Lets review the new (tiny) charger from Anker and why I love it so much.
Super small charger (60% lighter) for both your phone and laptop
The biggest selling point for this new generation chargers is the substantially smaller size. Anker introduced the GaN technology in 2018. This technology increases the operating frequency with 20%, it has an innovative stacked design, and an upgraded circuit board structure.
The 45W Anker Nano II only weights 73 grams. An ordinary 45W HP laptop charger weights 185 grams, and is much bigger in size. Even if you include the PowerLine III cable of 63 grams it’s still lighter than a comparable standard laptop charger, and I haven’t even included the power cord on the HP charger. What’s so cool about it is as it’s an USB-C charger it can charge more or less all modern devices that uses USB-C, and with an adapter (more on that later) it can also charge your iphone.
Which one to choose – 30W, 45W or 65W?
Originally I wanted the 65W charger. My reasoning was that with that charger I can use it for all laptop models at work. But when It wasn’t in stock I opted for the 45W charger – and I do not regret it.
There’s some difference in price;
Anker 711 (30W): $33.99
Anker 713 (45W): $39.99
Anker 715 (65W): $59.99
As you can see, the 65W is much more expensive, so unless you have a laptop that really needs 65W I would go with the 45W which is at the sweet pot of $39.99. I brought mine from Amazon for 370 SEK. At the moment it can be hard to find it in stock, like many others they seem to have been affected by all the shortage in the industry.
Since this post was published, the price for the 65w has come down and is now $49.
Anker has new names for their products so they only have a three digit number in their name.
In addition to charge all phones and ipads it can obliviously replace a normal laptop charger of 45W, which means it can charge all HP Elitebook models as well as Macbook Pro 13″ and Macbook Air. You can even use it for newer HP Zbook 15″ in a pinch.
The only negative I can think of with this charger is that my EU version is labeled 200-240V which means it will probably not work if I bring it to the US which is a big bummer. Because it’s so small it would be the perfect gadget to bring on international trips. I might need to rethink which charger to bring when I travel abroad.
The US model has foldable prongs for the 45W and 65W models.
Anker PowerLine III Flow Cable (Anker 641 & Anker 643)
The charger has a USB-C connector, the cable is not included. One cable that will go along perfectly is the Anker PowerLine II cable. It’s available both as a Lightning cable and a UBS-C cable and comes two different lengths 90 cm (3 ft) and 180 cm (6 ft) and is available in 8 different colors (misty blue, lavender grey, midnight black, liliac purple, cloud white, daffodil yellow, mint green and coral pink).
It can be hard to find it in stock specially in the color you might prefer. I got my cable from Amazon. The price for the 3ft cable is $21.99. The 6ft cable is only $3 extra. I highly recommend you go with the 6ft option for more flexibility.
The flow part means that the cable has a silicone finish which makes it soft to the touch. It’s MFi certified, super strong and has a 25,000-bend lifespan. More importantly it’s also tangle free. It also comes with a little strap for cable management.
Anker has for some reason renamed all their products. This cables goes under their ”Series 6” and they now call the lightning cable by the unimaginable name Anker 641. The USB-C to USB-C cable is called Anker 643.
Stouchi iOS to USB-C adapter
For even more flexibility I also brought a USB-C to lightning adapter from Stouchi. There’s a lot of no brand adapters out there but this is very well made and is of high quality.
It does support 10W fast charging. However it does not support data transfer so keep that in mind.
I got it from Amazon for 112 SEK.
With this adapter I only need to bring the USB-C PowerLine cable but can charge both my laptop and my phone with one cable.
