ZDNET’s key findings
- Anker’s 200W Prime 6-Port USB Charging Station is available on Amazon for $80.
- It is of excellent quality, delivers exactly what the specifications say and never gets hot.
- It is too heavy to serve as a portable travel charger.
The charger market has opened up dramatically in recent years thanks to the introduction of chargers that use the far more efficient GaN (gallium nitride) transistors. This has allowed for not only smaller chargers, but also ones that offer more power and run cooler.
It’s a win-win situation all around.
Also: The best GaN chargers you can buy
Anker is one of the biggest names in the charger industry, releasing one hit product after another, and Anker’s new 200W Prime 6-Port Charging Station is no exception.
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Specifications of the Anker 200W Prime 6-Port Charging Station
- 200 W maximum total power
- 4x USB-C, 2x USB-A
- Input: 100 V to 240 V AC, 3.2 A to 2.5 A, 50 Hz to 60 Hz
- USB-C output: USB-C1 / C2 / C3 / C4: 5V⎓3A, 15W / 9V⎓3A, 27W / 10V⎓2.25A, 22.5W / 15V⎓ 3A, 45W / 20V⎓5A, 100W (max. 100W)
- USB-A output: USB-A1/A2: 5V⎓3A, 15W/9V⎓2A, 18W/10V⎓2.25A, 22.5W/12V⎓1.5A , 18W (max. 22.5W)
- Weight: 1.24 lb/563 g
- Dimensions: 4.4 × 3.0 × 1.4 inches / 112 × 76 × 35 mm
- 5-foot AC power cord
- 24 months warranty
The Anker 200W Prime charging station comes in one-, four-, and six-port output configurations.
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Right out of the box, you’ll notice that this is a big, hefty charger that weighs over a pound. The weight itself is a benefit, as it allows the charger to sit on a desk, whereas other smaller chargers get dragged around just by the weight of the attached cables.
There are a few things I look for in all the chargers I test.
First, I need to know that they will deliver the power promised in the specs and that they can deliver that power for many hours without failing or getting hot. I’ve seen many chargers that promise high power only to find that they start to drop off after being in use for a while and warming up.
The metal housing of the Anker 200W Prime dissipates heat excellently.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Anker’s 200W Prime charger worked flawlessly regardless of the load and barely felt warm. You can connect two laptops to this unit, each drawing 100W of power continuously, without encountering any issues.
Anker has integrated MultiProtect and ActiveShield 3.0 into this charger to continuously monitor temperatures and power inputs and outputs to ensure safe charging of all your devices.
Here are the specs of the Anker 200W Prime. (You can also see the rubber feet that ensure the device sits firmly on the desk.)
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Speaking of 100W loads, keep in mind that you will need to use E-marker chip cables to support this type of power transfer.
The build quality is also important to me, including the connectors and power cables, as these parts are subject to constant wear and tear. The connectors in particular are subject to a lot of wear and tear, and tight, stuck or strange connectors only get worse with use.
Buying advice from ZDNET
The Anker 200W Prime 6-Port Charging Station is a solid, powerful and well-built charger and perfect for anyone who needs to power multiple devices. I especially like that this charger supports dual 100W output on the USB-C ports, as this means it can power multiple MacBooks Pros at once. Sure, you won’t get the full 140W that the laptops can handle, but 100W is perfectly adequate unless you want the fastest possible charging rate.
The two USB-A ports are convenient for older devices that don’t use a lot of power, while the four USB-C ports are more than enough for most users.
And then there’s the price. $80. Yes, this charger is only $80. When I review chargers, I try not to look at the price until I’m writing the review, and I was expecting this one to be over $100.
