Galaxy S25 is ready for Qi2, but there’s a problem with MagSafe accessories

Ben Schoon | Jan 22 2025 - 10:10 am PT

Qi2 is finally happening. Two years after it was announced, Samsung is adopting the latest Qi2 standard in the Galaxy S25 series, but it’s not in the way you probably hoped, and you’re going to run into an immediate problem with existing accessories.

The appeal of Qi2 has always primarily been on magnets, allowing for chargers to be perfectly aligned and opening the door to various types of mounts and accessories. Essentially, Qi2 was the promise that Apple’s MagSafe ecosystem would come to Android devices. However, the latest update to the standard broke that promise by introducing “Qi2 Ready,” an official way for smartphones to offload the built-in magnets to an “approved” case, and that’s exactly what Samsung is doing with the Galaxy S25 series.

With its newest smartphones, Samsung will be offering an official “Magnet Case” which adds Qi2 to a Galaxy S25. This combination can be used with Qi2 accessories including a new 3-in-1 charging dock Samsung will be selling that includes a phone charger, Galaxy Watch charger, and a third Qi charger meant for Galaxy Buds or Galaxy Ring. Samsung showed off the charger with two accessories at the bottom, but there’s only one marked charging location on the bottom.

You won’t find magnets throughout Samsung’s entire case lineup for the Galaxy S25 series. The company is only, for now, releasing clear cases with the magnetic rings inside. There will be third-party options as well, including a lineup from Spigen.

But, if you are looking to use existing Qi2 and MagSafe accessories with the Galaxy S25 series, you’re likely going to run into a problem very quickly.

Samsung has placed the Qi coil fairly high on the Galaxy S25 series, meaning that many existing accessories, especially wallets, will end up covering the bottom camera lens. To get around this, Samsung’s official wallet accessory extends the magnet ring above the wallet itself. This also comes with a downside, though, as even Samsung’s own wallet accessory slipped slightly below the edge of the smallest Galaxy S25.

You probably won’t run into these problems as often on chargers, but it may come up with battery accessories or certain types of mounts.

This isn’t a new issue, as Samsung’s past few generations have also run into similar headaches. But with Samsung officially now jumping in on Qi2 and magnetic accessories, more users are likely to run into this problem. At the very least, the good news is that there’s now a solution in the official accessories that move the wallet out of the way.

The Galaxy S25 series is now available for pre-order from Samsung.com, with up to $1,200 in savings, plus an additional $50 off when you click on our links and order within 30 minutes.