MagSafe is one of the iPhone 12's big new features, offering simple and convenient wireless charging. Unfortunately, the charging speed is slow.

A video published by the Wall Street Journal shows the iPhone 12 charging to 50% in 28 minutes using a 20W fast charger. On the other hand, it took one hour with a 15W output MagSafe charger.

When testing the MagSafe charging speed in the iPhone 12 Pro review, the MagSafe charger was allowed to charge for 30 minutes. 30 minutes of charging got it up to 39%, which seems quite reasonable. However, the WSJ test shows that charging for another 30 minutes does not seem to increase the charge that much.

Apple has not provided a rated charging speed for its new wireless charger, but we would expect it to be not half as fast as a wired charger, even though the wattage is 75%. At the very least, it is faster than the Anker third-party wireless charger tested by the WSJ.

Another criticism made in Stern's review was that the MagSafe cable seemed short; at 3 feet (or 1 meter), it is the same length as a regular charging cable, including the one in the iPhone 12 box. However, the MagSafe connector is attached in the center of the iPhone rather than at one end, so it will probably feel shorter than a regular USB to Lightning cable.

More bad news was found in the iPhone 12 battery test: with 5G enabled, the iPhone 12's continuous web browsing time was a disappointing 8 hours 25 minutes. Both models performed better on 4G, but the results were still disappointing.

The official release dates for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro were announced today, and the smaller iPhone 12 Mini and larger iPhone 12 Pro Max will be available next month. While the battery and charging are not noteworthy, the new iPhones still impress with superior performance, photography, and a fresh new design.

However, if charging speed is important to you, we recommend using the $19 USB-C charging brick instead of the $39 MagSafe charger.