Satechi GaN Chargers - Trade Four Bricks for One

So many devices. So many chargers.

Whether it's your WFH desk, your laptop bag or you're travelling, if there's a way to declutter - especially cutting down the number of power bricks you have to plug in - that would definitely be a godsend.

If like me, the number of chargeable gadgets in your life just seems to grow and grow ad infinitum, you're probably - also like me - constantly buying new multi-socket power strips to plug all the chargers into.

Take my bedside table, for example. It typically brandishes a lamp, a smart speaker, a phone charger and a charger for my smartwatch. Sometimes my earbuds and eBook also need charging overnight. Potentially that's six different things plugged into six different power supplies simultaneously.

Imagine trying to travel with all that stuff?

The good news is thanks to GaN, you might now only need one charger. And thanks to Satechi, you might be able to charge nearly everything at once.

What is GaN? Have you heard of it yet? Do you even know what it's replacing?

Nope, I didn't know either. Get ready for some science...

Turns out, Gallium Nitride is about to pick up where silicon has stalled. For a long time, most tech has relied on silicon-based transistors which have indeed been miraculous in what they've been able to achieve. Over several decades, the rate of computing progress has pretty much conformed to the often-quoted Moore's law - which states the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years. Transistors are really just fancy switches and the more you have the faster and more powerful your device will be.

Unfortunately, everything has its limits and more recently we've begun to reach silicon's limits; Moore's law is no longer accurate and the advance of silicon-based technology has started to slow.

This led scientists to look for something else - something better, more efficient. Gallium Nitride was already being used for lighting, lasers and even TV displays. It turned out GaN was also able to conduct electrons up to 1000 times more efficiently than silicon. This meant dramatically more speed and power with a lot less heat.

The upshot of all this as far as you're concerned is Satechi can now offer a multi-purpose wall charger, capable of delivering up to 100W to any USB-C-connected device - from phones to laptops. The key advantages here are size and safety; it's not much bigger than any conventional power brick and is definitely smaller than any laptop power supply. It also runs much cooler; this is the peace-of-mind many of us are seeking after hearing so many stories of overheated chargers damaging batteries and even causing fires.

The real advantage though is its versatility; you now only need to take one charger with you to take care of anything you wish to plug into it - phone, earbuds, tablet, whatever. Apple devices are particularly notorious for requiring their own special 20W brick or they simply won't charge at all. Well, the Satechi 100W USB-C PD Wall Charger will juice them every single one; from Airpods to MacBooks.

But what if you want to charge all those things all at once?

Satechi can take care of that too, with the 165W USB-C 4-Port PD GaN Charger. Only slightly bigger than its single-port stablemate, the 4-Port version ups the available wattage so you can literally charge a laptop, a tablet, a phone and your watch simultaneously. That means you now need just one wall socket instead of four and because it comes with a conventional, figure-eight external power cord, the wall socket you do use won't be crowded out with a massive brick, preventing you from plugging other things in next to it or placing furniture in front of it.

While its 4-in-1 abilities and compact size make it an ideal travel companion, the Satechi 4-Port GaN Charger is also an effective way to instantly declutter your desk. As such, there's a simple desktop stand included in the box to help keep things as tidy as possible.

My only criticism (and this applies to both the single and quadruple port versions) is the power indicator. It's an incredibly bright blue light that literally illuminates the entire room at night and for what? To tell me the charger is plugged in? I knew that already. I plugged it in. A small piece of electrical tape takes care of this issue but it kind of detracts from the otherwise extremely classy, matte silver and black look of these devices.

Other than that, I'm so satisfied. The efficiency and performance of these chargers is faultless and I'm sure it won't be long before all wall chargers are GaN-based like these. The maths is simple; do you want four bricks in the wall or just one?

    

Click here for more information on the Satechi 100W USB-C PD Wall Charger.

Click here for more information on the Satechi 165W USB-C 4-Port PD GaN Charger.