Apple has certified the first car-mount MagSafe charger more than two years after launching the wireless charging standard on the iPhone 12 in 2020.
The Belkin Boost Charge Pro wireless charging mount is now available for pre-order from Apple.com and comes with a hefty price tag of $99.95.
Prices in the US are quoted without sales taxes. Converting the dollar price to rand and adding 15% VAT comes to around R2,070.
However, with the rand’s weakness, it is rare for devices to sell at close to their US retail prices in South Africa. Likely the charger will be even a few hundred rands more expensive than this converted price.
The device is designed for mounting to a car’s air conditioning vents and allows for attaching a MagSafe-enabled iPhone horizontally or vertically.
The charger supports up to 15W MagSafe charging and includes a USB-C cable and CLA adapter for plugging it into a 12V socket.
Users can attach the phone with one hand without adjusting any clips to hold their iPhone in place.
There are already numerous much cheaper car-mount wireless iPhone chargers on the market, but these do not offer genuine support for MagSafe.
Shoppers can find several such chargers on Takealot, some of which even claim to be “certified” with charging speeds up to 20W.
But as MacRumors has pointed out, these “MagSafe” car-mount chargers actually only use the MagSafe ring on the iPhone’s back to attach the phone magnetically.
Instead of filling the battery directly through MagSafe charging, they use Qi wireless charging, which offers only half the charging speed of MagSafe on iPhone.
In South Africa, the iStore sells a magnetic snap vent mount for R499 that also lets users attach their iPhone with one hand. However, it does not support wireless charging.
