MagSafe versus Qi 2: What’s the difference?

MagSafe is Apple’s name for magnetic charging connections, although over the years it’s used the term for both wireless phone charging technology – the primary focus of this article – as well as magnetically attaching laptop chargers for Apple MacBooks. Buy a MacBook Pro and you’ll get a MagSafe charger with it, but that charger won’t attach to your iPhone in any way at all, which can be slightly confusing.

At the time Apple introduced MagSafe for iPhone with the introduction of the iPhone 12, it was comparing its approach to the existing Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi (pronounced “Chi”, after the Chinese term for “energy” or “life force”) standard. Apple is part of the Wireless Power Consortium, and its MagSafe technology builds on Qi with the use of precisely placed magnets in both the iPhone and charger body.

The advantage here is twofold; magnetic alignment means that the charger snaps into place on the iPhone, so you don’t need to fuss around with precise placement as you do with standard Qi chargers where there’s nothing to stop a phone slipping away from the induction coils that allow the power to flow. Because the magnets precisely align, it’s also more efficient – any form of inductive power is necessarily inefficient – and can handle a higher power throughput. For MagSafe, that’s at a maximum of 15W as long as the Magsafe connector is plugged into a source capable of at least 20W, according to Apple’s specifications. You can technically plug a USB-C ended Magsafe charger through, say a MacBook’s USB-C ports, but you won’t get the faster charging speeds of MagSafe that way.

MagSafe is also a branding that Apple uses for other iPhone magnetically attaching accessories, so you can get MagSafe charging stands, MagSafe compatible iPhone cases – even MagSafe compatible wallets if that’s your desire. The one factor to be aware of here is that just because it says “MagSafe” doesn’t mean it’s automatically a charger. The $99 Apple MagSafe Wallet is… well, it’s just a magnetically attaching small credit card wallet. Bear in mind as well that some MagSafe accessories may limit charging speeds (or outright stop them) as they introduce more of a gap between the inductive charging plate and the iPhone itself.

MagSafe is much more established than Qi2, which also means that while there are actually licensed MagSafe products in the market from makers such as Belkin, there’s also a host of devices that sell themselves as “MagSafe compatible”, or in similar terminology. They’re not outright lying – they’ll typically work with MagSafe iPhones – but it’s worth checking the fine print because some of them are simply magnetically attaching devices without the underlying smarts to actually enable faster charging than you will get with a proper MagSafe device.

The simplest way to describe Qi2 is that it’s essentially existing Qi with the magnetic bits of MagSafe bolted onto it, using magnetic coils to more precisely align a Qi2 compatible phone for faster charging speeds than classic Qi chargers could do. Typically that was around 5W claimed, while Qi2 should manage 15W charging across all Qi2 compatible devices. The point here is that it’s a broad standard that can be applied to a range of devices to meet a specified power throughput goal.

Now, it’s true that some brands do and did offer Qi devices that promised speeds in excess of 15W – Oppo’s AirVOOC chargers can (as per its claims) deliver up to 50W… to compatible AirVOOC devices. 

That’s a within-ecosystem play, essentially speaking, and fine if you’re happy with only Oppo devices, though you’ll typically find that those chargers will ramp the speeds way down for other phones, if they work at all. The point with Qi2 is that it’s a Wireless Power Consortium approved standard that can deliver faster charging to all Qi2 compatible phones.

The big catch at the time of writing is that if you’re after an Android Qi2 phone… there simply aren’t any. The only devices that are compatible with Qi2 at the moment are in fact iPhones – any model of the iPhone 12 or newer, though the smaller iPhone Mini models will top out at a maximum of 7.5W on a Qi2 charger. That is expected to change as newer Android flagships come to market, though so far with Samsung’s Galaxy S24 and Galaxy Z Fold6/Flip6 all opting for simpler Qi charging, the primary hopes for a Qi2 Android handset rest with Google’s Pixel 9 lineup.

The short answer here is  that many of the same brands who produced Qi wireless chargers are already embracing its replacement. The list here includes Belkin, Anker, Mophie, Nomad and more.