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Apple MagSafe
by sam_toland
I have had my MacBook for around 9 months now and obviously this charger comes as standard. And like all apple products it has a certain aspect that just makes it that much better than every other product like it.
For the Apple MagSafe charger this aspect is the charging jack itself. Instead of having a regular design that ... plugs quite far into the laptop to connect, this instead has a magnet on the end and a very short plug in. Not only does this mean that it is much easier to attach than regular chargers but it is also a very effective safety device. By this I mean that, for instance say that the laptop is on charge whilst sitting on a table and the wire is stretched across the room. If someone were to trip over this wire, with a standard laptop charger it would stay connected and pull the whole laptop off the table. However with this if this were to happen, then the magnet would just disconnect and your laptop remains on the table. I can't tell you how many times this has come in handy, I'm quite a clumsy person. The jack is also symmetrical so that it does not matter which way up you plug it in, it works both ways.
There is also a handy LED on the casing of the jack, which lights up as red/orange when the laptop is charging and green when fully charged. This helps you know when to unplug your charger to save both your laptop battery and electricity. It's also handy to know if your charger is actually working.
There are also some very handy flip out pegs on the power pack part of the product which are designed to give you something to wrap your cable around. This is a brilliant idea and also very helpful for when you need to transport your charger. The only thing that let's this product down is the 3 pin plug, which isn't apples fault, it's just a very silly, clunky design of a plug.
I have had this charger for 9 months now and have had absolutely no trouble with it disconnecting or overheating or anything. It is completely silent, cool and functional. A brilliant design.
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Apple MagSafe Power Adapter
by charby
I got a Macbook about a year ago after my Sony Vaio died quite extravagantly despite my only having owned it for about three years. I had never owned any Apple computers before but had had an iPhone for a few months by then, and since the Mac laptops and desktops always look so gorgeous and stylish, a Macbook was my first choice when it ... came to replacing my broken lappy. This meant getting used to several new things with the software, as I had never used a non-Windows operating system before, as well as some slight differences with tangible items as well.
== The Charger ==
Mac chargers are slightly different to those of pc laptops in that, instead of being plugged into the computer in order to charge it, they attach themselves magnetically and charge that way. This may just seem like a gimmick that Apple have employed in order to look interesting and different, but it actually has a very useful practical purpose. With traditional chargers, if you accidentally knock or trip over the charger cable and drag it along with you, chances are the attached laptop will decide to follow and come crashing down to the floor as well. This can have disastrous results for the computer and therefore your general stress levels. With Macs, however, this is no longer a potential danger, as if you do exact unexpected force on the cable, instead of pulling the laptop along with it, it simply de-attaches itself and although the cable will accompany you on your journey towards the floor, the laptop will stay minding its own business where you left it. This is because the magnetic attraction to the laptop, while it is sufficient to stay attached under normal circumstances, is not as strong as when it is physically plugged in and so can easily be removed, thus evading many accidents. Thus is the ingenious design behind the magnet attachment, which is one that I, as a relatively careless and clumsy person, know for a fact to work.
=== Appearance ===
My charger is, as most of them are, a clean, plastic white colour, which matches my Macbook perfectly. The cable is a few metres long, with the magnetic piece that attaches to the laptop at one end, and the main box of the charger and plug at the other. The plug piece is detachable, and so you can use different international plugs depending on where you are (which came included when I got the laptop), which is much better than using an adaptor. When not in use there are two clips that come out of one side of the box, around which you can wrap the wire to keep it tidy.
=== Use ===
Using the charger is really as simple as I described above: the magnetic end fastens easily to its slot on the upper left hand side of the main part of the laptop, and stays there securely unless you yank it out accidentally or carefully remove it intentionally. When it is first plugged in, a green light appears on the magnetic head to acknowledge that it has been recognised by the laptop, before turning to orange after a few seconds, to indicate that it is now charging the laptop battery. When the battery is fully charged the light again turns to green so that you know to stop charging.
I've had no problems with using this charger, generally, as the magnet always attaches and charges without incident. I have been grateful for the charger disconnecting when force is imparted upon it on several occasions, as I am forever tripping over the wire or leaving it in inconvenient places, which is the fault of my own and not of the cable in any way. Because of its quick de-attachment from the laptop, crisis has been averted many times in the short year that I have owned it. The charger seems to add a few percent per minute to the battery while the laptop is in use, so it usually takes only an hour or so to fully charge it from an empty battery even while I am using my Macbook.
=== The Time I Had a Problem ===
All this said, my original charger did die a month or so ago, after I had only had it for ten months. This was, however, almost certainly due to a power surge or something similar, as within the same few days my flatmate's laptop charger, as well as the fridge, also broke. While this was very annoying and meant I couldn't use my laptop for quite a while, as soon as I was back in the UK and in a town which has an Apple store, they very quickly replaced it when I brought it in to the shop and said that it had broken, as I was within warranty. I very much doubt that many of the chargers break outwith an accident such as a power surge, but it is good to know that if yours does break relatively soon after purchase, they will replace it for you for free.
=== What You Can Use This Charger With ===
The 60W charger can be used with Macbooks and the 13 inch Macbook Pros, but a different wattage should be used for larger Macbook Pro models and for Macbook Air. That said, I have used my parents' charger for their Macbook Pro 15" to charge my laptop on occasion, and have found that it also works, though I doubt that it is particularly good for the battery to do so as it has a higher wattage (85W). Still, it's good to know that, when desperate, you can use other Magsafe chargers to charge other Apple laptops as they have the same attachment.
== In Conclusion ==
When all is said and done, and the battle lost and won at that, this is a good charger and one I am happy to use, which is a good thing, since we Macbook users are given no choice in the matter. Despite there being iPhone and iPod chargers made by other companies, which cost a lot less than official Apple versions, the only Macbook chargers available seem to be the official ones, and so if you don't like them, you're basically stuck with them. If you have an extended warranty or Applecare you should get a new one for free if anything should happen to it, but if not you'll have to fork out £50 for a replacement should it break. Since many other laptop chargers cost in the region of £30-40, the Apple chargers are, as usual, the most expensive of the bunch. At least, due to the magnet aspect, you're less likely to break your laptop through clumsiness with this charger than you are using a Windows laptop charger, and so this may actually end up saving you money in the end.
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