Magnetic Tip Cables, MagSafe, and USB-PD
I’ve been using ‘magnetic tip cables’, including Apple’s laptop MagSafe and old USB-A magnetic tip cables from generic brands, not knowing the full risks of what they entail. Before I get into the story, I do want to make one thing clear: Apple’s MagSafe is safe. It’s not the reason why I am writing this piece, but there are products advertised to mimic MagSafe for laptops, so do watch out.
My search for magnetic tip cables goes a bit far back, when micro USB was the king of the hill. Most devices were moving away from AA or AAA batteries to rechargeable. USB was and still is a revolution in consumer electronics especially in charging, but they were pain to align properly by the port. Let’s not forget the infamous superposition joke of USB-A was also affecting micro USB. I wanted the reversibility of Lightning for micro USB. I also wanted a connector that will “click” like Lightning. In comes the generic magnetic tip cables in micro USB era.
For those of you who haven’t used one before, magnetic tip cables are just like MagSafe for MacBooks, only that it has the magnetic tip that goes into the USB port. As far as I know, no established manufacturers made magnetic tip cables; and the generic kinds weren’t compatible with each other. If you bought a pack of 3, 3 cables and 3 micro USB tips, it was unlikely you could find an extra tip for more devices. For USB 2.0 days, when 5w was the standard, magnetic tip was a convenient accessory.
In comes USB-PD and USB-C, where devices are pulling up to 240w. Magnetic tip cables are safety hazard, or so I am gathering from the posts and threads of users who had their devices damaged from either the faulty cable or the faulty tip. In my experience, tips were likely to be damaged the most, as it is inherently exposed to the elements and does not have protections that are built in to the spec. On top of it all, I had difficulty finding a right USB-C tip, even for USB-A to C type set, as tips were often too loosely attached to the port — it would be pulled out as the magnetic cable is being pulled.
Ultimately the question is in the spec. Magnetic tip was never factored in during the design phase of USB-B or C, and it is entirely up to the manufacturer to come up with the tip and the cable that will safely work in relative high power applications. And unfortunately, I haven’t found one that is from a well known manufacturer and its specs have been tested by the real reviewers with some beefy equipments. During USB 2.0 era, we were talking about measly 5w; and now the USB standard can provide up to 240w, with 100w being common enough to power most laptops.
All in all, I believe it is safe to say magnetic tip cables are no more for the being, unless you are using a proprietary standard such as MagSafe. MagSafe for iPhone has already been incorporated into the Qi, and I genuinely hope something similar can be done with iPad and MacBooks. So that they at least should share the charging standard aside from USB-C.