Anyone Using Detachable / Magnetic Charging Cables?

[Slydude]

Over the last several months I've seen an add or two for detachable/magnetic charging cables. The cables seem to attempt to mimic the purpose of MagSafe connectors but they're designed for other devices. The link above is one example but there are others. One brand has reviews ranging from 1 to 5 stars on Amazon.

Anyone using these? If so what are your impressions/thoughts?

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[Rod]

I did have one for my iPhone for a while but for me it had a couple of functional drawbacks. It worked perfectly for charging and syncing but the lightening tip is difficult to remove especially if you have a case on the phone as I did. If you remove it to say, connect headphones or to use a different cable in the car it is small and easily misplaced. In my case the magnetic connector also had I tiny, high intensity, blue LED when active making it useless for overnight charging because it illuminated the whole bedroom. So I gave up using it. Now with a Qi charger and the multitude of Bluetooth accessories it hardly seems necessary, but it did work well and I still have it.


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[Slydude]

Thanks Rod

The idea of that tip being hard to remove did not occur to me until I saw a video where one of the brands includes a removal tool to make that easier to do. In looking at the video the prospect of loosing the tip had not occurred to me. Neither had the possibility of the tip having a light. That might be an issue for my wife. She already thinks I've got enough blue lights on my desk from carious connectors and cables.

I was debating using something like this in the car since we typically have a lightning and micro usb cables plugged in at the same time but are usually only using one at a time.

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[Rod]

Of course, what occured to me was that if I had say, three of these cables I wouldn't need to remove the tip (often) but the kight was the light was a problem. My wife likes a pitch black bedroom for sleeping. I even tried electrical tape but it was only partially successful. Perhaps they do not all have this little light, it certainly wasn't mentioned in the advertising.

 

[Slydude]

Did you find that the tips caught on things (pockets etc) when they were not plugged into the cable? It occurred to me that if this were common it might damage the charging port?

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[Rod]

No, but they may differ a little. Mine was almost flush with the outside surface of the case. It was another thought of mine at the time that the tip would also help prevent dust and debris from getting in that port. If I could leave it in all the time. Goes back to having multiple cables again I guess. One for the car, desk, bedside etc.

 

[Slydude]

That's good to know. If I do this I'd probably invest in a couple of cables (home, car, and work for example). It would cut down on the number of cables on my disk since I rarely charge more than one device at a time.

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