Apple iPhone Air: Teardown shows Apple's expensive MagSafe power bank in detail

The battery of the iPhone Air has a capacity of just 3,149mAh. While this is less than virtually all competing smartphones, it is only a bit smaller than the 3,274mAh battery of the iPhone 15 Pro. In first reviews, the ultrathin smartphone had a fairly usable runtime, but power users will hardly get through the day. For this group of customers, Apple offers an iPhone Air MagSafe battery for $99, which is supposed to extend the smartphone's battery life by 65%.

iFixit was now able to disassemble this very expensive magnetic power bank, and the video embedded below shows that the MagSafe battery, with a height of around 0.3 inches, is actually thicker than the iPhone Air itself. In combination with the smartphone, it measures 0.52 inches, meaning the iPhone Air with the power bank is actually 48% thicker than a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. In order to open the power bank, the glued back cover must be torn off, which makes repairs significantly more difficult. The battery itself is glued into the housing with the same adhesive as in the iPhone, meaning it can be released by applying voltage.

It is surprising that Apple uses the same 12.26Wh battery in the power bank that is also used in the iPhone Air. This should make it much easier to get replacement parts. The reason the power bank can still only charge the iPhone Air from 0 to 65% is that the remaining energy is lost during wireless charging. That being said, the power bank is almost three times as thick as the 0.11-inch battery because the plastic casing simply wouldn't be robust enough if it were any thinner.