An overview of MagSafe accessories for everyone: wallet, wireless charger, tripods and bike mounts versus $11/u_b$ adapter
There are tons of MagSafe accessories now available, and we’ve rounded up our favorites here, from wallets and wireless chargers to tripods and bike mounts. An easy way to tell a MagSafe case apart from a regular case is to look for a ring of magnets on the inside of it in product images. The product name and description may contain clues about whether the case is MagSafe.
You could also get Belkin’s $60 BoostCharge Magnetic Wireless Car Charger, which is “MagSafe compatible,” meaning it holds your phone using magnets, but can only charge at 10W, instead of 15W. I might go with that version over the MagSafe one because I think it would work better to charge my phone faster in the summer.
The Belkin’s extremely wordy name basically spells out exactly how it works: you clip it onto your car vent, and it holds your iPhone up so you can see whatever maps or music controls are on it (in theory, anyways — a lot of car vents struggle to stay in place under the weight of a phone and mount). 15W of charging power is more than can be pulled from standard wireless charging points.
This is a great use for Apple’s MagSafe tech. That’s why it was so surprising when Belkin basically announced this exact thing the day after the iPhone 12 introduced MagSafe — except it cost $40 and it bafflingly left off the ability to actually charge your phone. You know, the main thing you’d want it to do if you were trying to use a power-hungry navigation app.
The mount can also swivel your phone from portrait to landscape, for however you like to see your directions. It is a perfect accessory for the majority of the time, but it costs almost double the price at more than $100.
I do understand that MagSafe accessories generally don’t come cheap, but I think most people will probably want to at least consider other, less expensive options. Spigen makes a $21 version of this that acts as a receptacle for a $39 MagSafe puck. You would still be saving a bit of change if you went for the fancy $20 dual-usb-c 12V adapter instead of the less fancy $20 one. Spigen has a version that comes in black, which will stand out against most dashboards, while Belkin only has a version that comes in white.
The Everyday Case of Peak Design: A Universal Bar Mount for Kick Scooters and Folding eBikes on Any Handlebar
With that said, let me introduce you to the beauty of Peak Design’s Everyday Case. It functions fine as a case itself. The buttons feel good and the fabric texture on the back is nice. I wouldn’t have minded a bigger lip around the edges to protect the screen, and the company could stand to offer a few more color options—I really love the new sage color for the iPhone 14 Everyday Case, but sadly, it’s not available for the Samsung and Google cases.
You’re able to choose the case for theGalaxy S22 or S21 lineup, or the Pixel 6 or 7 series, with magnets in the rear. Peak Design’s Slimlink mounting system is pictured in the center. It adds an extra level of security for certain accessories—specifically, bike and tripod mounts—so that it doesn’t rely on magnets alone; the phone won’t fly off when you go over a small bump on the road.
I test a lot of electric kick scooters and folding ebikes, and the Universal Bar Mount has been my favorite accessory for this reason alone. It’s easy to install on any handlebar, and I don’t need to fuss at all to mount my device. My phone has never lost use after more than a year of use, and I have attached a Universal Adapter to aPixel 5A in order to keep it in use. It’s just as easy to remove a phone from this mount too; just push a button at the top or bottom of the mount to release it.