KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 ― When Apple first debuted the MagSafe Battery Pack back in July last year, we pointed out that it basically trickle charged your iPhone with its puny 5W charging speeds. It’s still a pretty cool piece of tech of course, being able to attach to your smartphone via MagSafe, but its super low charging rate may have turned you off. Well, a new firmware update by Apple lets you increase that charging rate by a whopping 1.5 times… to 7.5W.
According to the Apple support page for the MagSafe Battery Pack, it can charge your iPhone at 7.5W charging speeds but you will need to update your Battery Pack to the latest firmware. To do so, you simply need to attach it to your iPhone but Apple says that it could take up to a week to complete the firmware update. It also doesn’t clarify it you actually need to keep the MagSafe Battery Pack attached the entire time.
Nevertheless, the better way to do it is by using a Mac or an iPad to help you update the firmware on the MagSafe Battery Pack. All you need to do plug a Lightning to USB cable to the Battery Pack and to your Mac or iPad, and you’ll then be able to update the Battery Pack’s firmware. To ensure that it’s running the latest firmware, you can attach the Battery Pack back onto your iPhone, and in Settings look for MagSafe Battery Pack under the About page. If it’s updated to the latest firmware, it should say Firmware Version 2.7.
The MagSafe Battery Pack retails for RM479 on the Apple Malaysia website, and provides up to a 40 per cent additional charge on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max, a 70 per cent additional charge on the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini as well as a 60 per cent additional charge for the regular sized Pro and non-Pro iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. If you plug your MagSafe Battery Pack into a 20W or higher USB power brick and then attach it to your iPhone, you’ll get 15W wireless charging speeds too. ― SoyaCincau
