at the back on the right.  Why is that a problem?  Put your watch on the stand and it covers the button.  It’s like reaching thru a curtain to turn off a lamp.

Frankly it’s no big deal, but just a design quirk.  Why didn’t they position it at the front in one of thsoe corners?  Probably asthetically, leaves the front clean and white.

That lamp isnt’ something you can use to light up your work space, but is a nice touch, and being LED, uses practically hardly any watts to run it.  It has been seen to look good as a little bedside lamp tho, which is probably it’s primary use.  That being said, this stock photo of it doesn’t show the button, which is on the wrong side for this user.  Fussy problem to have.

Would we buy it again?  We’d probably look at others again, but yes.  Of all those we looked at, this was the better one.  It has the light, charges it all in a small space, has a warm light too, and is a good price.