As CES continues and we see various announcements from companies, Anker has me very intrigued. While it doesn’t look like any of these products are blessed by Apple, it does seem that Anker is taking advantage of the magnets in the iPhone 12 to release some really cool stuff. .
I haven’t been watching CES live so I’m not sure how many more images are out there at the moment, but I will say that the magnetic battery bank is something I’m particularly curious about. My battery bank of choice that I keep in my backpack is a PowerCore Metro Essential 20000 PD made by Anker (and I’m using it to top up my iPhone as we speak). That being said, the idea of a battery bank that can magnetically attach to my iPhone and top it up wirelessly… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that.
Because these products aren’t blessed by Apple, that means that they’ll only charge at 7.5w instead of the full 15w that the official MagSafe charger does… But is that really a bad thing? If I’m topping up my phone during the day, it’s because it’s lower than I’d like it to be (some days you just need to spend a lot of time playing Apple Arcade games) and getting a little more juice would be great. In a situation like that, I really don’t need my phone to top up at speeds comparable to a Tesla going from 0 to 60.
I think the next product they announced I’m really interested in is the magnetic case, but I’m curious how strong the magnets will be versus Apple’s official cases. I said it when I wrote about PopSockets and I’ll say it again now: I haven’t actually used MagSafe on my phone yet, but its an area of the iPhone 12 ecosystem that I’m very interested in getting involved with — I just want to try and pick the right products the first time.
That being said, once I do finally dive into the MagSafe ecosystem, I’d be very interested in trying some of the stuff Anker has in the works — they’re a company I’ve always liked and have never had a bad experience with any of their products.
My biggest hope, however, is that MagSafe is something that’s here to stay on the iPhone and not just a one or two generation gimmick. Based on the cases Anker has in the works, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if a MagSafe-less iPhone in the future managed to get a magnetic case anyway. Fingers crossed it doesn’t come to that.
What Anker announcement from CES are you most excited about, though? I’d love to hear what product you’re waiting for down in the comments below!
Dan Stransky 