Review: Belkin's MagSafe Car Charger Brings Faster Wireless Charging to Your Vehicle

[SurferPup]

Sweet! I have 4 of the non powered ones. Love MacRumours as I discover items like these. Tried to purchase the 10 watt version as need before I go on beach holidays in nine days - error on Belkin.com/au, not in Apple.com/au yet plus Apple.com will take to long to arrive however eBay cheaper plus eBay Plus membership discount and will arrive in three days. Love MacRumours, Belkin and Mophie products.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

For $100, this should also include a wireless-to-wired CarPlay bridge for vehicles without native wireless CarPlay.

 

[svish]

Good charger. But price should have been lower.

 

[bobnugget]

My experience of the previous non charging and qi charging mounts are that they are completely fine, fit on the vent very securely and hold the phone very securely too. The only issue I have is that once when removing one from a car the entire vent came with it … guess the glue was old!

 

[7149041]

It only makes some sense in cars with no CarPlay or wireless CarPlay, but I'd still be worried about the heat.

 

[compwiz1202]

The price is insane. I paid under $30 for something that does that exact same thing while also not blocking my vents (some of us use those) because it clips into my CD changer slot. This is just crazy.

I loved mine but our new vehicles have no slots

 

[sigsegv]

the first magnetic car charger able to charge ‌MagSafe‌ iPhones at up to 15W

Ummm.. I've been doing that for over a year with a RAP-B-202-AP-MAGU and Apple's MagSafe puck on my existing RAM base. Far better and more secure than this overpriced vent clip.

Some will argue semantics, but what is a magnetic car charger if not just a MagSafe puck on a car mount?

 

[alecgold]

Ummm.. I've been doing that for over a year with a RAP-B-202-AP-MAGU and Apple's MagSafe puck on my existing RAM base. Far better and more secure than this overpriced vent clip.

Some will argue semantics, but what is a magnetic car charger if not just a MagSafe puck on a car mount?

magnets in a MagSafe puck are not that powerful. A sharp really hard bump and the phones flies off. Had that happen a few times in the last year.

 

[anticipate]

I don’t get this product. There seems to be a lot of interfering technologies making this product obsolete save for a few situations.
1. It is definitely slated for a vehicle.
2. It uses USB-C style cord.
3. Most vehicles that have adopted USB-C also adopt CarPlay.
4. This magsafe charging protocol does not allow for CarPlay at the same time.
5. So the use case is wireless CarPlay, MagSafe charging with this device.
6. Another use case is MagSafe charging and Bluetooth audio but no CarPlay and my car has to have USB-C

Most cars with wireless CarPlay have MagSafe like charging already.

I don’t get it.

Uh I use this very product and wireless CarPlay (via a wireless CarPlay dongle add on) and it works just fine. What are you talking about?

Should get your facts straight

 

[anticipate]

magnets in a MagSafe puck are not that powerful. A sharp really hard bump and the phones flies off. Had that happen a few times in the last year.

Yes. The magnets on the car mount are a LOT stronger. Though I’ll admit the Belkin unpowered MagSafe car mount is significantly stronger than this new one, but the charging model is still a lot stronger than a basic MagSafe puck. I’ve owned both, use all three.

 

[sigsegv]

magnets in a MagSafe puck are not that powerful. A sharp really hard bump and the phones flies off. Had that happen a few times in the last year.

Never happened to me, not even on off-road trails (4Runner). I guess it depends on the phone+case+mount+vehicle, but the Apple branded puck had the best strength of all the charging ones I tried. The RAM Mount base I'm using can also hold my iPad solidly (while off-roading) if I swap the MagSafe for the tablet holder.

If I was worried about mount strength there's no way I'd want something hanging off my vents.

 

[sigsegv]

Yes. The magnets on the car mount are a LOT stronger. Though I’ll admit the Belkin unpowered MagSafe car mount is significantly stronger than this new one, but the charging model is still a lot stronger than a basic MagSafe puck. I’ve owned both, use all three.

I have the Moment MagSafe cheese plate - and initially used that on my RAM Mount base. The magnets on that are much stronger too, but I've had zero issues with the Apple MagSafe puck.

I imagine if you use it with a base that has a lot of vibration wobble it might not hold up.

 

[1k5]

Uh I use this very product and wireless CarPlay (via a wireless CarPlay dongle add on) and it works just fine. What are you talking about?

Should get your facts straight

Interesting response. Sounds like you had to buy yet another product to even make this nichey tool function properly and confirming my post further.

What about my “facts” do I need to get straight, I’m quite confused which ones are not true?

 

[whyyou]

I bought this and my phone says it was charging but it loses power and gets hot. After a 40 minute drive my phone went from 48% to 44%. I was only using maps navigation and playing music. Cellular reception was excellent. QI charger did not perform like stated. I used the 12v/120 watt cigarette lighter outlet in my car. Wasn’t underpowered.

 

[compwiz1202]

I bought this and my phone says it was charging but it loses power and gets hot. After a 40 minute drive my phone went from 48% to 44%. I was only using maps navigation and playing music. Cellular reception was excellent. QI charger did not perform like stated. I used the 12v/120 watt cigarette lighter outlet in my car. Wasn’t underpowered.

Don't like the fact the cable is permanently attached. Maybe a better cable would have worked, but no way to even try that. And does it come with the car charger, or is that just in the pic to show what you need to use?

 

[alecgold]

Yes. The magnets on the car mount are a LOT stronger. Though I’ll admit the Belkin unpowered MagSafe car mount is significantly stronger than this new one, but the charging model is still a lot stronger than a basic MagSafe puck. I’ve owned both, use all three.

That surprises me, because the magnets in my unpowered belkin wasn’t that strong either. Noticeably stronger then the puck, that’s for sure, but still.
Then again, my Quadlock MagSafe case has much stronger magnets compared to my Mouse MagSafe-bike case. I do like the Quadlock Mag case a lot.

 

[anticipate]

Interesting response. Sounds like you had to buy yet another product to even make this nichey tool function properly and confirming my post further.

What about my “facts” do I need to get straight, I’m quite confused which ones are not true?

You can use wireless car play while charging with magsafe.