The iPhone 12 is among the best smartphones of the last year, but battery life was one area that received some legitimate criticism, particularly when it came to the iPhone 12 mini.
While it may not be the most timely release, Apple does finally have a solution for iPhone 12 owners that could use a little extra battery life with the MagSafe Battery Pack (via 9to5Mac).
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The $99 MagSafe Battery Pack attaches to the back of your iPhone 12 magnetically and gives you an extra 1460mAh. There's just a single size available that fits on all four iPhone 12 models, although it looks a bit outsized on the diminutive iPhone 12 mini — the device that would most benefit from the MagSafe Battery Pack.
That battery pack represents a roughly 64% boost for the iPhone 12 mini battery which comes in at 2227mAh. The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro both feature a 2815mAh battery, so owners get a 52% bump. The iPhone 12 Pro Max alone got a considerably larger 3687mAh battery, but that's still about a 40% increase with the battery pack.
Apple hasn't offered any official projections regarding the additional runtimes you could expect from the battery pack, but here's a quick look at what you get when you apply the size increase to the Laptop Mag battery test results for all four models.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Original battery test result | Projected increase based battery size |
| iPhone 12 mini | 7:21 | 12:03 |
| iPhone 12 | 8:25 | 12:47 |
| iPhone 12 Pro | 8:15 | 12:32 |
| iPhone 12 Pro Max | 10:53 | 15:14 |
Keep in mind that is just back of the envelope math based on the increase in battery size, but it should give you a rough idea of what to expect. That would be enough to bring the three smaller iPhone 12 models into the phones with the best battery life alongside the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Of course, having the magnetic battery pack on your phone does take away from the beautiful design of these phones, but the convenience could be worth it.
The MagSafe Battery Pack will charge the iPhone 12 models at about 5 watts, so this isn't a fast charging solution. The pack charges via a Lightning port and supports up to 20W charging, so it should top up quickly.
You will need to be running at least iOS 14.7 to use the MagSafe Battery Pack according to Apple, and it will appear in the battery widget so you can keep track of its charge along with the rest of your devices. You can buy the MagSafe Battery Pack directly from Apple starting today and it should be shipping starting on July 19.
