Back in the day, phones used to come with chargers – now you’re lucky if you get a cable. The good news is that USB-C and USB charging standards have eliminated the compatibility issues of the past (well, mostly), so all you need is a few good chargers.
That means you have to choose the charger yourself. Here’s what we use. And yes, you will need multiple – for your home, maybe for work and for your car, maybe for travel. We have divided them into groups based on use-cases.
Table of Contents:
Wall chargers
This is the simplest type – a wall wart with one or two ports, the kind you used to get in a box. And so, phone brands of chargers are a good place to start.
The Google Pixel Flex Dual Port 67W charger is the first with support for “Adjustable Voltage Supply”, AVS, the standard used by iPhone 17 phones. Either port can drive an AVS device up to 67W, but it also supports basic USB-PD and more advanced USB-PPS. It’s the Charger’s Swiss Army knife and we got one into the office for testing because we expect AVS to gain widespread adoption, while PD and PPS are already widespread.
If you’re specifically looking for an iPhone charger, Apple’s 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max is an obvious choice – it can deliver 60W for about 10-15 minutes and then it drops to 40W. Anyway, the iPhone doesn’t need 60W for long, so this charger goes as fast as the phone.
Samsung hasn’t jumped on the AVS bandwagon, so chargers like the 45W Power Adapter (EP-T4511) only support PD and PPS. It claims super low standby power – “less than 5mW” is the official rating – so it doesn’t waste electricity when you plug it in. A basic USB charger can burn through 0.1-0.5W just doing nothing and if you leave it plugged in for years (which you shouldn’t, but it usually happens, adds up).
Looking at past phone brand chargers, we also found one of these in the office – the Baseus Enercore CJ11 with a retractable USB-C cable. It also has two USB-C ports on board. You can use this at home and grab it for the occasional trip – plus you can make sure you don’t forget the USB-C cable. For a dedicated travel charger, see the section below.
We also have several ACEFAST chargers. For example, the ACEFAST PD65W charger has three ports – two USB-C and one USB-A for those old cables you still use. The transparent design looks so cool, it’s almost a shame to plug it into an out-of-the-way socket. Use the code SKYZRQMI For $20 off.
Some of us are long-time Besius users, and if you need to charge multiple devices at once, something like the Picogo 100W is a solid choice. You can get 67W+12W+12W from three ports (two USB-C and one USB-A) – the handy display will show you how much each port is delivering.
Similarly, we also have a range of Anker chargers – the Nano range strikes a good balance between size and power. The Anker 735 Nano II 65W can do up to 65W on one of its USB-C ports (up to 22.5W on the USB-A port) and 40W+12W+12W when all three ports are in use.
Laptop chargers
Modern laptops usually support USB-C charging – for some, it’s the only charging method, others still have a barrel plug (or, if you’re looking at MacBooks, a MagSafe port). For laptops, you need a charger that can deliver at least 65W and often more. You can also use this to charge large power banks.
Apple added USB-C charging to MacBooks and iPads before it did for iPhones. So it sells powerful chargers like these, 96W and 140W chargers. For a MacBook Air, you don’t need that much, but MacBook Pros will definitely benefit from the extra power. Both chargers only have one USB-C port, but you can use it to charge other devices when the laptop is not in use or running on battery.
Anker’s 140W laptop charger can do up to 140W on one of its two top USB-C ports – enough for all but the most bonkers of gaming laptops. If all four ports are used, the charger delivers up to 65W on the top USB-C port, 45W and 12W on the second and third respectively, and 12W on the sole USB-A port. There is a display that shows the power draw on each port as well as the different modes, e.g. High performance or cooling mode.
You can also go all out with the Anker Prime Charger 250W. It has a total of six USB ports (4x USB-C + 2x USB-A) with the top Type C port delivering up to 140W. However, it can split its power between all available ports – delivering up to 240W/250W with two, three or all ports in use. It has a 2.26” LCD to show status (and a clock too, because why not). A dial on the side controls things like port priority, so you can divide power as you need it.
The Baseus EnerFill FH11 GaN charger is very powerful for its price – it can deliver the full 140W to a single laptop or split it for two laptops, each getting 70W. If you use all four ports, the charger outputs 65W+45W+9W+9W.
Car chargers
Newer cars have at least a few USB ports – USB-A or USB-C, depending on the age of the car – and some even have Qi wireless chargers. But not all cars have such ports and often they are not particularly powerful. Wireless Android Auto can drain your phone’s battery surprisingly fast!
We use this 90W UGREEN charger in one of our older cars. Retractable cables are usually nice, but in a car they are very important – you don’t want wires hanging out on your dashboard. And if your passengers also need to charge their devices, there are regular USB-C ports and USB-A ports on board as well. However, if 90W seems excessive, UGREEN also offers a 60W variant.
Naturally, the Besius also has a car charger with a retractable cable. The Baseus Ultra-Mini Car Charger offers up to 60W with its 31.5” retractable USB-C cable, which can be split into two with a regular USB-C port.
The Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max does up to 163W and has two retractable cables, 31.5″ each, plus an extra USB-C and USB-A port. There’s also a 240W variant, but check your car’s fuse first! 240W is more power than a typical auxiliary light (when we “young”) can power out. handle
Travel chargers
Here we will list the adapters that you can take while traveling. These include small things that you can throw in your backpack and not worry about weight and that will keep you charged almost anywhere in the world.
While USB-C won the DC power battle, AC is another matter. The Baseus Encore CG11 is a 70W universal travel adapter, which can plug into wall sockets in 200+ countries around the world. This gives you a universal port into which you can plug AC devices, plus a retractable USB-C cable, a regular USB-C port, and two USB-A ports. You can also carry a dedicated plug adapter and a separate charger, of course, but a combo unit like this takes up less space. We took one on a trip to China and it worked great.
Anker has a similar device, the Anker Nano Travel Adapter. This plugs into any wall outlet and gives you a regular US outlet – plus two USB-C and two USB-A ports, of course (no retractable cables here). Note that the built-in USB ports can’t deliver much power—at 20W, they can charge a phone slowly, but we wouldn’t rely on them for a laptop.
If you’re not leaving the country – or going to a country with compatible wall outlets – we’d recommend the Anker Nano 30W or 45W. They’re powerful enough to keep your phone charged and you’ll forget they’re in your bag – the 45W adapter weighs 2.11oz/60g (just a fraction more than the included cable!) and measures 1.3 x 1.26 x 1.5in/33x32x36.9mm.
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