Apple’s new MagSafe battery pack offers a fraction of the capacity of alternatives, while costing at least twice as much. So why would anyone pay $99 for it?

The new battery may be light in capacity, but it packs a lot of features that other manufacturers just can’t add, thanks to Apple’s exclusive access to the deepest recesses of the iPhone. Add to that the fact that this is an extremely convenient charger and the fact that MagSafe makes it more future-proof than Apple’s previous efforts, and you might have a winner.

"I think the big advantage of this battery is that it's a true MagSafe charger," traveling businessman and Filter King founder Rick Hoskins told Lifewire via email. "From what I can tell, the other battery packs on the market use Qi charging coils, which are significantly less efficient. The MagSafe battery pack can charge a phone about twice as fast. That means less time with your phone plugged into a heavy battery pack."

MagSafe is the name Apple has given to the magnetic induction chargers and accessories it makes for the iPhone. It's sort of a souped-up version of the Qi chargers that work with most phones. Some manufacturers sell Qi-compatible battery packs, as Hoskins notes. Others, like top third-party accessory brand Anker, make MagSafe-compatible chargers, but because they aren't Apple-certified, they can't charge at the full speed. And that brings us to the first benefit of Apple's new pack.