Huge Anker Product Request (Realistic)

PLEASE Anker, make a COMPACT 3 or 4 port wall charger that still charges quickly. I have been wanting one of these for years. By compact, I mean so that it is not heavy and doesn’t stick out of the wall too far, which makes for a much cleaner look. Four ports would be great, but at least 3 is crucial. Thank you, and please tell me, Anker, if you are going to! Does this interest anyone else? Let me know below!

This is a “horses for courses” product request, there’s a place for all of these ideas, there is no right/wrong.

For me, the concerns I have with this idea:

  • will the pins fold or no? If they fold, then the way Anker has been designing the fold is the item blocks other ports as the alignment makes the body parallel to the line of ports in a typical multi-socket mains situation. If the pins don’t fold, then they stick out in your bag to risk damage to other items. (as I say, not an issue in many situations)

  • weight. A UK plug, say, is a mighty study design which is very safe, the USA plug is in comparison very badly designed in that as the wall socket wears, the tiny bit of pinching force wears with age and anything of any real weight simply falls out.

  • How does “not heavy”/“compact” and “charges quickly” not be in total conflict? More power = heavier as you need a bigger converter and it creates more heat which in a smaller unit has less volume to dissipate which ages the electronics and makes it hotter to touch.

Personally, from the tech we currently have I do:

  • A non-blocking folding pins Aukey product. 'cos Anker doesn’t make one. Note it only 2 ports and only 12W. Anker doesn’t make anything that “weak” in energy terms the smallest is 24W which gives full power to both USB ports. This item is for when I need to be compact on port use, a really common situation is recessed power sockets in office desks where Powerport2 (or larger) can’t actually fit.

  • Powerport2, but no larger, as larger falls out too easily in my real-world experience.

  • Powerport5, as it has a cord (non-blocking) and only the cord’s weight (the bit til it hits a surface) so it tends to not fall out from gravity so easily, then I got 5 ports, and then obviously as much Amps as I need (we have 40W to 60W options with Anker).




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Yes, I agree! In fact, I actually mentioned the weight issue in my original post, and with the more power/smaller conflict, I totally agree with you. As time continues, technology continues to become more and more compact, so if we can’t pack the latest technologies attm into a very compact form factor, then we need to find the perfect balance. Neither the PowerPort 4 or the PowerPort 3+ do this. They both have the very latest technologies (as far as I know), but are overly bulky. I’m glad we’re on the same page, and as I mentioned, I need a 3-4 port charger that is a brick. Personally, I would not care if the pins weren’t folding. Take Anker’s car chargers, for example, why can’t we bring that size over to the USB Chargers… just something I really want Anker to work on!

So a car charger is doing a step-down of 12V DC current so its inevitably going to be more efficient, it is basically just a resistor which discards the excess voltage (e.g. dual port input = 12V, output = 2x 5V, discard 2V). You can run say 2 lots of 2 ports in parallel to make parallel lot of 2 x 5V who each share the current, etc. So a car charger has its “easy” which = smaller.

A mains charger from AC 110V-250V has to run an inverter, it is stepping down the voltage to step up the current so its huge Volts and tiny Amps becomes small Volts and larger Amps, so that inverter creates heat, then it must flatten out the AC to DC, smooth it out which involves (guessing) a little capacity which stores/releases energy also causing some heat.

Correct, more efficient inverters create less heat so you can make them smaller.

Also, “compact” and thermally efficient are at odds, to get rid of heat the least-square the better, you’d want a larger surface area to spread out so say more of a thin charger (but other 2 dimension large) is more thermally efficient.

The Aukey I mentioned has it easier as its only 12W, that one does fine for, say, just a phone, or just a phone and a BT headset.

I do think Anker can improve but some of what you ask for will cause product failures ( heat = accelerated wear) and customer issues “it feels too hot” (like we see some complaints on the QC Powercore products).

Until Anker make it, then consider just multiple smaller charger, carry 2? 2 allows for a failure, which matters if on a longer roadtrip. Or go with the Anker Powerport 5, it doesn’t jut out as its just a cable out the wall. I find the sweetspot is the Aukey (v.small where that matters) and the Anker Powerport5 (more Watts when that matters).

For traveling, I wouldn’t know of a good solution in terms of wattage, thermal issues, etc. But if this is something you need at a permanent location, you could look into USB receptacles. Maybe Anker could also provide such a product for permanent home use.

You can’t fully compare car adapters to AC adapters because the voltage difference and conversion difference between the two. as nigelhealy explained.