A pair of USB-C ports and a USB-A one provide up to 66W of power for your electronics. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Minix Neo P1 uses gallium nitride to pack three powerful USB ports into a tiny wall charger. It can provide up to 66W to an iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch or other gear. And the power adapter is made for travel, with fold-down prongs and adapters for a wide variety of countries.
I tested the Neo P1 with a variety of devices. Here’s how it stood up.
This is everything that comes in the box with an iPhone ordered today. There’s no charger or headphones. Photo: Apple
Apple won’t include a wall charger or a pair of headphones with the upcoming iPhone 12 series. And it doesn’t stop there. The company no longer bundles these accessories with any handset ordered from the Apple Store. Even if they came in the box before.
New fast charging OtterBox power banks also include wireless charging. And there are new wall and car chargers too. Photo: OtterBox/Cult of Mac
While OtterBox is known for its rugged phone and tablet cases, on Thursday it introduced a line of rugged, fast-charging power banks with wireless charging. There are also wall chargers and car chargers designed to quickly power mobile devices.
Griffin PowerBlock Range of Ultra-Compact USB-C PD Fast Charging Wall Chargers with Gallium Nitride (GaN) Technology Photo: Griffin
A slew of smaller wall chargers with better charging speeds are soon to hit the market and two companies – Griffin and Aukey – used the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday to show off their newest units.
Aukey’s Omnia and Griffin’s PowerBlock lineup are made from gallium nitride, or GaN, a next-generation semiconductor material with 100-times the speed of old silicon technology. They are well-suited for high-power transistors capable of operating at high temperatures. As a result, components are smaller, lighter and faster to charge, up to 70% faster than standard chargers.
The Juiceboxx Charger Case is just one of the stocking stuffers that should be on your list. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Candy canes are great and all, but in this day and age we’ve come to expect something more when digging into our stockings. Thankfully some of the neatest stuff for stockings, whether portable power, phone-mounted lasers or hands free mounts — is also super affordable. The following are just a few of the awesome stocking stuffers we’ve gathered at Cult of Mac Deals.
NomadPlus mounts the regular white Apple USB hub, turning it into a portable 1800mAh battery. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
All of us iPhone users know the feeling of having to pull the plug and get out the door before the battery’s done charging. The sleek white charging block that comes with our phone channels the charge but can’t carry it, but with the NomadPlus it can. Designed to snugly fit Apple’s USB hub, it’s a great way to turn your average wall charger into a portable battery for just $24.99.
The ExoMount Touch keeps your phone within easy reach with a simple, one-touch mechanism. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Twenty dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to, but that doesn’t have to be true if you know where to look. Cult of Mac’s frugal sleuths have found some great deals that you can add to your life with a spare bill floating around in your wallet, from hands-free mounts to game design training and more. Check them out below.
Wonderful. But would we really end up using this stuff? I mean, yeah, we probably would. But not every day. Probably not every month. On the other hand, TYLT’s Energi 2K — a wall charger with a USB port that also houses a battery — is the kind of brilliant idea that we imagine we’d actually want to use every day.