Anker is a world-renowned brand for their power banks and chargers, and last year, we reviewed their highest-end desktop charger – the Anker Prime 240W GaN Desktop Charger that has 4 ports. We liked it, though the USB-PD PPS support isn’t the widest – but it’s still a very powerful charger nonetheless.
When I saw the new Anker Prime charger 250W GaN desktop charger this year, my jaw dropped. Oh, Anker really outdid themselves this time. It’s now smaller, has 2 more ports, and also has a bunch more features built in. And these are actually useful features to the point that I think Anker created a whole new product category in the market, which I’ll be calling it a “bedside charger”.
The unboxing is rather simple – we just open the box, get the unit from within, and the power cable is located in another compartment. This power cable is thick and has a rather huge ferrite core too.
The charger itself is rather simple but elegant in terms of its design. The body is grey in color, and is an angled black piece at the front. This is actually a screen – and there are four USB-C ports too. They’re labeled as USB-C1 to C4, from left to right. At the right side of the unit, there are two more USB-A ports and there is also a knob.
When we powered it on, the screen lights up, and we can already start charging our devices. The maximum wattage output of each port when used independently is as shown on the screen here. We can use the knob to select – let’s say the USB-C1 port, we can see the wattage output, the charging protocol and wattage negotiated by that device, voltage, and current.
We can do this for all the ports – and I think this is the best time to show all the protocols supported by each of the USB-C ports. I’m skipping the USB-A ports because they’re only outputting 22.5W max anyway. Also, I have moved all my devices to USB-C.
The true magic of the Anker Prime 250W GaN charger is when we charge multiple devices at once. Let’s charge 3 devices at once. I connected USB-C1 to a device that can take in 140W maximum, then C2 and C3 to two different laptops.
The power distribution will be 140W-100W-100W. It’s a very typical power distribution even with other chargers that we’ve reviewed in the past and we cannot change it. But not for this charger.
We can use the knob, spin it, select the settings menu, and change the charging mode. There are 4 of them to choose from, and we can select “dual laptop mode”. This mode will give priority to both USB-C1 and C2 to 70W. Most laptops like the MacBook Air will require up to 65W anyway, so if you are a reviewer like me who deals with multiple laptops on a daily basis, then yes – this dual laptop mode will work great.
We can also change it to “port priority” mode. This mode is a bit fancy as we can select up to two ports to have priority. For example, in this case where I have a total of 3 devices connected to the charger. The USB-C1 port is connected to a device that can accept 140W but because we have three devices connected, it will not output 140W to the USB-C1 port.
When we did select USB-C1 to become a priority port, it will prioritize that port to get the most wattage for the fastest charging possible, as the name suggests. The other two ports will get lower power. And I’m just amazed by this feature. It’s so simple but it adds so much versatility on how we want to charge our devices.
And by the way, I am someone who doesn’t use fast charging unless I need it. There are lots of proof out there that fast charging will have unnecessary heat and that will cause issues for your device’s battery.
So, if you’re someone who charges overnight, then select the “low current” mode in the settings menu. It will limit the power to what’s shown on the screen. That’s great, especially since many phones do not have the option to limit the charging speed.
But that’s not all. Let’s now talk about the app. Yes, this Anker Prime 250W charger can be connected to an app. This app will display all the ports and wattage in a dashboard and we can also make quick adjustments here too. It’s basically the same things we can do on the charger itself with the knob, but some of the things are faster on the phone.
What’s interesting is that we can even make our own custom charging mode. Yes, there are 4 preset modes on the charger itself – but we can create our own via the app. We can set our own wattage limit for each port and save it in the app. That is just brilliant!
And remember at the beginning when I said that this is a “bedside charger”? Yeah, this display can become a clock too. We can even change the brightness, change when the clock should be displayed, and choose from all the presets available. We still cannot create our own clock theme yet, but maybe in a future software update.
With all of these features combined, this is why I say Anker created a new product category of bedside chargers. You put this on a bedside table, plug all of your devices in for the night, and go to sleep. You can make sure all your devices are actually charging since it’ll show up on the screen, and you can also see the time too.
Or you can also put it on your desk like me and connect all devices there. Either way works.
I’m just very impressed by the features packed in this Anker Prime 250W GaN charger. The features are actually useful, and these are true innovations that I support.
Should you buy the Anker Prime 250W GaN desktop charger?
And the price – ah, it’s actually quite good too. It is priced at $170 USD, or just RM699 for us Malaysian folks. But, from now until 30th May 2025, we can get this charger at a discounted rate. That’s excellent and I think this charger is a great long-term product as it can charge a lot of devices and supports super high wattage whenever needed.
Bravo to Anker for releasing such a great product. I’ll be replacing my desktop charger with this – and if you have any questions about this charger, let us know down in the comments section below. Also, what do you think about this charger? Is it overkill or is it something that you’ll use? Let us know, and we’ll see you guys in the next video.
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