Mophie StealthCharge review: Wireless charging without the heat

Macworld

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• 3-in-1 for iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods
• 60W retractable USB-C cable (4-in-1)
• Fast 25W for iPhone (16 and later)
• Apple Watch fast charge
• Adjustable viewing angles
• Includes 40W/100W charger

Cons

• Expensive compared with rivals
• 25W limited to iPhone 16+

Our Verdict

Mophie’s clever StealthCharge technology enables this multi-device charger to deliver a cooler, faster, and quieter charging experience than found in most other Apple device chargers. The retractable cable in the 4-in-1 model means you shouldn’t need another charger even for your MacBook.

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What is it? Mophie’s StealthCharge is a new wireless charging design that moves heat-generating electronics from the charging pad into the stand’s base, keeping your iPhone cooler while maintaining full charging speeds. Unlike most MagSafe chargers, it reduces heat without noisy cooling fans, resulting in faster, quieter and more consistent wireless charging.

Who is it for? Apple users wanting fast, cooler multi-device charging with minimal desk clutter, especially iPhone 16 owners and anyone charging a MacBook too.

Mophie’s StealthCharge is a new wireless charging design that moves heat-generating electronics from the charging pad into the stand’s base, keeping your iPhone cooler while maintaining full charging speeds. Unlike most MagSafe chargers, it reduces heat without noisy cooling fans, resulting in faster, quieter and more consistent wireless charging.

Wireless charging is so fast these days that it’s catching up with wired cable charging. The only thing holding wireless charging back from truly catching up with wired cable power is the inefficiency of heat that can force the device being charged to slow the charger down when it gets too hot for the phone’s good.

Mophie, a pioneer in phone charging since the beginning, has come up with a novel solution that’s so simple it seems strange that it’s not commonplace. It calls its new technology StealthCharge, and its first products are a range of multi-device chargers: the 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 Wireless Charge Stands and another folding travel charger called Roam.

Why wireless charging usually generates heat

Wireless charging is convenient because it eliminates the need to find the right cable when your phone needs a boost of power. It has improved rapidly with Apple’s MagSafe technology that corrected charging coil misalignment between phone and charger. MagSafe and its third-party Qi2 and Qi 2.2 offspring have progressed the coil alignment to reduce the magnetic field not transferring energy (electromagnetic induction) efficiently, which otherwise can generate heat.

Temperature is a battery’s nemesis. To protect its battery, your phone’s thermal management system automatically throttles charging speeds when the heat risks damaging it. This throttling slows down charging.

To reduce this heat problem and maintain a steady charge, some manufacturers install fans near the charging pads, but this can create unwanted noise as the fans struggle to reduce the heat.

Simon Jary

How StealthCharge reduces heat

Mophie’s solution is clever because, like many of the best challenge beaters, it’s simple. I’m sure the engineering isn’t simple, but the idea is.

StealthCharge moves the hottest components from the charging pad itself (in direct contact with the phone) to the product’s base. In effect, the base now serves as a heat sink to dissipate heat more efficiently. The power is then sent to the charging pad via the stand’s stem.

StealthCharge relocates the following components:

• Integrated controller circuitry, including the 25W Qi2.2 controller integrated circuit
• Power Delivery (PD) negotiation integrated circuit
• DC-to-DC buck-boost integrated circuit: a power management chip that can both step-down (buck) and step-up (boost) input voltage to provide a stable, perfectly matched output
• Supporting MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors) that act as microscopic, high-speed electronic regulators.
• Inductors that temporarily store energy in a magnetic field and resist sudden changes in current to convert high-voltage wall electricity into a safe, steady flow for the battery

A remaining source of heat is the charging coil itself. To address that, Mophie’s engineers also designed a dedicated heat sink around the wireless coil that helps transfer heat away from the charging area where it can be passively dissipated through the integrated cooling vents.

The net effect is a charging architecture that promotes cooler operation by design rather than relying on fans or reducing charging speed after heat has already accumulated. This enables the chargers to maintain full 25W Qi2.2 charging performance while operating silently. During testing the phone never exceeded what might be described as a mildly warm temperature.

