Ryan
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If you have multiple devices to charge and want to keep your desk tidy, Anker has you covered with their new desktop charger.
PROs
- Desktop-friendly design: The style of this charger looks great on my desk. The ports are facing upward which makes it easy to connect and disconnect my charging cables. The silver aluminum finish compliments Mac computers very well.
- Power IQ: Each port on Anker’s charger is capable of supplying up to 2.4 amps of power. This is enough for tablets such as iPads and Kindle Fires. The ports can also adapt to 1 amp for smaller devices, such as iPhones and Android phones. In my video, you can see that the Anker desktop charger supplied the same amount of power as my original Apple iPad charger. It also charged my iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy Victory, a Bluetooth speaker, and even my picky HP TouchPad (at 1 amp).
- Safety: As is typical with Anker, there are safety circuit built-in to the unit to prevent over-current situations. This power brick become a little warm while in use, but it did not become anywhere close to being hot. I did not receive any error messages on my devices while charging.
- Anker’s customer service: I like a company that stands behind their products, and Anker does that providing an 18-month warranty. I only had to use Anker’s customer service one-time in the past, and they were very responsive and helpful.
CONs
- Power brick: The wall plug is a power brick and it is fairly large. You may have trouble fitting it on a power strip. However, rest assured that the power brick is UL-listed for safety.
- Vampire power: While not in use, this charger still draws about 0.6 watts of power, but let’s put this into perspective. My power company’s energy rate is currently $0.093 per kWh. If I left this Anker desktop charger plugged in for 24 hours a day, it would use about 0.0144 kWh/day. So, this would add about $0.04 to my electric bill each month, which is about $0.48 a year in electricity if I left this plugged in constantly. For the convenience, I’ll likely leave it plugged in for $0.48 a year.
Overall, I really like the aluminum finish and small footprint this charger leaves on my desk. While the power brick is somewhat large, you can find short extension cables on Amazon to help fit it on a power strip if needed.
Unfortunately, this charger was discontinued, but there are other desk chargers available!
