Macally’s MCAR10L 10Watt Lightning Car Charger ($25) is a rather nondescript, captured-cable solution for charging an iPad, iPhone, or iPod in the car. Coming in white, it has a three foot cable leading to a Lightning plug from the charger. Fourth-generation iPad charging won’t be as fast as possible though, as this one only goes up to 2.1A, and not 2.4A. There are no surprises here; plug it into your car, and the unit will power your device, with a green LED indicating that it’s on. The end that plugs into the car is rather long at about four inches, while the plastic around the Lightning plug isn’t too wide to pose a problem with most cases.
While it works just fine, MCAR10L is really pretty forgettable. It’s pretty much a less attractive version of Griffin’s PowerJolt SE with Lightning Connector. The price is lower than some competitors, but not the lowest we’ve seen. There’s nothing bad about it, but there’s also no reason to choose it over Griffin’s option, or similar competitors, making it worthy of our limited recommendation.
Our Rating
Company and Price
Company: Macally
Website: www.Macally.com
Model: MCAR10L 10Watt Lightning Car Charger
Price: $30
Compatible: iPad (4th-Gen), iPad mini, iPhone 5, iPod nano 7G, iPod touch 5G