When I purchased the Anker 5-Port Desktop Charger I was looking for a something I could sit on my desk like a USB hub of sorts & plug in my phone and other devices to charge without fussing about under my desk. I saw the Anker Desktop Charger on Amazon with a lot of positive reviews and some negative ones and decided to give it a try. It was only $20, so my feelings wouldn’t be too hurt if it turned out to be crap.
Specs:
- Input: AC 100-240V
- USB: Output 5V / 5A (total)
- Color: Black
- Size: 98 x 65 x 25mm / 3.6 x 2.6 x 1.0in
- Weight: 159g / 5.6oz
Referenced from: http://www.ianker.com/product/71AN7111-B5A
Build Quality
When I received the Anker Desktop Charger and pulled it out the box, I immediately felt I got more than what I paid for cause it felt so good in the hand. It had a true premium feel with minimal branding and nothing else written on the device but the necessary text required. The Anker charger had a suede-like skin that felt nice in the hand with a weight to it that made sure you didn’t mistake it for cheap even though technically it was.
Function
The Anker charger I ordered was the 5 amp version but an 8 amp version is available if you really need. The 5 ports consisted of 3 standard ports that delivered 1 to 2 amps and 2 “IQ” ports which will deliver up to the 2.4 amps each or 5 amps together for your bigger devices that might require more amps like tablets. The “IQ” ports are supposed to be intelligent and is able to determine the amount of amps required to get the fastest charge for your device. Now on Amazon, you’ll see some horror stories of the charger coming out the box with dead ports as is a common thing with USB hubs of any kind. Gladly, I didn’t fall victim to that, as all my ports worked just fine.
Testing
In my testing over the last couple weeks, I used my phone as the testing device and tested both the IQ and Standard ports a few times over in different charging situations charging from 1% to 99% and from ~60% to ~99%. The results below tell you how my journey went.
Anker IQ Charge
Trial #1
- 8:30AM-7%
- 10:00AM-70%
Difference:63% charge rate:~31.5% an hour / ~0.52 a minute
Trial #2
- 8:14AM-1%
- 8:54AM-32%
- 9:23AM-54%
- 10:36AM-92%
- 11:23AM-99%
Difference:98% charge rate:~32.6% an hour / ~0.54 a minute
Anker Standard Charge
Trial #1
- 9:03AM-21%
- 11:03AM-95%
Difference:74% charge rate: ~37% an hour / ~0.62% a minute
Trial #2
- 9:14AM-6%
- 10:20AM-57%
- 10:59AM-82%
Difference:81% charge rate: 40.5% an hour / ~0.67% a minute
As you can see, there wasn’t much difference between the ports when it came to my phone. This Anker charger is set to give up to 5 amps but of course, it’s not gonna output that much for every device. That’s where the “IQ” comes in to regulate the amperage based on the device that’s plugged into it. With that being said, I’m confused as to why my device charged slower on the IQ ports than on the standard ports. It just leaves me scratching my head.
Conclusion
With that being said, it’s still pretty much overkill for my needs currently. It works great charging multiple devices. However, the Anker charger will also covers me if I do get my hands on one of those turbo charging phones like the One Plus One, Samsung Note 4, or Droid Turbo since those phones can charge blindly fast with special chargers and batteries that use more current. At least I hope so.
If you just so happen to be in the market for an easy-to-use usb hub charging device then you’ve pretty much found it. For the low price of ~$20 the Anker Desktop Charger should be high on your list of considerations for this kind of product.
