MagSafe Duo Charger Reviewed ⇥ techcrunch.com

Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch does not seem to be impressed with Apple’s new MagSafe Duo Charger:

For context, you have to understand that this thing is $129 but feels like it should be $70. When you realize that it is a charger that doesn’t come with a power adapter, I would not be shocked if you mentally downgraded it to $40. The charger does come with a Lighting to USB-C cable in the box. That cable assumes, which I don’t think is at all universally true yet, that you have a USB-C power brick. But the Lightning port on the charger itself does ensure that you can use this with any existing Lightning charging cables.

I still think — perhaps irrationally — that it is totally fine to remove the power adapter and headphones from iPhone boxes this year. You can still use your existing Lightning cables and, if you have a recent Mac, it will work with the cable in the box.

But I do not understand why this product, regardless of price, does not include an adapter. Someone buying this is almost certainly going to either throw it in their maybe I can travel again bag or set it up on their night stand. Either way, they are going to need a thing to get electricity out of the wall and into the wire. And, sure, you can use any old Lightning cable and adapter you have kicking around, but it’s going to charge slowly, which rather spoils the point.

Also, per Panzarino’s review, the press molded rubber looks pretty bad at the edges even out of the box, and it shows creases strongly in the middle. Because the MagSafe connector is so strongly magnetic, Panzarino says that the Duo sometimes lifts when you try to take the phone off. Perhaps most baffling is that the embargo dropped on this product but it still isn’t available and there is no forecasted date for when it will be. I am not sure I understand this product at all which, in Canada and paired with a 20W adapter, comes to just shy of $200.