Apple Has Updated Its MagSafe Battery’s Firmware to Add Slightly Faster Charging

Features like with the ability to examine its cost stage proper in iOS and charging that routinely begins when the battery’s hooked up to an iPhone made the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack our best choice final 12 months, however we did lament its slower charging speeds when unplugged: a limitation that Apple has improved with a recent firmware update.

Competing MagSafe batteries just like the Mophie Snap+ Juice Pack Mini and the Zens Magnetic Dual Powerbank each handle to muster 7.5W charging speeds. When plugged into an influence supply (larger than 20W), the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack can really cost an iPhone at 15W by means of its magnetic connection, however that negates the portability afforded when chopping the twine, which then cuts the Apple battery’s charging pace down to simply 5W.

But in response to a current replace to the “How to use your MagSafe Battery Pack” support page on the Apple website, a current firmware replace to model 2.7 now boosts the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack’s transportable pace up to 7.5W, placing it on par with the competitors.

Heat is an undesirable byproduct of wi-fi charging that not solely wastes energy, however may cut back a battery’s longevity and capability, which is likely one of the causes Apple initially restricted charging speeds to 5W. Apple doesn’t go into particulars about what has modified within the v2.7 firmware replace to take away this restrict, nevertheless it’s both stopped worrying concerning the warmth generated by quicker charging, or it’s launched some new methods to mitigate it by means of the replace.

With the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack hooked up to your MagSafe-compatible iPhone, you’ll be able to examine its firmware model by opening iOS’ Settings and going to General > About > MagSafe Battery Pack, which ought to seem beneath “Carrier Lock” info. According to Apple, its MagSafe Battery Pack ought to routinely replace itself when hooked up to an iPhone with an web connection, nevertheless it might take a few week for that to occur because the replace rolls out. For the much less affected person, Apple’s support page claims that customers may “plug one end of a Lightning to USB cable into the Lightning connector on your battery pack, and the other end into your Mac or iPad” which ought to obtain and set up the firmware replace in about 5 minutes, however to this point we haven’t had any success taking that route.