They’re writing about travel adapters, which is maybe cursed, but we kind of have to do it so let’s at least try to make it entertaining
Now that we have, as a society, moved on to USB-C, it is time to discuss travel adapters.
Of course, the power adapter must be exclusively USB-C, because we respect ourselves and don’t need any ports to be devoted to dead weight. That leaves us, at press time, with few options for a travel adapter. Here are the ones that qualify:
- Satechi makes a 4-port 145W adapter. They used to make a 108W three-port model, but have since discontinued it.
- Anker sells the 726, but it’s sold out on their website.
- Ugreen has a nice compact fella, but at 45W it taps out at iPad strength. They have a 100W version that is also sold out.
- Belkin does a 67W two-port charger.
- Nomad has a 130W 3-port charger.
- Twelve South released a 4-port 130W charger that fits flat, weighs 250g, and has Find My for some reason. I don’t think anyone ever asked for their charger to possess Find My integration, but at those specs, who even cares?
The problem is that 1) big chargers fall out of ports, 2) the trade-off between size & wattage seemingly exists independent of port quantity; and 3) this selection sucks. Just unconditionally sucks. You’d think there would be more innovation with more competition, but nope.
Why this selection sucks
What you want on an adapter is more ports and more overall wattage. Three-digit wattage counts are best in my opinion because they can power up to & including the most power-hungry devices, which is usually your laptop. (Contemporary MacBooks Pro draw 96W for the 14” model or 140W for the 16” model. If you run a 16”, you will probably need a dedicated 140+W brick for just your laptop, in which case enjoy your chungus.)
If you plug fewer things in, then the adapter should theoretically know how to balance its power load to support the demands of each device. Put another way, if you plug an iPhone and MacBook Pro into a four-port adapter, the adapter should know that two ports are free, one doesn’t need very much wattage, and the other needs a lot.
Ideally, this sort of thing should weigh ten grams and never have any issues plugging into any outlet anywhere, ever. The reality is far more complicated.
My own situation
I own the Satechi 108W and the Anker 726. The Satechi falls out of outlets. The Anker doesn’t, but it only has two USB-C ports and a low power capacity. You would figure the Satechi 145W would be a sensible upgrade, but at 346g it weighs as much as my two adapters combined. What happens when you try to balance the thing in a power strip, or load it with cables and hold it in an outlet that isn’t working well?
You have multiple devices and want to plug them in. The charger weighs as much as it weighs. GaN is a lovely innovation, but you can’t cheat physics, and these are real objections that people have on trip. Nowhere are those objections comprehensively addressed on any charger’s product detail page, but you can see a writeup on a recent model.
There is no platonic ideal charger, but the landscape has seen a lot of development over the past few years, and it’s one of the most load-bearing objects that you take with yourself on trip, so alas, writing text like this matters. Remember pen text from two days ago? Ah, the salad days. Anyway, I just ordered the Twelve South charger, and I’m hoping that I’ll never have to do something like this again for the rest of my life.