I have one issue with fast wall plugs. They’re bigger than most phone chargers, and that extra weight often leads to them tilting ever so slightly out of the wall. How well they work out depends a lot on their shape and the placement of their USB ports.

Anker’s put a lot of thought into both of those aspects of its superfast 160W Prime charger. The adapter is taller than it is deep, so the weight balance leads it to stay put. The three USB ports, all of which are USB-C, are aimed downward. This reduces the extent to which wires protrude and the likelihood that you will bump into them, knocking the adapter out of the wall.

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

It also helps that, for all the power packed into this charger, it’s relatively compact. Anker advertises the charger as around the same size as an AirPods case. With dimensions of 2.56 × 2.05 × 1.38 inches, the comparison is technically not all that far off, but I wouldn’t want to walk around with this charger in my pocket. Without the rounded corners found on virtually all earbud cases, this feels every bit like a charging brick.

Still, the size does make a difference in your bag, where you can slide this and a tightly wound USB-C cable into a small compartment or a little pouch. Be advised, neither a pouch nor a USB-C cable is included, and not all USB-C cables are created equal, so make sure you have some capable of 140W before adding this charger to your cart.

The visual design will feel familiar to anyone who has owned any of Anker’s other Prime products, ranging from charging stations to power banks. The body is a smooth silver plastic, while the front is a glossy black. The screen on the front of the adapter is invisible in most lighting whenever it’s off.

What’s on a Screen

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

The small screen on the front is an interface identical to that of Anker’s power banks, minus the need to show the current state of charge. When you plug in a device, the screen will light up briefly to show how much power it’s providing. If you plug in more than one device, it will show a different screen illustrating how much power is going to each.

You can interact with the screen by tapping the capacitive button below the display. One tap wakes it up. You can then tap the same spot to switch between screens. One screen will show how much power is going to each device. Another will show the current temperature on a progress bar, indicating whether you’re getting close to overheating. The next screen shows your current charging mode, and you can double-tap to switch between them. Tapping again brings you to a screen showing whether you have an established Bluetooth connection.

Connecting the charger to Anker’s companion app enables you to create custom charging modes. With these, you can limit how much power flows to each port. If you plug in two MacBooks at the same time, you can opt to charge both devices at 80W rather than have the adapter choose to prioritize one over the other.

This way, you and a partner can both get by using a single plug while sharing a table at the library or coffee shop, which is the kind of use case where a compact fast charger like this can particularly come in handy.

A charger that performs

My day-to-day use does not require this much power, so to reach speeds of 150W, I plugged in two Anker SOLIX C300 portable power stations, each capable of charging at speeds of up to 100W. I also plugged in a Moto Edge+ 2023, whose 68W charging is more than twice the speed of my current Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. The default charging profile balanced the speeds between these three devices, allocating each around 50W. It attempted these speeds automatically based on how much power each device was attempting to pull.

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

While the charging speed maxes out at 160W across the three USB-C ports, you can’t supply that much power to a single device. Each individual port maxes out at 140W, a 20W difference that’s not likely to have any tangible difference in your life. No smartphone in the US currently charges at faster than 80W, and the fastest charging speed elsewhere in the world is 125W. My Nintendo Switch 2 peaks at 60W. A MacBook Pro tops off at 140W, which is likely why that’s the number Anker strove to reach.

Each of the three USB-C ports is identical, so it makes no difference what you plug in where. The absence of a USB-A port isn’t the drawback it once was, given how increasingly few devices come with a USB-A cable, and that removes any concern of plugging into a port that maxes out at a much slower 22.5W. Though if you do need or value such a port, you’ll have to look elsewhere. There is no shortage of chargers available, including fast-chargers bearing the Anker name.

Should you buy the Anker Prime 160W, 3-port charger?

Whether a 160W Anker Prime charger is a worthwhile purchase for you depends a great deal on what you need to charge. If you’re like me, and you’re primarily charging a Samsung phone with a max speed of 25W, portable power banks, earbud cases, and the occasional portable gaming handheld—you don’t need this much power. A 100W Anker Prime charging adapter will offer the same number of ports and get the job done at the same speed for almost a third of the price, albeit without the screen. If space isn’t a premium, it’s hard not to recommend the substantially cheaper 200W 6-port Anker Prime Charger instead.

I can’t personally justify paying this much for a charger, but that doesn’t take away from how well-designed a product this is. If your devices are rather thirsty, and you really want to do away with a bunch of charging blocks, this isn’t a bad way to do it—as long as you’re willing to pay the premium.

Anker Prime Charger 160W, 3 Ports, Smart Display price in Pakistan