The iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest iPhone yet, and while the new design and slim form factor appeal to many, they compromise battery life. To tackle this situation, Apple designed a dedicated MagSafe Battery Pack for the iPhone Air, which also features a slim and portable design. Well, the battery pack has been taken apart now, and it reveals some pretty interesting design choices from Apple.
Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone Air reuses the same battery cell, but wireless charging limits performance
In iFixit’s teardown, it was revealed that the iPhone Air MagSafe Battery Pack has a 12.26 Wh battery, which is just 2.72mm in thickness, thin enough to fit within the iPhone Air’s own 5.6mm body. If this piqued your interest, you would be glad to know that the battery pack appears to be using the same battery cell that Apple included in the iPhone Air itself.
Folks over at iFixit analyzed the battery cell, and it is basically the same battery that is powering your iPhone Air, with the same shape as well as thickness. Apple claims that the battery pack can charge the iPhone Air from 0 to 65 percent, which is quite odd, as both the product and the accessory share the same battery capacity. Well, it is due to the wireless charging losses. If you are not familiar, a chunk of energy vanishes into thin air during the transfer process, which makes a full recharge impossible.
In terms of build, the battery in the pack is protected by plastic but lacks metal reinforcement to hold it together like the iPhone. However, Apple has made sure to make the plastic thick enough for protection, which makes the battery pack thicker than the iPhone Air. iFixit believes that Apple made the MagSafe Battery Pack thicker to maintain a certain minimum size to make a functional accessory, rather than making it the exact thickness as the iPhone Air.
All in all, the iPhone Air MagSafe Battery Pack teardown suggests that Apple was a bit clever in reusing or repurposing an existing battery design. The company also accepted the wireless energy tradeoffs, but if you charge the device via the USB-C cable, you can offset these compromises to a greater extent.
Ultimately, the MagSafe Battery Pack will still not transform the iPhone Air into a multi-day powerhouse, but it will provide a neatly packaged aid in certain situations. We will be covering the teardown of the iPhone Air itself and the iPhone 17 lineup as soon as further information is available. Would you buy the $99 battery pack for the iPhone Air?
About the author: Ali Salman is a technology reporter for Wccftech mobile section with a specialized focus on Apple and the intellectual property that drives mobile innovation. He has cultivated a unique expertise in analyzing and deconstructing complex technology patents, translating dense legal and technical documents into clear, insightful reports on future products.
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