I’ll say it – the true winner at the Mobile World Congress this year isn’t a company, it’s a technology. Apple first introduced MagSafe for iPhones in 2020, but the technology has only recently shown some true promise. Qi2 finally brought the magnetic mounting technology to modern devices (although smartphone makers are yet to adopt it overwhelmingly), Apple’s iPhone 16E skipped MagSafe and got a lot of flak from consumers for ditching something so obviously convenient, and just day before yesterday, Xiaomi unveiled their Modular Optical System concept which used a similar magnetic ring on a smartphone to mount an external camera lens. MagSafe has shown some immense potential over the past few weeks, and now this wireless speaker at MWC further shows why magnetic accessories are so incredibly convenient.
Meet the Miatone MagBoom Mini, a magnetic speaker that snaps right to the back of your smartphone. Roughly the same shape (although slightly larger) than a coffee pod, it attaches to iPhones via MagSafe, giving you not just an external audio device, but also a prop-stand of sorts. The result? An audio dock that turns your iPhone into a makeshift entertainment center… with a high-resolution screen as well as clear, loud audio. Perfect for watching podcasts, methinks.
Designer: Miatone
Showcased at MWC 2025, the MagBoom Mini is a tiny, snap-on accessory that gives your phone its own woofer system. Smartphones are victims of their own slim designs, which means their audio units can’t be as powerful as larger, dedicated speakers. So the MagBoom Mini was created as an add-on solution, turning your phone into a powerful playback device for movies, videos, podcasts, music, etc. The MagBoom comes with an output of 3W, which doesn’t sound like much on paper, but it’s measurably more powerful than your phone’s native speaker.
Connect it via Bluetooth 5.4, and you have yourself a reliable audio device that can be used as an add-on accessory or even independently as a solitary speaker that isn’t connected to your phone. The MagSafe ring means it’s compatible with any MagSafe or Qi2 device, but more importantly, it’s still magnetic, which means you can stick the MagBoom Mini to your fridge, locker, even your car!
A USB-C port on the side means easy charging (you could use your iPhone 15 and above’s charger), while a 700mAh battery on the inside is small, but enough to get you through a few hours of playback. Minimum through a movie.
Now here’s where things get interesting. The MagBoom Mini is just the first step. As of now, the MagSafe feature is just for positional convenience – which means the speaker snaps onto the phone or any magnetic surface. However, if the tech were to get advanced enough, the speaker could also be a pass-through wireless charger for the phone, or even facilitate an NFC-based Bluetooth connection instead of you needing to manually connect the phone to the speaker. All this is speculation at this point, but it goes to illustrate my grander opinion – that MagSafe is a truly game-changing technology and the only thing holding it back is the lack of real creativity. We got snap-on camera lenses and Bluetooth speakers this year. I wonder what we’ll get next!