This tiny charger has every feature you need – and an adorable smart display

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Chargers come in all sorts of sizes, and while I have a thing for the huge desktop chargers that push out hundreds of watts, sometimes what you need in your life is a tiny charger that charges one thing. The kind of charger you can pop into a wall outlet and let it do its thing.

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But nowadays, even tiny chargers are packed with all sorts of high-tech features. Take the Anker Nano 45W, a petite device that’s about as smart as they get.

On unboxing, the Nano lives up to its name. It’s a small cuboid measuring 1.34 × 1.40 × 1.57 inches and weighing 2.65 ounces, which, according to Anker, makes this single-port 45W charger around 47% smaller and 36% lighter than a standard 30W charger. If you’ve been around a while, like I have, then you’ll remember the old 5W chargers from days of old, and this device is smaller and lighter than those.

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Sometimes AC outlets are in odd, inconvenient spots. To make the Nano as convenient as possible, the prongs can lock at 90° and 180°, which allows you to get the charger into tight spots.

The Nano might only have a single 45W port, but it’s packed with a lot of smart tech. First, there’s a smart color display that shows real-time updates related to power, temperature, and charging modes. This information isn’t a deep dive into all the specs some chargers offer, and it’s more on the fun and cutesy side of things, but it’s still a great touch.

The Nano can also recognize when it’s attached to an iPhone 15, 16, or 17 and can activate charging modes designed to help extend battery lifespan. The device uses a smart three-stage system that starts with fast charging, switches to steady charging for the main bulk of the charge, and drops down to trickle charging for the final top-up.

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The Nano also features a TÜV-Certified Care Mode charging protocol designed to keep the smartphone’s battery 7°F cooler and the charger 36°F cooler. This mode is activated by double-tapping the touchpad button, and is perfect for overnight charging.

When this charger was first announced earlier this year, I was quite interested in testing the Care Mode feature. In the testing I’ve conducted, I’ve discovered that the mode drops charging temperatures quite significantly, but bear in mind that this level is achieved by dropping the output wattage. You could get a similar effect by using a lower-wattage charger, but it is nice to be able to switch your higher-power charger to a lower wattage when needed.

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While charging at lower wattages and temperatures is never a bad thing, modern battery management systems built into rechargeable devices already do a good job of managing charging temperatures, so I’m still on the fence about the actual benefit of a feature like Care Mode.

Oh, and for the globetrotters reading this review, the Nano makes a great travel charger because it can operate on universal voltage — 100V to 240V at 50/60Hz — so it will work across the world with the right travel adapter, with no voltage converter needed.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Anker Nano 45W retails for $30 and comes in black, blue, orange, and white. It’s a great little charger for the price, and while some might see the display as a bit gimmicky and cute, I think it’s rather neat and something that makes this charger stand out in an ocean of otherwise boring chargers. Sometimes we techies need to remember that there’s a market for fun technology.