Apple Magic Charger stand prototype discovered

Apple's MagSafe charger is a useful thing, but it's also a flat thing – which is why third parties such as Belkin have created their own charging stands so you don't have to lay your phone flat as you charge it. But Apple may have plans to release their own MagSafe stand, and to offer it in multiple iPhone-matching colours.

The report comes from Twitter leaker KosutamiSan via MacRumors, and claims that Apple intended to release the current MagSafe puck in a coloured version similar to the one it makes for the MacBook Air. It also created a prototype stand with the same colour options.

What's different about Apple's coloured MagSafe prototypes?

According to the leaker, the chargers had much more saturated colours than the relatively sober MacBook Air ones. The example pictured above is a little duller-looking in the photo than it is in real life, where it's much closer to the colour of the yellow iPhone 14.

It's possible that Apple is working on coloured chargers to boost sales. At the moment, non-Apple wireless chargers don't deliver the full 15W that you get from MagSafe, but that's expected to change with the launch of the iPhone 15 – and that means you'll be able to choose from a much wider range of non-Apple chargers, many of them much more affordable than Apple's ones. So if Apple can start offering chargers colour-matched with your particular iPhone that could be a good way to keep that particular gravy train on the rails.

These are prototypes rather than actual production models, though, so it's just as possible that Apple designed them, played about with them and decided not to make them. We'll find out for sure when the iPhone 15 launches later this year.