I told you it’s not simple engineering to move this clever stuff around, but we don’t need to worry about that. We can just benefit from the enhanced energy transfer efficiency.

Other 25W Qi2.2 wireless chargers will power up your iPhone at the same speed but a fan or StealthCharge makes it more likely that the 25W is passing without interruption.

Simon Jary

What does the Mophie Charge Stand include?

There are two versions of Mophie’s StealthCharge Charge Stands: a 3-in-1 model that wirelessly charges iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods; and a 4-in-1 model that adds a retractable USB-C cable for charging iPads and MacBooks.

All three or four devices can be charged at the same time, and Mophie includes a wall charger to cope with all the power: 40W for the 3-in-1 and a 100W charger for the 4-in-1.

Output:

• Phone: 25W
• AirPods: 5W
• Apple Watch: 5W
• Cable: 60W

Simon Jary

The 25W iPhone-charging pad works with all iPhones from the iPhone 12 onwards, but only the iPhone 16 and later support the full 25W. iPhone 15 and earlier are limited to 15W charging.

In a stable charging environment 15W wireless charging should power an iPhone from 0% to 50% in around 45 minutes. 25W charging can do the same job in 30 minutes or so. The saved 15 minutes might not sound much and matters not at all if you are charging overnight but when you need power in a hurry it can make a noticeable difference.

The 5W Apple Watch charger is compliant with Apple’s Watch fast charge rules, and you can’t charge your AirPods any faster without inserting a cable.

The 4-in-1 Charge Stand’s retractable 2-foot (700mm) USB-C cable can supply up to 60W to a connected device, be that a second phone, an iPad, MacBook or other USB-C device.

Simon Jary

60W will keep even the 16-inch MacBook Pro charged to a reasonable level and is not far off Apple’s fast-charge input (70W) for the MacBook Air and offers three times the power as the charger that Apple includes with its MacBook Neo (unless you are based in the U.K. or E.U. where Apple doesn’t include a charger at all!).

What’s it like to use every day?

The Mophie Charge Stand is a classic desk or nightstand elevated stand with the iPhone-charging pad at the front with a recessed AirPods case charging module below in the sturdy weighted base. The Apple Watch charger sticks out the back.

You can tilt the iPhone charging surface to your preferred viewing angle or flatten it straight for video chats.

Simon Jary

It has a small footprint, measuring 3.15 x 4.05 x 5.6 inches (80 x 103 x 142mm), and like most multi-device chargers will reduce messy and inconvenient cable clutter. It weighs 13.5oz (384g).

The lack of a fan makes this an appealing nightstand charger as you wouldn’t want a fan blaring away while you try to sleep. To be fair to charger manufacturers such as ESR (CryoBoost) and Belkin (ChillBoost), these fans are near whisper quiet. Read our reviews of the ESR CryoBoost 3-in-1 Magnetic 25W Charging Station and the Belkin UltraCharge Pro 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Dock.

Each model is available in three colors: Black, White (silver with white charging areas) and Gold (closer to a champagne).

Simon Jary

How much does it cost?

The Mophie 3-in-1 Wireless Charge Stand is priced at $149.95 / £119.95. The 4-in-1 costs $179.95 / £139.95.

Mophie 3-in-1 Wireless Charge Stand

Best Prices Today: $149.95 at Mophie

Mophie 4-in-1 Wireless Charge Stand

Read our review Best Prices Today: $179.95 at Mophie

Both Charge Stands include a 1.5m USB-C cable. The 4-in-1 Charge Stand ships with a 100W wall charger, and the 3-in-1 a 40W charger.

Check out our reviews of the best wireless charging stations for alternatives, although if you admire this form factor there’s nothing really to stop you ordering one right away.

Simon Jary

Should you buy the Mophie Charge Stand?

The stand itself is a classic shape with the fastest-available wireless outputs in a choice of colors, and with a tilting iPhone charging pad. But the real benefit is in Mophie’s clever StealthCharge technology that promotes cooler charging by efficiently moving heat away from the device, delivering a cooler, faster, and quieter charging experience than found in most other Apple device chargers. The retractable cable in the 4-in-1 model means you shouldn’t need another charger even for your MacBook.