The Anker Nano USB-C 30W GaN charger is a case study in building a compact single-port charger that meets the most needs for the most people possible at an attractive price point. And, it looks nice! That’s no small feat in the boring world of charging bricks. (The matte finish enclosure is even made of 75% recycled plastic — though this exact model appears specific to the German market.)
When looking for a travel charger, I chiefly balanced size and weight against performance. I wanted a charger that could easily fit in my pocket and charge my MacBook Air 15 quickly enough to be useful (27-30 Watts is about as quick as Apple’s included wall charger). This meant it would easily meet the specification for any other gadget I’d want to charge — iPhone, iPad, Steam Deck, camera — and that I could use my MacBook as a charging hub for smaller devices (phone, AirPods, Apple Watch) while it charged off the wall plug using the MagSafe cable.
The one other product I considered was Anker’s much more powerful Nano II 65W GaN single port USB-C charger, but I quickly decided against it: it’s around 40% larger and weighs 200% more — 150 grams to the Nano 30W’s 50 grams. It also costs about 50% more than the Nano, depending on discounts. While the Anker Nano II 65W is a great low footprint option for more powerful laptops while traveling, I wanted something almost invisible, that I could even stow away into a zipped pocket in my jacket or shorts if need be. (And whose own mass wouldn’t let it jiggle its way out of a tired airline or train electrical socket.) The plastic Nano 30W was just a better fit, literally.
So far, the Nano has lived up to its promise– my MacBook Air 15 charges without issue, and even when running at high CPU and GPU utilization, the charger supplies enough power to operate in power passthrough (i.e., the laptop’s power draw is unable to exceed the charger’s output). If you’re using a laptop with higher performance (like a MacBook Pro) for very intensive workloads (video editing, compiling code, gaming) you will very likely need a higher output charger! But for the MacBook Air family, this little Anker 30W charger is perfect. It also charges my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro M1 plenty quickly, as well as my Steam Deck and Fuji X-T3 mirrorless camera.
I’ve had a ton of chargers over the years. At one point, I traveled with a 4-port 120W USB-C charging hub that weighed almost 500 grams (basically, a pound) and cost over $150. Finding “the best” charger to keep in my bag feels like some kind of neverending quest, a search for a product that doesn’t truly exist outside my own imagination. In a perfect world, I’d be able to have something the size and weight of a simple outlet adapter that put out 100 Watts of power for $30 — maybe one day! Instead, I decided on the MVP approach: I found a product that met the basic charging needs for every gadget I owned, did so with the smallest possible footprint, and at a cost that would make replacement relatively financially painless.
Is this too much thought to put into a USB C wall charger? Probably. But I get the sense the diminutive Anker Nano 30W is a product of excessive thought, of asking which corners can be cut to achieve the right balance of performance, value, and footprint. I suppose that makes it my favorite charger to date, even if I suspect something a bit better is just around the corner.
