Twelve South ButterFly SE

When you buy an iPhone, you also buy a ticket into an ecosystem. In fact, that's the whole idea behind Apple's strategy, and it's the ecosystem, or "the walled garden" as the media likes to call it, that retains the consumer. Not all accessories in this ecosystem are created equal, but when you see Twelve South's ButterFly SE, it's easy to understand why the ecosystem is so compelling, and why it's so criminal for Apple to omit MagSafe in the iPhone 16e.

ButterFly SE is, in many ways, "just" another dual magnetic MagSafe charger that can be used to charge your iPhone and your Apple Watch, but the difference is that, especially over the last few years, we've managed to make these dual chargers so infinitely small that it almost seems unreal.

This little ButterFly SE really is small at only 2.35 centimetres tall, 6 centimetres wide, and weighing just 119 grams. It's small enough to fit in the breast pocket of a shirt, and in broad strokes it's almost smaller than your AirPods case.

Strong magnets hold the "sandwich" together, a nice little leather strap further holds it all in place, and you can separate the "top bun" and "bottom bun" (yes, I'm done with the burger analogy now). Once separated, there's MagSafe charging with Apple's 15W Fast Charging protocol built in, and you can either place your Apple Watch horizontally, or flip it open to access Apple Watch Fast Charger protocol at 5W. No, it doesn't come with the 30W charger you need, which is always annoying, but if you already have a computer charger with you, it works fine, so it's not the end of the world now that we have a universal standard.

And there's more good news, because it also supports Qi2, which means you can charge anything that accepts wireless charging without any fuss, and now that phones finally have Qi2 charging built in, they also work magnetically. Twelve South has even thought of letting you look at something on your phone while it charges, because you can actually flip the two halves round so it charges while the leather strap acts as a kickstand. Genius.

It may feel silly to give something as mundane as a charger a perfect score, but it's hard to imagine anything more useful, more efficient, or better designed for this purpose than ButterFly SE, so the verdict is clear.