I Simply Won’t Travel Without This Cheap iPhone Accessory

I’ve spent a lot of time on the road. Or should I say, in the air. I’ve flown about 75,000 miles a year for the last several years. And in that time, this simple iPhone accessory has become my must-have travel companion.

Although Apple’s latest Apple silicon-powered MacBooks have cured my power anxiety when it comes to my laptop, my iPhone still feels the pain every time I head to the airport. Mapping my way to the airport, listening to podcasts, checking my flight status, and more—routine travel activities are a big battery drain.

The solution? A simple iPhone accessory. And no, it’s not a wall charger and a cable—but close! It’s the one piece of tech I simply won’t travel without.

The accessory in question is a humble MagSafe battery pack. MagSafe debuted on the iPhone 12, and yet it took me until the iPhone 14 to truly fall in love with the tech. And not because I use it for charging at home or docking my phone at my desk, though many of my colleagues rave about MagSafe in all areas of their lives. My love of MagSafe is simple and focused on just this one accessory: the battery pack.

I use a relatively cheap $40 MagSafe battery from Anker, and this one purchase means I never have to worry about my phone dying or hunting for a wall plug at an airport or coffee shop. Better yet, I don’t have to think about carrying an extra USB cable and charger, which never fit in a pocket as cleanly as this little pack does. I just pull out the battery, slap it on the back of my phone, and I have a worry-free 100% recharge over the next couple of hours.

Sure, recharging the battery via wireless charging isn’t as fast as a wall charger, it makes the phone a bit heavy and cumbersome, and it gets a little warm. But again, I repeat, thanks to a little slap-on magnetic battery pack I do not need to worry about cables or chargers. I’ll take all of those little trade-offs in order to keep going about my day without ever being worried about charging.

Sure, I could always opt for a bigger phone for a little more battery life. But even though I have pretty big hands, I haven’t given in and resorted to the “Max” iPhone—because, frankly, I’d only buy one for the battery life. I don’t feel the need for the extra screen size. So why would I carry around this bigger phone all the time when I only need the extra battery some of the time? I’d rather have a phone that fits in my pocket and bring the battery with me for travel days. It’s the perfect solution, and it only cost me $40.

Once you start looking, you’ll find lots of variations of the MagSafe battery pack to suit your specific needs (but not first-party, though, because, oddly, Apple discontinued its own version). Anker makes one that pulls double duty with a kickstand, and a huge 10,000mAh one if you’re a real power user—though the latter seems a bit overkill. There are slimmer ones and heftier ones. And some have a built-in charging cable, too, if you want that extra utility to charge other devices.

But no matter which one you choose it’s a great way to make the most of MagSafe even if you haven’t given it a second glance before. And trust me, MagSafe fan or not, you’re going to want one of these handy battery packs for those long days away from home.