This tiny 45W charger can bend to fit any outlet and has enough power for your laptop

Anker has a way of taking ordinary power adapters and making them much more interesting. The latest is the 45W Nano Charger, which includes a screen, 180-degree prongs, tap-sensitive controls, and the ability to identify iPhone models. Altogether, the compact charger is exceptionally capable. It’s a near-final form of a charger like this.

While a $40 charger is a bit of a luxury compared to others with the same amount of power, it is a tempting purchase. It’s great for people traveling who need a single adapter that can power all their devices without taking up a lot of space.

The highlight feature is the adjustable positioning

Having a screen on a power adapter to be able to see the power delivery is nice. But the display on the Nano Charger is not the reason to buy this product. I think the 180-degree folding prongs are actually the highlight feature of this product.

What this means is that it can be plugged in from the back or the bottom. If you’ve ever been frustrated about an airplane or hotel plug position, this feature may help alleviate that. It makes the charger much more versatile than other similar ones.

While it’s not as cool, the 45 watts of power output from a tiny size is nice too. The 45 watts of power should be enough for laptops like a MacBook Air. It’s certainly plenty enough for an iPad Pro or iPhone 17 Pro. Interestingly enough, the charger can identify some of the latest iPhone models. Doing this may help with battery longevity by throttling power accordingly.

The downsides of a fancy power adapter

There’s very little to complain about with the Anker Nano Charger. It’s not flawless though. My biggest gripe with the product in actual use is the touch-sensitive area. It can be a little tricky to navigate, and I’ve found myself accidentally switching screens when I didn’t mean to.

If you tap the top, indented area, it will cycle through screens for power, temperature, and the “mode.” The two modes you can select between are auto power delivery and care power delivery. The second one won’t deliver the same speed boosts, in favor of less heat to try to manage long-term battery health. To switch between the two modes, you need to double-tap.

A third gesture of long pressing on the touch-sensitive area will rotate the screen to face a different direction. Doing a second long press will rotate it back. Three different gestures can be a lot to remember. More than once, I triggered the screen to change when plugging in or unplugging a cable.

The biggest side effect of accidental touch will be rotating the screen without realizing how to undo the action. Because even if you unplug the charger and plug it back in, it remembers its orientation—a blessing and curse. Unfortunately, you can’t connect the Nano Charger to Anker’s mobile app to turn off the touch area or adjust any other settings. These are little annoyances, but probably not deal breakers.

Is the Anker Nano Charger worth spending money on?

Before you hit buy on the new thing. Anker sells its older, previous 45W Nano Charger for under $20, with a cable included. That one is just a charger without any of the fancy features. (The basic 65W version is just $22.)

The new one retails for $40—or $30 when it’s on sale. It’s hard to argue that the new one is $20 better than the old one when they both offer the same amount of power.

Still, if you like the idea of a screen to see the power, and the foldable prongs to accommodate all outlet situations, then there is real value in the new features. Ultimately, the new one is great, and I would opt for it, unless money is tight. In that case, the older one will be equally good at powering devices.