Review: Anker 60W PowerPort Atom PD 2 gallium nitride (GaN) charger for USB-C and Lightning devices

By SteveJack

In what seems like a lifetime ago, in the pre-COVID summer of 2019, I spent two weeks abroad in Italy, France, and Germany and I took along the new Anker PowerPort Atom PD 2 gallium nitride (GaN) charger (which is currently selling for $45.99 – 8% off – via Amazon) to charge my iPhone, iPad Pro, and MacBook Air. When people ask me what I use to quickly charge all of my Apple devices, this is my answer.

Yes, finally, one charger to rule them all!

Actually, I took two chargers, along with, of course, the requisite adapters (I used Ceptics’ Type C 2-in-1 Travel Adapter Plugs – just $9.99 for three of them – which worked perfectly in all three countries), so that I could charge my iPhone, iPad Pro and MacBook Air simultaneously.

The Anker PowerPort Atom PD 2 gallium nitride (GaN) charger is billed as the “Ultimate Travel Charger” and it really is just that. It’s 15% smaller than Apple’s stock MacBook charger with the power to charge 2 MacBooks at once. By swapping out silicon for gallium nitride (GaN), Anker has created a higher efficiency charger that generates less heat, allowing the charger to be shrunk smaller than ever. 60W output delivers high-speed charging to nearly all USB-C and Lightning devices. I also appreciated the 18-month warranty and the Apple-esque foldable plug. With the plug folded, these are small 68 × 69 × 28 mm, 130 gram items that smoothly drop into my backpack’s cable bag.

With Anker’s “Intelligent Power Allocation,” exclusive technology distributes power between devices and allows for high-speed charging up to 60W when a single device is connected. With just my iPhone 12 Pro Max plugged in using Anker’s 3ft USB C to Lightning Cable (Apple MFi Certified) Powerline II cable, it charges to 60% in just 25 minutes!

Everywhere I went, I congratulated myself for picking up these chargers prior to my trip. I was using my iPhone a lot more, taking photos, messaging friends, family, and traveling companions, looking up local information, etc., so being able to charge quickly was a huge plus. I never ran out of juice through the whole trip which I’m sure would have happened if I had saddled myself with slower non-GaN chargers. Ever since then, for the last year+, I’ve been using the same chargers and cords; they’re still going strong.

So, after putting these chargers and cables fully through their paces, for well over a year now, I highly recommend the Anker PowerPort Atom PD 2 gallium nitride (GaN) charger, Anker’s 3ft USB C to Lightning Cable (Apple MFi Certified) Powerline II cables, Anker’s Powerline II USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cables, and, when traveling abroad, Ceptics’ Type C 2-in-1 Travel Adapter Plugs.

Gallium nitride (GaN) makes all the difference!

SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer, and contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.