MagSafe

One of the few surprises in this year’s announcement was Apple’s debut of an entirely new magnetic charging standard. While we heard a few days ago that Apple was going to be resurrecting the “MagSafe” name for magnetic charging accessories, it was a bit more of a surprise to discover that the new magnetic ring that’s now baked into this year’s iPhones will actually be used for a whole ecosystem of magnetically-attached accessories, including not only chargers but also cases and wallets and whatever else third parties can think of.

We kind of saw this coming with the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro, but in the case of the iPhone 12 Apple has taken it a big step further, since wireless charging is a factor as well, and the MagSafe system is about a lot more than just magnets and Qi charging — it also allows the iPhone to identify what types of accessories are attached, so that it can determine when to charge, or even do things like automatically lock the iPhone and display a smaller clock on the screen to be seen through a slit in the front of a case.

Even more significantly, by being able to guarantee proper alignment with a wireless charger, Apple has enabled 15-watt wireless charging capabilities in the iPhone 12, effectively doubling the wireless charging speeds.