This product was provided to me as a part of Anker’s We love testing program but all opinions are my own.
Link to video of the review:https://youtu.be/1QC8bICruxc
Unboxing:
As with other Anker products, the Powerport Atom 3 slim is packed well in cardboard. The contents of the box are efficiently packed to avoid excess packing material while protecting the product.
The charger comes with a charging cord with a velcro strap as well as a 3M adhesive if you want to permanently affix this charger to your desk. It also comes with an short instruction manual and the standard anker warranty card offering 18 months of warranty.
Physical:
The PowerPort atom 3 slim is 3.5 by 3.4 at only .7 inches thick and weighs 5 oz. Anker was able to achieve this small size by switching from Silicon to Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. I can see this trend occurring across the 3rd party accessories market to create slimmer chargers with the same power.
Charging:
In my testing, the powerport atom 3 slim was able to achieve the rated 45w power delivery speed on the USBc port. The entire charger is rated for 65w, with the remaining 20w split between the 3 remaining USB A PowerIQ 3 ports. These PowerIQ 3 ports should detect and deliver the appropriate power to each device. In my testing, these ports did not trigger fast charging on a GS10 but this was not advertised so it’s not a problem. Each USB port maxes out at 2.4A at 5v. Here is the main weakness of this device. Each USB port maxes out at 2.4A at 5v for 12 w. Since all 3 ports share 20w, there is not enough power to max out all 3 USB A ports. If one port is being maxed out, the other remaining ports do not have enough wattage to work at full speed. But it is nice to have the option to slow charge additional devices than not have the USB ports at all. I will primarily use this for overnight charging so I do not need the full speed charging from 3 USB A ports simultaneously.
I did some testing with my various devices and I took the Atom 3 slim with me on a two week trip. I used it as my sole charger when possible, charging a Macbook air and dell latitude. I used the USB A ports to overnight charge my Oneplus 6T, my Fitbit Versa 2 and my bluetooth headphones. My external batteries ranging from 5000mah to 15000mah were both topped off by the next morning. The only time I used a separate charger was to dash charge my phone since that is proprietary.
The charge times I got are as follows:
Macbook 15 inch: 4.5 hours
Macbook 13 inch : 2 hours 42 min
Macbook air : 2 hr 35 min
Oneplus 6T: 1 hr 55 min w/ avg charge speed of 1480mah
Samsung Galaxy S10: 1 hr 45 min w/ avg charge speed of 1585mah
Dell Latitude 7490:2 hr 20 min. *Compared to the native 60w charger at 1:49 and the Dell WD15 dock at 1:43
I also tested this charger with my Nintendo switch. It was able to charge while I played both docked and undocked. I set a cpu vs cpu smash bros match and measured the charge. I didn’t charge completely but the Nintendo charger got 5% in 10 minutes vs the 3% from the Anker charger. I do not recommend using this charger with the dock as Nintendo used non standard charging on their implementation of USB c and there are reports of 3rd party chargers bricking the switch.
The charger does get warm to the touch during charging. With a non-contact thermometer, I measured surface temperatures of 100-120 F. This is not a concern to me as the original chargers get above 100 F when charging as well.
Conclusion:
Overall I like this charger and it will find a place in my travel bag. It can easily provide overnight charging for all my devices. The 45w PD may be limiting if you want to charge high power draw devices while under heavy use. It can charge my Macbook air at full speed but my Macbook pro 15 can draw more power than the charger can output during heavy workloads. So it will not replace a full power charger for my workstation laptops.
