I’m jealous of all of you out there. Each time I get a UK localised gadget, it comes with a sizable UK plug. It’s not a problem if the item in question is a monitor or a vacuum cleaner, but when it comes to portable gadgets or Anker Nano… bold claims of being as small as AA battery fall short thanks to the electrical safety standard from almost a century ago.
Everywhere else Anker Nano is cool. In the UK, it should be named Anker Micro or Mini. Plugs in the UK are nowhere near nano!
Anker Nano Micro
It’s obviously not Anker’s fault, anything made for the UK will come with the size of the plug being a significant factor. All things considered, even with enormous prongs, Anker Nano is one of the smallest chargers I had in my bag. Anker, can you make these prongs fold, please? One day one of these UK plugs will punch a hole in my lovely messenger bag.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Anker special “influencer” box
Looks like notenoughtech is big enough to qualify for “influencer” boxes and Anker sent me a really nice looking box with 2 chargers inside and 2 USB-C phone cables. The box was so lush and big, that for a moment there I hoped they added iPhone12 inside (oh that sweet resale value, I’m an Android guy at heart!), as there was way too much space inside for something that comes in “nano” size!
Why do I mention iPhone12? It’s plastered all over the box as iPhone12 had been released without a charger. Also, included USB-C to Lightning Port cable is braided comes with metal plugs and feels three times more expensive than the USB-C equivalent for Android lovers!
C’mon Anker, Android users are people too! We like and care for our phones, just like Apple fans do, we just manage our finances better!
While the box isn’t available to an average Joe to buy, products inside: Anker Nano and Anker Power Port 3 are, you should check them out on Anker’s page if you are looking for a charger.
PowerIQ 3.0 – yet another protocol?
Chargers may not be the most exciting tech to write about, but when a company puts 3 X faster on their box, it’s time to verify their claims, oh wait… these are made against iPhone charger. Looks like I will be making my own bold statements. It’s fine, I have 3 phones Xiaomi Mi 9 (review), Google Pixel 3 (review) and Xiaomi Redmi Note 9(review) and Tasker at my disposal. Thankfully Anker Nano is USB-C so it will work with all my phones, and probably most of your phones too!
The charging speed will strongly depend on your phone and the charging protocol used for each device. It’s a pain in the neck, as each phone manufacturer is keen on introducing proprietary protocol to charge their phone faster.
I’m on board with Apple move to ditch the charger. There should be a purchase option to simply add a compatible charger to your box instead. I have a drawer full of chargers from standard USB 5V, through QuickCharge 2/3/4, FastCharge and USB-C PD. You can imagine this all gets very old very quickly.
Anker Nano comes with PowerIQ 3.0 – and while on the surface it looks like “yet another protocol to my collection”, PowerIQ 3.0 is a blend of QuickCharge 3.0 and USB-C PD. Both happened to be the most popular charging protocols in 2020. A very smart move by Anker, and a very smart charger indeed.
On your marks, get set, GO
Anker Nano is rated for 20W which covers most of phones and tablets when it comes to fast charging protocols. To illustrate this, I run some benchmarks to show you how quickly Anker Nano tops up phones, especially when supported protocol is deployed.
All phones were topped up from 5% (not used, but connected to WiFi with random notifications here and there to simulate the average use case scenario).
| Name | Battery Size | Protocol | Charge time | Charge Factor |
| Google Pixel 3 | 2915 mAh | Fast charging 18W USB Power Delivery 2.0 | 63 min | 46mAh /min |
| Xiaomi Mi 9 | 3300 mAh | Fast charging 27W Quick Charge 4+ | 47 min | 70mAh /min |
| Redmi Note 9 | 5020 mAh | Fast charging 18W | 124 min | 40mAh /min |
Xiaomi Mi 9 charged fully in less 50min which is impressive. Google Phone was taking the advantage of the USB-C PD while Redmi Note 9 took the longest to charge, due to its impressive battery capacity.
Need more juice? Anker Power Port 3
Since my Lenovo Yoga USB-C hack, I need a charger that packs more than 20W of power! The laptop needs 45W, so this is where the Anker Power Port 3 comes handy. With 2 USB-C and PowerIQ 3.0 60W I can not only charge my laptop but top-up Xiaomi Mi 9 at Quick Charge rates.
To deliver 60W Anker needed a little bit more space, this is a combined rating for both ports but each one can deliver up to 60W when needed. To save you travelling headaches, Anker Power Port 3 comes with removable plugs, so you can take your charger, spare plug adapter and plug it anywhere in the world, as long as they adhere to US/UK/EU plug type!
Use [UKNANO10] at AmazonUK to get extra discount for Anker Nano
Final Thoughts
Anker Nano is especially impressive if you don’t live in the UK. In here it still managed to be a small and powerful 20W charger, with a slightly bigger form factor. The bottom line is until the UK reinvents itself, the 20W chargers on UK’s market won’t go smaller than Anker Nano. Interested? Head to Anker page to grab a deal It’s less than $20! Got comments? Leave it in this Reddit thread, but be warned, if you going to moan about how safe UK plugs are – I will simply reply with “Are you trying to say that British engineers can’t come up with any improvements since the 1940s?”
