This week, Apple is releasing the new iPhone 17e. It doubles the storage and adds “MagSafe magic” to the $599 iPhone 16e replacement. Apple’s decision to introduce MagSafe to the iPhone’s last holdout means that every iPhone has a useful hardware feature not offered on Samsung phones.
When Apple introduced the iPhone 16e a year ago, it didn’t make much sense not to include MagSafe in the lower-priced model. The iPhone 16e technically replaced the iPhone SE, which didn’t have MagSafe charging.
For the first time since MagSafe was introduced on the iPhone 12 in October 2020, every new iPhone sold by Apple is MagSafe-enabled and doesn’t require a case.
By adding a strong magnetic connection to the back of your iPhone, you can attach accessories like wallets, stands, and battery packs. The charging coil position also clicks into place, greatly improving wireless charging.
Meanwhile, on Samsung mainland, critics are criticizing the company for choosing not to include magnets in even the most premium Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The reason, they say, is because most people use cases.
Last month, The Verge asked Samsung executives about the company’s decision to continue offering features like MagSafe in 2026.
We asked Wonjoon Choi, an executive responsible for both research and development and operations for Samsung’s mobile business. He says increasing the thickness of the magnet is a bad trade-off since you’re just buying the case anyway.
“80 to 90 percent of people use cases, and recently cases with magnets are popular,” he says.
Samsung would rather use that extra height to put bigger batteries in its phones or make them thinner, he says.
That’s not to say Samsung isn’t researching magnets. “We’re still doing a lot of research to make sure we don’t sacrifice anything inside the phone. Once we actually achieve that, we’ll integrate it,” he says.
Of course, Apple managed to fit MagSafe inside the impossibly thin iPhone Air. Blah blah blah and the battery life is perfectly usable.
Samsung, on the other hand, is leaving it up to case manufacturers to standardize magnet placement, strength, and quality, which all but guarantees a mixed experience with the accessory. If the mobile phone itself sets the standard for support for magnetic accessories, then the story is much simpler.
