The iPhone 16e lacks support for MagSafe charging, an omission that has dominated conversations about Apple’s cheapest iPhone model this week. Initially, there was speculation that MagSafe might have been excluded due to interference with Apple’s C1 chip, which is its first-ever cellular modem designed for the iPhone.
Yesterday, Apple confirmed that the C1 has nothing to do with the omission of MagSafe on the iPhone 16e. New testing conducted by an iPhone case accessory manufacturer and shared with 9to5Mac adds more detail to the situation.
iPhone 16e MagSafe and C1 testing
The accessory manufacturer ran two tests. First, it focused on wireless charging speeds. Even though the iPhone 16e itself doesn’t feature MagSafe support, you can still use a third-party case with built-in magnets to achieve similar functionality. If you do so, this testing reveals that you’ll receive noticeably higher wireless charging speeds.
In its testing, the case manufacturer found that the iPhone 16e has highly variable wireless charging rates when charging without a MagSafe-enabled case and magnetic alignment. This can largely be attributed to the fact that it’s harder to get a precise placement on the wireless charger without that magnetic alignment.
iPhone 16e charging speeds with no case and manual alignment:
- Cycle 1: 4.2W
- Cycle 2: 5.0W
- Cycle 3: 4.7W
- Cycle 4: 5.9W
- Cycle 5: 6.5W
Meanwhile, when charging via a case with built-in MagSafe and magnetic alignment, the iPhone 16e also charged at 7.5W in all five charging cycles. This is the exact charging speed quoted by Apple in its tech specs for the device.
The case manufacturer also conducted tests on whether a MagSafe- enabled case and charging puck impacted cellular data speeds. Again, Apple already debunked this theory, but the results from this speed test add more support to Apple’s claim.
The testing was conducted using a Rogers cellular connection via the Google Internet Speed Test tool in Safari. All results in Mbps.
No Case
- Cycle 1: 194.2
- Cycle 2: 194.0
- Cycle 3: 192.1
- Cycle 4: 200.5
- Cycle 5: 202.0
MagSafe-enabled Case
- Cycle 1: 193.6
- Cycle 2: 198.8
- Cycle 3: 194.6
- Cycle 4: 201.1
- Cycle 5: 197.8
MagSafe-enabled Case + MagSafe Puck
- Cycle 1: 196.1
- Cycle 2: 190.2
- Cycle 3: 195.7
- Cycle 4: 196.8
- Cycle 5: 199.1
As you can see, these numbers confirm that there is no interference between the C1 modem in the iPhone 16e and MagSafe magnets. This leads me to believe that the MagSafe omission on the iPhone 16e was, unfortunately, a cost-saving decision by Apple. We might learn more once the first iPhone 16e teardowns emerge in the coming weeks.
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