iPhone 15 Pro MagSafe vs Wired

[Jackbequickly]

Man, I would sure hope that the USB-C jack is sturdy enough to handle being plugged/unplugged a few hundred times over 2 to 3 years. 🤣

That has nothing to do with it for me - I have a MagSafe charger on my nightstand because it's easy and convenient when I stumble half-asleep into bed in a dark room. No searching for cables or turning on lights to wake my wife up, just get the phone somewhere near the charger and feel the magnets click it into place. Quick and easy one-hand operation. And I like the "nightstand mode", which turns on whenever it senses motion so I can see the time and temperature (in red, so it doesn't blow my eyes out in the dark).

I would hope the jack would hold up, too. I am just explaining what some people think when it comes to an advantage. I am very happy with my Anker puck and 10 watt cube. I am never in a hurry charging so slow overnight is good for me. Everyone needs to do what they want with their phone.

 

[that be me]

I use a cable, but primarily because I also have a leather case that gets permanently marked when used with magsafe. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it at all.

 

[robotphood]

Man, I would sure hope that the USB-C jack is sturdy enough to handle being plugged/unplugged a few hundred times over 2 to 3 years. 🤣

That has nothing to do with it for me - I have a MagSafe charger on my nightstand because it's easy and convenient when I stumble half-asleep into bed in a dark room. No searching for cables or turning on lights to wake my wife up, just get the phone somewhere near the charger and feel the magnets click it into place. Quick and easy one-hand operation. And I like the "nightstand mode", which turns on whenever it senses motion so I can see the time and temperature (in red, so it doesn't blow my eyes out in the dark).

Same. I also have wireless charging in my car and a dock on my work desk and home office. I just set it down without having to worry about plugging it in. It's not a huge inconvenience to plug in wires but it's 1 more thing I don't have to do multiple times a day. I've seen some decent examples of higher thermals using wireless charging vs wires and anecdotally, my wirelessly charged devices seem to have a significantly less battery health over time. But it doesn't really deter me from the convenience of a consumable item that will degrade anyway.

 

[Andy_2341]

It's a moot debate. Convenience always wins. Who is going to go the more inconvenient route (the cable and its plugging and unplugging every single time) to improve a certain percentage points on a metric ("battery health") that is dubious to start with?

Yes, I know, I know, some people do. But most people doesn't, and by the time Apple issues an iPhone with no ports whatsoever (just like the Apple Watch), there will be very few complaints.

The concept of a wireless phone is really cool. I like the concept of no ports for dust or fluid ingress, but what about data transfer? AirDrop type concept?

Anyways, thank you everyone for responding!

 

[GusBougadis]

I’ve been using wireless charging since the iPhone 8. I haven’t noticed any issues with the 7 phones I have purchased since then. Noissues with battery degrading or anything unusual. I hate wired charging, it’s so inconvenient. I have 4 wireless chargers in the house. Can’t imagine going back to wired charging. Also have a wireless charger in my car.

 

[Sippincider]

I don’t care if my battery lasts 400 cycles or 1,000 cycles

I work in a service industry, and the phone gets fully charged every night.

How many cycles it lasts is unimportant. What IS important is having the battery make it through a bad day in the field, and you don't want to kneecap yourself by starting a day with 30% charge and hoping things will be ok...

 

[normanfox]

I wirelessly charged my iPhone 12 for 2 years and the battery health deteriorated massively (80%) compared the previous and more recent iPhones I have used. The phone used to get rather warm too which concerned me. I charged my 13 Pro Max solely wired and the battery health was 91% after 2 years and now I have a 16 Pro Max, I have no intention of ever charging it via MagSafe. I don't need to either as I don't require fast charging.

The main reason Apple use glass (creating new problem of breakable) for iphone back is because of wireless charging. This feature is no use to you then. I never broke anything until iphone 14PM due to its back glass.

 

[adam1080]

Just got my first MagSafe charger ever today(the new high wattage for my 16 Pro Max). Since fast charging existed with USB-C to lightning or USB-C, I never bothered with MagSafe since it was SOOO much worse than the 20 or ~27w charging. The new MagSafe charger hit 27w-29w briefly but stayed in the 20's for a good period of time. I have seen the usb-c cable hit 31-32w on the 16 Pro Max, but usually stays in the high 20w range during fast charge.

feels weird to me and I will have to learn how to incorporate it into my flow.

 

[bembol]

I voted who cares but not because I can replace the battery but it's because I'll be selling my 15PM sometime around May/June next year.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The main reason Apple use glass (creating new problem of breakable) for iphone back is because of wireless charging. This feature is no use to you then. I never broke anything until iphone 14PM due to its back glass.

