Best MagSafe power bank for iPhone 2026: how many charges each really gives, by its own maker

An iPhone 15 Pro has 3,274 mAh. That is an official figure: Apple does not publish it in its technical specifications, but it does publish it on the European Union energy label it has been required to show in its European store since June 2025.

If a 10,000 mAh power bank delivered 10,000 mAh, that phone would charge three times. Take the listing of any magnetic power bank and look at the second-to-last bullet: it says 1.8 charges.

There is no argument to have and no third party to trust. It is the manufacturer publishing the number that dismantles its own headline, on the same page as the headline. And they all do it.

One of them even explains why. INIU's own support pages put the conversion loss at an industry-standard 30% to 40%, and work an example through: a 27,000 mAh pack, they say, typically provides about 16,200 to 18,900 mAh of usable power. That is the arithmetic of this entire guide, published by a manufacturer in the category.

This is the confusion that costs most money in this category, and it is settled by one word.

MagSafe is Apple's magnet system. Qi2 is the open standard that copied those magnets and also the speed: 15 watts. A product can have the magnets without the speed, and then it is advertised as MagSafe compatible and charges at 7.5 watts, which is half.

What is interesting is that the brands do not entirely hide it. They declare it, just in bullet point four.

Magnetic charging has three steps and your phone decides which one you get. From the iPhone 12 to the 15, the ceiling is Qi2 at 15 watts: a 25-watt pack will not go any faster on those models. From the iPhone 16 onwards, Qi2.2 at 25 watts opens up, with two exceptions that INIU takes the trouble to write on its own listing: the iPhone 16e and 17e are excluded.

In terms of what you will notice: on an iPhone 15 Pro, going from 7.5 to 15 watts is the difference between about half an hour and well over an hour to reach half a battery. Going from 15 to 25, on an iPhone that supports it, is roughly 18 minutes less to 50 per cent, according to the figure INIU publishes. And any of the three steps is still slower than plugging in a cable.

Several of these listings advertise themselves as flight approved or airline safe. That is still true, and it is still incomplete.

On 27 March 2026 new specifications from the International Civil Aviation Organization came into force. Its announcement says two things in as many words: that these devices are limited to two per passenger and that passengers will be prohibited from recharging them during flight. It was approved by the 36 states of the Council and applies across its 193 member states.

For flights here, the Civil Aviation Authority sets out the same package and adds the detail that matters at the gate: they must be in carry-on baggage and never in the hold, they must be individually protected (original packaging, taped terminals or a separate bag), and they should not be used to charge other devices during the flight either. You may also be asked to keep the pack in the seat pocket rather than the overhead locker.

The capacity limit did not change and is the same as ever: up to 100 watt-hours travels with no permission needed, 100 to 160 requires the airline's approval, and above 160 does not fly. None of the ten here comes close: the largest, at 20,000 mAh, is about 74 watt-hours.

There are three situations where the magnets are money wasted, and no guide in this category says so.

If you are going to use it on a bedside table or a desk. For that you do not want a battery, you want a charger plugged into the wall: it is faster, it does not run down, and it does not sit warm against the phone. Our charger guide covers that case.

If you use a thick case or one with a card holder. The magnet has to reach through it. With a thin silicone case nothing happens; with one over three millimetres, or with cards inside, the pack peels off in your pocket and you discover mid-afternoon that it has charged nothing at all.

If what you want is the most charge per pound. Then the magnets work against you twice: wireless charging wastes more energy, and the same money buys less capacity. The two cable packs in this line-up deliver more and cost less.