As far as charging is concerned, Apple made some very unpopular decisions this year. First, they removed the charging brick from the iPhone 12 box. And now it turns out that the MagSafe Duo does not charge as fast as everyone had hoped.

Despite forcing users to purchase a separate 20W fast charger that adds $19 to the MagSafe Duo's $129 price tag, the dual-device wireless charger proved to be barely able to charge at half that speed.

As Bloomberg's Mark Gurnam discovered, Apple updated its MagSafe Duo store page to reveal this disappointing news: it turns out that even with a 20W power brick, it can only charge devices at a speed of 11W, and even faster Apple stated that a 27W charger is required if you want to achieve higher speeds. Unfortunately, the maximum charging speed for this charger is 14W.

As Gurnam points out, Apple does not even currently sell a 27W charging brick. Supposedly this is compatible with the MagSafe Duo, but it can only charge up to 14W speed. Needless to say, this is very disappointing.

Anyone with a regular MagSafe charger will be unaware of these problems: even with the 20W power brick, it is limited to a 15W speed, which is also why the iPhone 12 charges so slowly. However, 15W is far superior to 11W, and it is not clear why the MagSafe Duo is so slow.

Naturally, it is easy to assume that heat issues are involved, and Apple has intentionally limited the MagSafe Duo to prevent overheating during the charging process. This is unfortunate for those hoping to get one this year, but the good news is that a solution may be on the horizon in the form of another accessory.

Apple has just been granted a new patent for a magnetic case that fits on the back of the phone and acts as a heat sink. iPhones can detect the case in a variety of ways, including magnetic fields, RFID, and NFC signals, and once detected, it can reach temperatures higher than normally allowed Once detected, the case can be heated to a higher temperature than normally allowed. The case then soaks up some of the excess heat to protect the phone.

If such a case were to be made and sold (not all patents reach that far), one can speculate that Apple would be free to increase MagSafe's charging speed to something more appropriate. However, additional purchases would be less desirable for those who are already frustrated by the requirement to wear a case and have to buy more products to get the most out of the charging pad.

Unfortunately, this technology will not be directly incorporated into the iPhone 13. This is because the patent recognizes that overheating the phone itself could lead to failures inside the device, including melting of solder connections, a defect we are not willing to deal with. However, such a heat-dissipating magnetic case could easily appear in time for the iPhone 13.

Until then, our advice is to avoid the MagSafe Duo and opt for a regular MagSafe charger or the best wireless charger that can charge up to three devices at once.