Who needs 15W charging when you can have these murdered-out looks and $30 left in your pocket? | Image: Nomad Want a fancy-looking charger for your MagSafe-compatible iPhone but don’t

A marketing image of the Nomad Stand and Nomad Base magnetic wireless chargers, in black, sitting beside each other on a gray surface.
Who needs 15W charging when you can have these murdered-out looks and $30 left in your pocket? | Image: Nomad

Want a fancy-looking charger for your MagSafe-compatible iPhone but don’t want to pay such a hefty premium price? Nomad is offering a new pair of chargers that do just that, and the key is cutting out Apple’s true MagSafe compatibility and its required Made for iPhone tax.

The $70 Nomad Base and $80 Nomad Stand launching today are nearly identical to the existing Base One and Stand One, but unlike those models, these new chargers are not officially “Made for MagSafe.” Instead, they are simply wireless Qi with magnets for alignment, and they top out at 7.5W rather than the 15W of true MagSafe, but the compromise on charging speed is made for the sake of your wallet.


Image: Nomad
The Nomad Base keeps your phone flat but also allows for other non-magnetic Qi devices to be charged.

Physically, the new Base and Stand chargers are the spitting image of their pricier MagSafe counterparts, except the white models are now all white (not silver and white) and the black models have a blacked-out charging pad instead of the contrasting white found on true MagSafe chargers. Does it matter in use? Not at all, but if you’re paying Nomad money, then you want top-notch fit and finish — and these black-on-black obelisks look great. It’s a fairly minor thing, but the black Base and Stand look much sleeker this way, and after trying both of them out for a short while, I prefer them to their MagSafe-equipped “One” versions.

Just about everything else from the new Stand One and Base One is here now in the new Stand and Base, including the same CNC-machined aluminum and glass build, the built-in two-meter / 6.6-foot USB-C cable (which I still wish were detachable), and the lack of an included USB-C power adapter. (You once again must provide your own with minimum 20W output.) But the $30 discount on these is substantial enough that I can forgive their single-use purpose and lean more toward enjoying them for their fine build quality and construction.

When you’re paying $100 or $110, it’s hard to ignore that these single-device chargers get close to the price of two-in-one and three-in-one alternatives. While, at $80 and $70, these new chargers still are not cheap, they don’t seem quite as much of a reckless expenditure — especially since the regular act of charging your phone overnight doesn’t really require 15W MagSafe speeds.

Plus, the all-black model is a nice upgrade in the looks department. If I’m going to spend $80 on a charger that trades some functionality for aesthetics, then let’s go all the way with the aesthetics. Saving money in the process is an even nicer perk.

Correction June 13th, 12:53PM ET: The Nomad Base and Stand charge an iPhone at 7.5W, not 75.W as originally stated in the sub-head of this article. We regret the error.


You may also be interested in this

Apple’s Irish tax escrow …

The amount available at the end of the day for either Apple or the Irish government from lengthy legal proceedings over the company’s Irish tax affairs lost almost a billion

iTunes on Windows securit…

Researchers have found a vulnerability in iTunes for Windows that lets users escalate system privileges, and Windows users should update the app.iTunes on Windows has a security flawIn late 2022,

Reality Pro headset signi…

A new report on the upcoming Apple Reality Pro AR/VR headset says that the device is significantly compromised, compared to the company’s original vision for the device. It also says

Final Cut Pro said to be …

According to YouTuber and filmmaker Matti Haapoja, Final Cut Pro will be available for the Apple Vision Pro at launch — but it's not clear exactly how.Final Cut Pro running

Apple restarts beta cycle…

Apple has restarted the beta program with macOS Ventura 13.5, which is now available to download for developer testing.Apple releases new macOS betaDevelopers who are part of the beta program

Apple iPhone leads China …

According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, China’s smartphone market shipped 76.4 million units in 4Q24, a 3.9% year-on-year (YoY) increase. This

Apple outlines schedule o…

Apple has shared the dates and times of important parts of the WWDC 2023 schedule, indicating it to be fairly similar in structure to previous events.Published on Tuesday, the schedule

macOS 14 Sonoma brings de…

Macworld Apple pulled the covers back on the latest iteration of its Mac operating system at WWDC on 5 June 2023. Named macOS Sonoma after the city in Northern California
X

A whimsical homage to the days in black and white, celebrating the magic of Mac OS. Dress up your blog with retro, chunky-grade pixellated graphics to evoke some serious computer nostalgia. Supports a custom menu, custom header image, custom background, two footer widget areas, and a full-width page template. I updated Stuart Brown's 2011 masterpiece to meet the needs of the times, made it responsive , got dark mode, custom search widget and more.You can download it from tigaman.com, where you can also find more useful code snippets and plugins to get even more out of wordpress.