These are the best GaN chargers you can buy right now
The best chargers to buy today for laptops, Android phones, and everything in between these days are GaN chargers, short for Gallium nitride. Semiconductors made with Gallium nitride like the Anker Nano II can be smaller than traditional silicon chips, and smaller chips make smaller, lighter, and ultimately better chargers. The tech has been around for a couple of years now, but this is still a relatively small field. These are the best GaN chargers with Power Delivery charging you can buy today.
Too small to pass upAnker Nano II 45W
Staff Pick
This 45W charger is smaller than most 30W chargers, thanks to what Anker calls "GaN II" chips, making it even more efficient and limiting heat buildup. The folding prongs also make it perfect for travel.
Best dual-port chargerRAVPower GaN PD 90W Wall Charger
I love the utility of this charger. You can charge a Macbook at top speed, charge two Chromebooks at top speed, or fast-charge a laptop and a tablet/phone. The options are yours to charge as you wish.
Next-gen compactAUKEY Omnia Duo 65W PD Charger
The Omnia Series is a darn fine-looking set of compact GaN chargers that range from 30W all the way up to 100W, but for most folks, this 65W dual-port is a great option for charging a laptop and phone in a single compact charger.
Charge it all at onceAnker PowerPort Atom III Slim 63W (Four Ports)
This desktop charging station is compact and actually kind of handsome with that texture across the top. You can charge a laptop plus three peripherals at once, like a phone, smartwatch, and headphones.
Top speedsAUKEY Omnia 100W PD Charger
If you have a MacBook that you're running full throttle, you're going to want a charger that will charge more quickly than you're burning through the battery. This is the most compact 100W charger we've seen so far, thanks to GaN.
Tiny yet mightyRAVPower 61W PD GaN Wall Charger
This solid little brick is powerful enough to keep a MacBook Pro chugging along and small enough to fit comfortably in a purse or front jeans pocket. It makes an excellent replacement laptop charger.
High-speed, dual portsHyppr 100W USB C Charger
This multi-port charger is a fair bit bigger than RAVPower's 90W model, but it can charge at up to 100W rather than 90W, and it uses two GaN chips and intelligent power distribution to ensure that everything charges as quickly as possible.
Sleek and stylishAnker PowerPort Atom III Slim 30W
Like the 65W four-port model, this is another nice-looking GaN charger that can charge either a phone, tablet, or laptop. It can also hide in a deck of playing cards if your coworkers tend to "borrow" yours.
Charge it all fasterFreedy 90W USB-C Travel Charger Power Station
This charging station is similar to Anker's, but you get two USB-C ports instead of three USB-A ports. If you need to charge a laptop and some big honking power bank at the same time, this might be your better bet.
What GaN actually is and what it does in your charger
GaN stands for Gallium Nitride, an alternative to the traditional silicon that has dominated electronics for the last few decades. Gallium nitride has some advantages - a wider band-gap means it's easier for energy to pass through it, and it has higher limits for the temperatures and power levels it can handle - that makes it almost tailor-made for higher-capacity tech like Power Delivery chargers.
In short, semiconductors and chargers made with gallium nitride are smaller and more efficient, which in turn can help them avoid heating up as much as traditional silicon-based chargers.
However, since the goal of most gallium nitride chargers is to be as small as possible, some GaN chargers still get uncomfortably warm when used for long periods of time because they don't have as much room for heat dissipation. You're not going to be able to bake a cookie on a GaN charger the way you can on a MacBook brick during an all-night editing session, but they'll still get a little warm depending on how hard you work them.
What makes the Anker Nano II the best GaN charger on the marketIn an age where you can charge quite literally all of your tech via one protocol - from your laptop to your phone to all the power banks and headphones in between - one good Power Delivery charger can replace a dozen chargers. So if you can get away with a single-port charger - or you need a charger for your purse or backpack - it's hard to deny the appeal of the ridiculously tiny Anker Nano II 45W. This charger is available in 30W and 65W models, but the 45W is the Goldilocks of the bunch in both size and price. 45W is top speed for charging the best Chromebooks and many USB-C laptops, and it will charge almost all tablets and phones at top speed, too!
The RAVPower 90W charger is a great model for those that need to charge two devices at once, such as charging a laptop and a phone overnight in your hotel room. It's also a great investment for households where you need to charge multiple Chromebooks at once, such as the family charging station for all the kiddos' laptops.