The Zens ZEPP03M dual-sided MagSafe-compatible powerbank is one of four models the company announced earlier this month. Its USP is that it can simultaneously charge both an iPhone 12 and an AirPods case.
The company’s marketing is a little naughty, saying MagSafe in some materials and MagSafe-compatible in others…
It’s actually MagSafe-compatible, meaning that it attaches magnetically to iPhone 12 models for wireless charging, but delivers the Qi standard 7.5W of power rather than the 15W you get with true MagSafe chargers.
The difference between the two is, however, smaller than you might expect – but we’ll get to that shortly.
Look and feel
The Zens ZEPP03M is about as anonymous a piece of tech as you could possibly get. It’s a close-to-featureless black block of plastic.
There’s a very discreet ZENS logo and wireless charging logo on each side. Dark gray on black, these only really show up when the light reflects on them.
The sides have a rubberized feel, which gives them better grip than a standard plastic finish. At the rear is a flip-out stand, which means you can use it on a coffee shop table or airline tray table exactly as you would the type of stand I use on my desk.
Finally, on the base, there’s a USB-C charging socket, four tiny white LED power indicators, and two small triangular buttons, one to power on each side of the pad.
As seems to be the norm with gadgets these days, you get a USB-C charging cable, but no charging brick.
In use
With an iPhone 12 Pro Max and working from home, I had to actively work to run my iPhone down so that I could test the recharge time! The difference was smaller than I’d expected.
On my Apple MagSafe charger, the phone charges from a few percent to 100% in just under four hours; on the ZEPP03M, it was almost exactly five hours.
But my more likely use for this is to keep the phone fully powered while working from a coffee shop or similar. To test this, I kept the phone screen on, just as I do on my desk stand, and used the phone normally for a full working day, with the charger attached. It kept the iPhone battery at 100%, and lasted the entire day (about 7.5 hours).
That would also be great for travel, where a long-haul flight might mean a long day or 16 hours or so. The combination of Zens ZEPP03M and internal battery should comfortably see an iPhone 12 through the longest travel day, even with extensive use.
I don’t own AirPods myself, but borrowed a set to test charging, and that proved reliable.
My one complaint about it is the flip-out stand. This is rather small, and the spring-loaded action means it is keen to retract, so one time when I knocked the table, it sprang closed and fell over. The ZEPP03M rather than the phone took the small impact, but it would be good to see this improved.
Zens ZEPP03M pricing and conclusions
The Zens ZEPP03M costs $69.99. If you compare it to a standard wired power bank of the same capacity, that makes it expensive. Alternatively, you could get a higher-capacity wireless power bank for about the same price. If that’s all you need, then you’re better off with something else.
But what makes the ZEPP03M unique is that combination:
- Wireless
- Built-in stand
- Dual-sided for iPhone and AirPods
If you want all three of those things, I’d say it’s worth it, especially if you travel a lot.
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