Review (5/5): Another great Anker product!
This is review is for the new Anker Quick Charge 3.0 42W 3-port charger.
Another great Anker product! It arrived quickly and came in easy to open packaging. The first thing I noticed upon opening the box was the weight of the charger; it's hefty. It has metal faceplate which is nice, however, I would have liked to see the QC3 and IQ labels engraved vs printed. I plugged my Note 4 (not QC3 compatible) and a Drok USB meter into the charger and for some reason the max I was getting out of the QC3 ports was 1.35A/6.7W while I got 1.62A/8.4W out of the IQ ports. I used two different usb meters and two wall outlets to confirm these. Perhaps it's because my battery was 80% charged during testing. I currently am using a 1 month old Anker battery in my phone. I'll drain my battery more and update if the results are different.
The current QC2 charger is listed at $22.99 so I assume the QC3 with be at that price or higher. I feel that a cable should definitely be included at these prices. You have to have a solid cable to get the most out of these chargers and Anker has some quality ones that they could/should include at this price point. I will say that I noticed Tronsmart is no longer including their 20AWG cables with their latest QC3 3-port chargers so maybe that's the way the industry is moving. Kind of a shame to have to buy separate cables.
I've included a picture that compares the size of this Anker to my older Tronsmart 3-port QC2. You'll note that this charger is ~50% larger, however, the prong placement allows it to still be able to oriented so as not to block both outlets on the wall. The Tronsmart gets noticeably warm when charging multiple devices, the fact that the Anker is more spaced out should help with heat dissipation.
Pros:
- Build quality; the metal face plate is a nice touch!
- Fold out prongs; great for traveling
- Quick Charge 3.0
- 18m Anker Warranty
Cons:
- No included cable
*disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an unbiased review*