Anker has become probably the biggest name in charging over the last decade, and while it built that foundation on reasonably-priced chargers and power banks that simply did a better job than the ones that came with devices, it's branching out into far more premium territory lately. That's perfectly exemplified by the new Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station, which I've been using to charge my stuff for a few weeks.
I'll get on to the specs and how I've found it, but there's no getting around the stonking price that Anker has attached to this particular charging station. You can pick it up for a whacking $299.99 in the US or £299.99 here in the UK, which is a pretty wild amount of money to spend on a charging dock. There have already been discounts to make that RRP questionable, but it's still a huge sticker-shock number.
That said, it does have more bells and whistles than any other charger I've ever used. As the lengthy name suggests, this is a 3-in-1 charger mainly aimed at Apple users, since one of its chargers is an Apple Watch puck. The other main arm holds a MagSafe-compatible wireless charger, with its own active cooling fan system to mitigate the inescapable heat of wireless charging. Finally, there's a third charging area on the base for your earbuds or any other device you like.
Below this area, there's a small readout display to let you know what the charger's doing and how much power it's supplying to each device. It even plays a little animation if you use all three at once, but since I've largely had it by my bedside, where I charge my phone and watch overnight, I've almost always had it on the sleep mode that turns this display off (and disables the fan, too, for the sensitive sleepers among us).
Since the main charger is also Qi2-certified, it can output up to 25W wirelessly, which means it's a faster wireless charger than you've likely used before, which makes it equally suited to a desktop where you might need a quicker top-up. The fact that the charger comes with one of Anker's own 65W wall plugs to actually power things shows that it's high-end stuff.
It does what it says on the box in all regards, too, cutting down on cabling and making my bedside table a one-stop shop for charging. That said, I simply cannot imagine paying even close to £300 for it – if I was forking out that sort of money for a charging station, I think I'd want it to be more aesthetically pleasing, and less office-like, for one thing. A Bluetooth connection to monitor my charging might seem like an interesting feature, but it's not one that 99% of people will ever use, too.
So, if you want the best wireless charging station out there right now, this is probably your best bet (although it seems sold out in the UK, with stock still abundant in the US). You've got to have a budget to match it, though, and I'm curious about how many people actually do.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.