is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
The latest Anker 45-watt Nano charger, announced in January, which remains one of the smallest 45-watt chargers on the market, adds a full color screen displaying an animated character and a smattering of details about the device you’re charging.
The display is occasionally useful if you like to keep tabs on how much power your device is drawing, but the screen feels more like a marketing gimmick than a feature most consumers will actually benefit from. But it’s not the only upgrade that makes the charger worth considering.
The Nano’s hallmark feature is a roughly 1-inch-wide screen that takes up half of the charger’s glossy front panel. These sorts of screens are typically only found on Anker’s larger multi-port power stations, and are frequently limited in what information they display.
Supported devices are identified and briefly named when plugged into the Nano charger.
Anker promotes the Nano as “the world’s first smart display charger that knows your iPhone.” When you plug one in, the screen will briefly display your device’s name, then show how much power is being delivered and its battery level. But the charger is limited to Apple hardware and only recognizes a limited number of devices, including iPhone 15 and later models and iPad models from 2020 onward. I tested it with an iPhone 16 Pro and an iPad 10 from 2022, and both were recognized and identified.
The Nano also has a three-stage charging system that adjusts the power delivery rate to help prolong battery life. As the device’s charge level increases, power delivery is reduced. The stages are displayed as “fast,” “steady,” and “trickle” alongside the current wattage and an animated blob-like character whose expression often confuses me. Sometimes it’s sleepy, and other times it appears mad, even if that’s not intentional. When only a USB cable is plugged in, the character will occasionally take a swing at a baseball, or turn into a cookie that opens to reveal fortunes like “fun ahead,” which doesn’t mean anything at all.
Related Power bank feature creep is out of control
Tapping a touch-sensitive indent next to the Nano’s USB-C port cycles through two additional screens, including a temperature display and one for switching between charging modes, or you can hold it for two seconds to flip the display 180 degrees as needed.
... continue reading