The newly announced iPhone 16e shares several attributes with the pricier iPhone 16, but it’s missing one feature that has a loyal fan base up in arms. Starting with the iPhone 12 in 2020, almost every new Apple handset has come with a technology called MagSafe.
Using the power of hidden magnets, the feature lets you snap a growing range of accessories to the back of your iPhone, from wallets to wireless power banks. If this is news to you, we’re here to explain what MagSafe is, why it matters, and why its absence from the iPhone 16e has a vocal contingent of tech enthusiasts fuming.
Let’s start with the basics: MagSafe is essentially a ring of magnets built into the back of an iPhone, which allows you to attach different magnetic accessories. Apple primarily designed MagSafe to improve wireless charging. Before its launch, you had to place your iPhone in just the right spot on a wireless charging mat for optimal charging. Needless to say, it was a bit of a faff.
With MagSafe and a compatible magnetic charger, however, your iPhone snaps into perfect alignment, ensuring power transfers smoothly between the charging coils inside the two devices. The end result is faster and more reliable wireless charging — though it’s still not as effective as using a wired connection. But, if you’re after convenience, it does the trick.
These days, you can buy a range of MagSafe wireless chargers from Apple (or other brands like Anker and Belkin). These span mats and docks let you charge multiple Apple devices (such as AirPods and Apple Watches) at once. Prices can range from £17 to £100-plus, depending on the make and model.
You can also grab MagSafe wallets, tripods, stands, portable battery packs and even notebooks. The list goes on. Taking things a step further, Apple upgraded its proprietary MagSafe Charger last year, boosting wireless charging speeds to 25W for the iPhone 16 range, up from 15W on older models.
Which makes it all the more surprising that the iPhone 16e, despite being part of the same lineup, lacks MagSafe entirely. To be clear, the new handset does still offer wireless charging but, at 7.5W, it’s slower compared to recent iPhones. Apple’s move has sparked a backlash among tech enthusiasts, some of who claim the absence of MagSafe is a huge loss for the device.
MagSafe fans argue that ditching the tech makes little sense, especially when Apple profits from selling accessories built around it. Without MagSafe, the iPhone 16e is stuck with sluggish 7.5W wireless charging, detractors point out, while the latest wireless chargers offer at least 15W of power. And no, slapping a MagSafe-compatible case on the new iPhone won’t miraculously speed it up.
As they rightly point out, the decision to ditch MagSafe was probably a cost-cutting measure on Apple’s part to get the iPhone 16e down to a more palatable price. The new handset costs £599, while still offering the latest hardware, including a 6.1-inch OLED display, a battery that outperforms the iPhone 16 (per Apple), and an A18 chip and enough RAM to run Apple Intelligence AI.
But, without MagSafe, the iPhone 16e will inevitably be compared to the now-discontinued iPhone SE 3, the budget-friendly model many suspected it was simply replacing under a new name. On the other hand, for many iPhone users, the lack of MagSafe probably won’t matter. After all, magnetic accessories and wireless charging aren’t exactly top of mind for the type of users Apple is courting here; namely budget-conscious iPhone devotees looking to upgrade for less.
