Apple’s MagSafe magnet-centric charging and accessory system is a very neat feature on the iPhone 12 models, even though there have been reports of a few foibles. But since laying my eyes on it I’ve been thinking there’s a lot more to be had out of MagSafe. Enter Moment.
Best known for making camera accessories, Moment has shown off a range of MagSafe accessories for the iPhone 12. And I’m pretty excited.
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The most interesting of the accessories is a tripod for the iPhone 12. Now smartphone tripods are nothing new, but I’ve always found them a little fiddly to set up quickly and use without swearing at how annoying it is to get a phone to sit neatly and securely in a grip. Moment’s tripod uses MagSafe and looks as easy to use as a MagSafe charger itself.
And with the improved camera capabilities of the iPhone 12 Pro, and the upcoming powerful lenses of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, this type of accessory should have budding video makers rather intrigued. As should Moment's Multi Threaded Mount, which allows an iPhone 12 to be attached to it using MagSafe but then provides a cold shoe mount above it to attach a light or microphone and help you capture better photos or videos.
Again, when combined with the iPhone 12 Max's camera features, such as sensor-shift optical image stabilization, such an accessory could be one way for me to ditch my DSLR for video shooting and embrace the ease of smartphone-based video capture.
The whole thing looks pretty neat and easy to use, showcasing how MagSafe could be the quiet partner to the iPhone 12’s camera capabilities. I'm expecting to be able to capture some truly impressive photos, as well as videos in with Dolby Vision HDR.
But Moment also has some other reasonably slick MagSafe accessories, such as a car vent mount. If you’ve tried neatly fixing your phone to a car vent using a bracket then you’ll know the frustration of needing to spend time setting it up, then repeating the process in reverse when removing it.
A MagSafe version looks set to trivialize that process. Sure, we’re only talking a few moments of your time saved. But quality-of-life features like this can quietly transform the experience of using a smartphone for more things than texting or posting nonsense to Twitter.
Moment also showed off MagSafe cases with wrist straps and a MagSafe wall mount for the iPhone 12. The former is uninspired in my humble opinion, but likely useful for some folks of a clumsy disposition. While the latter is a little bizarre, as I’m not sure who would want to mount an iPhone 12 to a wall unless they want a convenient way to store their iPhone when working from a small desk.
Nevertheless, Moment’s clutch of MagSafe accessories have further shown that there's a lot of potential to be had from MagSafe. I’m hoping someone makes a MagSafe controller for the iPhone 12 range, as quickly connecting some game controllers to phones has been a cumbersome process in the past.
And I’m also hoping MagSafe will come to next-generation iPads as well, as faster and neater ways to mount them to accessories is something I’m keen on. Heck, I’d also like to see MagSafe return in some form for MacBooks too, though that’s not likely given the current MacBook range has fully embraced USB-C connections; we’ll have to wait and see what an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro brings to the party.
Update: Since MagSafe's debut we've seen a suite of accessories, including Razer's new and bizarre iPhone 13 MagSafe cooler.