I use MagSafe for a holder on my car dashboard but not for charging.

 

[fatTribble]

Some think it saves on wear on the USB-C socket.

That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of it being a fragile connector.

 

[MarkX]

That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of it being a fragile connector.

It's not!

 

[fatTribble]

Another thing is that I doubt anyone uses their phone while Magsafe charging as it is less convenient than wire, gives better discipline to “let phone rest for a while”. For than exact reason it is better to have two iPhones, so that you always stay connected when one of them is charging

Are you saying you’d rather buy two iPhones so you can have the convenience of MagSafe charging?
I feel like I must be reading this wrong.

 

[rizmack]

Sample of 1 here, but I used an Anker MagSafe battery pack on my iPhone 13 Pro a couple of years ago, and the phone got really warm. I wasn't using a MagSafe compatible phone case, just a standard clear case, but when I checked the battery health, it had dropped by a % instantly. From that day, I've avoided them and only use my Apple MagSafe 15w charger occasionally for convenience.

 

[icemantx]

If only CarPlay worked through MagSafe... Our cars only work with wired CarPlay so wired to our iPhones it is until we get newer cars or I get a wireless CarPlay adapter that works well. I will say, twice now my iPhone 16 Pro has put a warning up that charging is on hold due to the phone being too hot when plugged into the car and using CarPlay which is quite annoying.

 

[digitalcuriosity]

I have had three phones that have had charging ports fail from being inserted,so I only use the MagSafe now.

 

[MarkX]

I have had three phones that have had charging ports fail from being inserted,so I only use the MagSafe now.

You must be unlucky or rough! I've had dozens of phones and not had a single port failure!

 

[Moukee]

In my experience it mostly comes down to luck of the draw. Battery quality varies widely, they're chemical products. Even within the same batch one battery can be way better than the next one. Even if you tightly control everything you can (charging rate, type, temperature, discharging rate, state of charge limits) and keep everything in sync between multiple batteries, you'll get different results.

So just use the phone however it's most convenient to you.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I myself do 20 watt USB-C PD 3.0 charging wired. Mostly because it doesn't ridiculously heat up my iPhone 16 Plus like the time I charged it with an Anker 735 charger on the higher-power USB-C connection.

 

[Jackbequickly]

That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of it being a fragile connector.

I have not either, we both must not get out often. Just what I have heard. Just relax, no one is forcing you to do anything.

 

[clueless88]

I use a Samsung wireless charger that has a cooling fan that kicks in when the temperature goes above a certain level. It's handy for phones that are in cases or protectors that block the lightning/charging port--I find that these port blockers will break off, so I try to keep them closed.

 

[shadowboi]

Are you saying you’d rather buy two iPhones so you can have the convenience of MagSafe charging?
I feel like I must be reading this wrong.

No-no, I meant two iPhones are common when people fail to sell their older ones. I currently have SE 3 and 11 Pro. It happened because I needed replacement iPhone when my 11 Pro was getting fixed. When I get 17 I will probably still have 11 Pro as my 2nd phone and give someone in my family SE to have

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I know this debate is as old as MagSafe itself probably, but I’m still curious. My dad and I both got identical iPhone 15 Pro’s in late July. I’ve primarily charge mine by wire with an 80% limit. He primarily charges his by MagSafe/Qi pads. I have 63 cycles and 98.82% battery health according to the analytics while his has 43 cycles and 98.82% health. I game on mine somewhat often and have only ever let the battery drop to 10% one time. He never games and places it on the pad whenever he sits down by it, so it usually has higher than 40% charge. I’m trying to figure out if there is a causation in the MagSafe pad and not a correlation because of his charging patterns.

Seems to me that none of us with our n=1 experience, varying usages and non-random responses can ever make meaningful observations to the OP question about battery life. Individual commentary about battery life is essentially just noise.

Personally, I wear jeans and always had constant problems with cotton pocket lint clogging the Lightning port. After iPhones got MagSafe I have never charged any other way. And my n=1 non-random result is that it has worked fine.

 

[robotphood]

I use a Samsung wireless charger that has a cooling fan that kicks in when the temperature goes above a certain level. It's handy for phones that are in cases or protectors that block the lightning/charging port--I find that these port blockers will break off, so I try to keep them closed.

Do you have a model #/link? I have a heatsink cooler for my phone when I play games on it and always thought wireless chargers could use something like that too. I like the idea of it only kicking in when needed though.

 

[CMoore515]

Do you use the Apple official MagSafe or 3rd party ones?

I use both, but my primary one is the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe