Belkin’s stylish MagSafe stand quickly powers up iPhone 12 and AirPods [Review]

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Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe review
Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand makes your iPhone ready to use hands free, and it quickly juices up the handset with MagSafe.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe holds your iPhone 12 up so it’s ready for FaceTime calls or just checking email. And it powers up the handset twice as fast as traditional wireless chargers. Plus, it comes with a built-in AirPods charger.

I put this stylish iPhone accessory to the test. Here’s how it performed in the real world.

Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe review

Plugging in a Lightning cable is the traditional way to charge your iPhone, but it’s not necessarily the best way. The iPhone 12 series offers MagSafe, an improved form of wireless charging that uses magnets to align the handset to the charger.

The Boost↑Charge Pro improves on the basic MagSafe design. Rather than a simple puck, it’s a desk stand. Belkin’s charger uses magnets to hold up the iPhone so you can easily see it and use it hands-free while the device juices up.

The charger needs a wide base to make it stable, so Belkin’s designers used all that space to build in an AirPods charger. That lets this one accessory recharge two commonly used Apple devices at the same time.

Hardware and design

Belkin offers this iPhone accessory in either white and silver or black and silver. The look is very modern but not obnoxiously so if that’s not your style.

The Boost↑Charge Pro stands 4.8 inches tall and the base measures 4.6 inches across. It doesn’t take up too much room on a desk, and the base is plenty large enough to be steady. You won’t accidentally knock over this accessory even with an iPhone 12 Pro Max attached to it.

One of my favorite features is that the stand points my iPhone display toward me so Face ID will automatically unlock the device. That’s not true when the iPhone is sitting flat on my desk.

Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand looks great.
The general look of the Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro matches Apple accessories.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

A MagSafe iPhone charger

The Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 looks a lot like Apple’s MagSafe charging puck on a pole because that’s essentially what it is. Place the handset next to the elevated charging ring, and the two will cling together magnetically.

Another of my favorite features of this charger is that the magnets support landscape, portrait and anything in between. You can watch a video in widescreen or read your email in portrait … whichever is more convenient. Just grab the iPhone and turn it.

The magnets in the charger and the iPhone are strong enough to solidly hold the two devices together. There’s certainly no risk the handset will spontaneously fall off, and I can tap on the screen without affecting the connection. A solid knock to the back of the phone will knock it loose, though.

MagSafe works through thin cases. But at this point it’s only available in the iPhone 12 series.

AirPods charger

There’s a second charging mat in a small recess in the base of the Boost↑Charge Pro. It’s intended for an AirPods case that supports wireless charging. This is a standard feature of AirPods Pro, but users of regular AirPods must buy one separately.

If you don’t have AirPods but do have a second iPhone, you can set it on the base of Belkin’s charger to replenish. Don’t be concerned that the mat is in a recess. That doesn’t affect charging the iPhone.

Belkin doesn’t recommend you use the recess as a paper clip holder. Random metallic objects sitting on an inductive charger don’t make a happy combination.

Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand performance

To test the capabilities of this MagSafe charger, I had it juice up my iPhone 12.

Starting with a flat battery, the Boost↑Charge Pro increased the battery level to 35% after half an hour, and to 61% after a full hour. That’s almost exactly the same rate as Apple’s own MagSafe Charger. That’s proof that both provide 15 watts of power.

For comparison, standard wireless chargers can send only 7.5 watts. As a result, they charge iPhones half as fast … something I’ve confirmed many times.

An AirPods wireless charging case can only receive 5 watts of power.

Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand
Belkin’s wireless charging stand holds the iPhone in landscape or portrait orientation.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe final thoughts

Anyone who gets impatient with the speed at which their iPhone recharges but wants the convenience of wireless charging should start using MagSafe. And the Boost↑Charge Pro is one of the better options, especially for those who have AirPods. It looks professional and works well.

Pricing

The Belkin Boost↑Charge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe is sold now exclusively by the online Apple Store. But it’ll also be offered at Belkin.com in the near future.

The cost is $99.95. That’s a premium over most other wireless charging stands, but these generally can’t provide the 2X charging speed of MagSafe.

Comparable products

Belkin made some kind of deal with Apple and got early access to MagSafe tech. That’s why it’s ahead of its competitors. You won‘t find many rival MagSafe-compatible charging stands.

One of the better alternatives is the Elago MS1 Charging Stand ($24.99). You just slip Apple’s own MagSafe puck into this accessory to hold up your iPhone while powering it up.

Those who have an Apple Watch and AirPods might consider the Boost↑Charge Pro MagSafe 3-in-1 Wireless Charger ($149.99) that Belkin announced last autumn.

The Anker PowerWave Magnetic 2-in-1 Stand ($35.99) costs less than either of the Belkin options, but it doesn’t fully support MagSafe. It charges the iPhone 12 at half the speed.

Belkin provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.

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