The latest Anker 45-watt Nano charger, announced in January, which stays one of many smallest 45-watt chargers in the marketplace, adds a full color screen displaying an animated character and a smattering of particulars in regards to the system you’re charging.
$30
Anker Nano 45W charger with a built-in display screen
The show is often helpful in the event you wish to hold tabs on how a lot energy your system is drawing, however the display screen feels extra like a advertising gimmick than a function most shoppers will really profit from. However it’s not the one improve that makes the charger price contemplating.
The Nano’s hallmark function is a roughly 1-inch-wide display screen that takes up half of the charger’s shiny entrance panel. These kinds of screens are usually solely discovered on Anker’s bigger multi-port energy stations, and are often restricted in what data they show.
Anker promotes the Nano as “the world’s first good show charger that is aware of your iPhone.” While you plug one in, the display screen will briefly show your system’s identify, then present how a lot energy is being delivered and its battery degree. However the charger is restricted to Apple {hardware} and solely acknowledges a restricted variety of gadgets, together with iPhone 15 and later fashions and iPad fashions from 2020 onward. I examined it with an iPhone 16 Professional and an iPad 10 from 2022, and each have been acknowledged and recognized.
The Nano additionally has a three-stage charging system that adjusts the ability supply price to assist lengthen battery life. Because the system’s cost degree will increase, energy supply is diminished. The phases are displayed as “quick,” “regular,” and “trickle” alongside the present wattage and an animated blob-like character whose expression usually confuses me. Generally it’s sleepy, and different occasions it seems mad, even when that’s not intentional. When solely a USB cable is plugged in, the character will often take a swing at a baseball, or flip right into a cookie that opens to disclose fortunes like “enjoyable forward,” which doesn’t imply something in any respect.
Tapping a touch-sensitive indent subsequent to the Nano’s USB-C port cycles by means of two extra screens, together with a temperature show and one for switching between charging modes, or you possibly can maintain it for 2 seconds to flip the show 180 levels as wanted.
The default charging mode is auto (the charger resets to it each time it’s unplugged), and it adjusts the ability supply over time. Care mode reduces the ability to assist additional lengthen battery life by preserving your cellphone cooler. It’s designed for occasions while you’re not in a rush to prime up your system, comparable to charging in a single day, and it shows the phrase “light” onscreen to remind you to change to auto mode in the event you’re in a rush.
It doesn’t simply cease working when linked to gadgets that aren’t formally supported. I examined it with a Kobo e-reader and a Playdate, and as an alternative of figuring out both system, the charger jumped straight to the charging standing display screen, displaying how a lot energy was being delivered with out their battery ranges.
The show’s most helpful function is with the ability to verify your iPhone or iPad’s cost degree, however that’s data these gadgets already present. After just a few seconds, the Nano charger’s display screen routinely turns off, requiring you to succeed in over to the outlet with a faucet to see the charging progress once more. You possibly can’t hold the show on always, so in case your cellphone or pill isn’t on the opposite facet of the room and linked by way of a 60-foot USB cable, why not simply attain to your system to verify if it’s charged?
The Nano’s show would really feel much less gimmicky if it provided extra performance, comparable to an estimate of how lengthy it would take to completely cost, or an choice to routinely change to care mode in a single day.
Probably the most compelling cause to spend an additional $5 on the brand new $39.99 Nano charger as an alternative of final yr’s $34.99 mannequin is its redesigned folding prongs. They now rotate 180 levels, so you possibly can plug the charger into an outlet in two alternative ways to reorient the display screen or hold the USB-C port accessible. It’s a easy however intelligent design change that I wouldn’t be stunned to see Anker incorporate into different smaller chargers sooner or later.
Pictures by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge
