Eight months ago, when we sifted through all the options to find the best iPhone MagSafe battery pack, very few options were large enough to fully revive a dead iPhone 12 or 13 Pro Max. But for those who like their smartphones gigantic, Anker is introducing a new MagSafe-compatible battery with a 10,000 mAh capacity that will fully recharge any iPhone model.
Last year’s Anker PowerCore Magnetic 5K was a solid choice, but it wasn’t the cheapest 5,000 mAh option available at the time, nor was it the fastest, with wireless charging speeds capped at 5W. Our top recommendations were Apple’s own MagSafe Battery Pack (its added functionality and ease of use outweighed its price tag and limited capacity) and Mophie’s Snap+ Juice Pack Mini, which for $US50 ($69) was sleek and small but still offered 7.5W charging speeds.
Anker’s upgraded offering looks like it checks all the right boxes for the improvements we wanted to see. Its charging speed has been bumped to 7.5W when wirelessly charging an iPhone 12 or 13 model through a MagSafe connection, although a USB-C port on the side can also be used to charge a smartphone even faster at 20W when adding a cable back into the mix. Anker has even included a USB-A port for those with older charging cables who don’t want to opt for a USB-C adaptor.
The upgraded 10,000 mAh battery can fully recharge any smartphone currently available (although the MagSafe functionality is exclusive to recent iPhones) and moreso, as Anker claims an iPhone 12 can be fully recharged twice, and the battery can almost charge an iPhone 13 twice. The larger battery does mean the new power bank is a bit thicker than last year’s model, but Anker’s included a pop-out kickstand for those finding themselves exhausted from holding their iPhone with this attached.
As for pricing, while the Anker PowerCore Magnetic 5K sold for $US55 ($76), the new 10,000 mAh option sees a reasonable price bump to $US80 ($111), according to 9to5Toys.