MagSafe 2.0 & Qi2: Charging’s Next Leap, and How Novoa Is Getting There First

MagSafe felt magical when Apple revived those hidden magnets in 2020, but the next chapter—Qi2—turns that magic into a universal standard. The Wireless Power Consortium has folded Apple’s alignment ring into its rulebook, raised the ceiling to 20 watts, and mandated smarter handshake chips that trim heat while they pump power.

That means a few things will change on your desk. First, magnets get stronger and more precise: stands can hold your phone at wild new angles without a hint of drift. Second, charging speeds finally push past the 15 ‑ watt wall, hitting 50 percent in under twenty minutes—no fan noise, no battery‑toasting spikes. And for the first time your iPhone will be able to share that power, reverse‑topping an Apple Watch or AirPods case while it drinks from the wall.

We haven’t been idle. Deep inside Novoa’s lab we’ve been iterating “floating‑coil” prototypes that auto‑center even when the ring shifts half a millimetre. Our firmware now listens to Apple’s thermal daemon, easing wattage the instant your phone’s A‑series chip reports a temperature climb. Existing Nord Pro docks will get these brains by way of a USB‑C dongle update—no e‑waste, no trade‑in shuffle.

Meanwhile a brand‑new HaloPad is in tooling right now: one sleek slab, sculpted from recycled aluminium, able to deliver the full Qi2 burst to an iPhone 17 while trickling 7.5 watts wirelessly into your AirPods. Early tests show a 0‑to‑50 percent rise in just under eighteen minutes, all while staying eight degrees cooler than Apple’s first‑gen puck.

Charging used to be about cables and patience. MagSafe 2.0 turns it into choreography—faster, smarter, perfectly aligned. Novoa will be on stage opening night.