13 Useful Anker Mini Gadgets That Can Easily Fit Into Your Pocket Or Backpack

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In the market for cables, chargers, and power banks, Anker is king. Its products tend to be high quality and high performance, with an agreeable stylistic flair. If you haven't owned an Anker device, then you may have used one of the tech brands it owns. We recommend it despite a few hiccups in its history. The problem is that Anker has so many products and product names — Prime, Nano, Zolo — that it can be easy to get lost in its marketing buzzwords. So we'd like to look at some of Anker's portable mini gadgets that would fit into your pocket or your backpack.

We're looking at a wide variety of products from power banks to brick chargers to adapters. Products will include both those that are budget-friendly and a few catering to people who want the best Anker has to offer. Add one of these 13 items to your cart and you can't go wrong.

Plug converters are incredibly cheap and easy to find online. But if you want something a little better than the cheapest, most basic option available — one that bundles a charger into an adapter — try the Anker Nano Travel Adapter instead. Unlike most plug adapters out there that are big and chunky enough to double as a doorstop, the Anker Nano Travel Adapter could pass as just another charger, and packs an EU, UK, and Australia plug into its small form factor of about 3.39 by 1.97 inches.

Using its wall plug, two USB-A ports on the bottom, two USB-C ports on the side, you could in theory charge a maximum of five devices at once — though not big ones. The key is in the name: Nano. Slim form factor for smaller, low-powered devices like phones, earbuds, smartwatches, and cameras. For bigger devices that need faster charging speeds, try Anker's "big boy" chargers like the 160W Prime.

The only downside is that the plug-in does not support three-pronged plugs, as many aforementioned chunky adapters do. So if your device needs that type of plug or needs grounding, you'd best look for another charger that is safe to use. Just make sure the devices that have a third prong, like a hair iron, are rated for the voltage of your destination country and/or not banned by the TSA.

Power banks that support wireless charging are now common enough. Anker certainly makes some of the best ones. The problem is that the most common size — 10,000 mAh — feels huge. It can seemingly double the bulk and weight of your phone and generate a lot of heat, making it less than pleasant to use while it's charging. Anker's slim 5,000mAh battery might be more to your liking. It's about as thin as an Apple Pencil and is Qi2-certified, the open standard version of MagSafe. Thanks to Qi2, it supports up to 15W charging, and thanks to the slim form factor, it will be much less of a pain to hold in the meantime.

Anker notes that this is designed for iPhone, so we wouldn't recommend buying this for an Android phone unless you're 100% sure it will fit on the back. If you have a recent Google Pixel, you're probably in the clear thanks to Google's MagSafe-like Pixelsnap support. And just in case, you can use the USB port for charging if you need to.

Finding a power brick with a lot of ports that can charge fast is easy these days. But good luck finding one that isn't as big as a cinder block. The Anker Nano 45W charger sits halfway between those massive power bricks and the smaller ones that can only put out an unimpressive 20W. It has one USB-C port and a display, making it a miniaturized version of Anker's bigger power bricks. It works best with iPhones, intelligently recognizing them to charge safely and as fast as possible.

In theory, a 45W charger can charge an iPhone 17 Pro halfway in under 30 minutes. The incredibly small size would make this perfect for bringing it with you wherever you go, or using it at home if you're tired of power bricks taking up the entire outlet. The display, in my experience, is a real game-changer; sometimes your phone is charging slowly and the culprit is the outlet. With the display, you can do a quick and dirty analysis to choose the one that supports the speeds you need. Extremely helpful when traveling in hotels that hamstring charging speeds on their plugs, for example.

The Anker 5,000mAh power bank is aiming at an ultra-slim form factor, but the Anker Nano 45W 10,000mAh power bank is a pocket-sized tank mimicking Anker's biggest power banks. It has multiple charging ports, a built-in cable, and a display. The much faster 45W charging speed, like an Anker power brick, means you can get to 50% battery in under an hour for a modern flagship. It also supports pass-through charging, supplying an extra charging port while it's charging itself. And most importantly, this fits into a pretty tiny 3.21 by 1.99-inch form factor.

Having the built-in cable is one of the best parts, since usually 10,000mAh power banks require you to use your own. It'll feel like something every power bank should have once you get used to it. Also, the display with a detailed charge readout goes a long way, instead of having to guess the charge level based on a couple of blinking dots.

USB-C has been a very mixed bag. On the one hand, you now have one cable that can charge and connect almost everything, and can be plugged in either orientation. On the other hand, USB-C has been an extremely confusing standard because data and non-data cables, fast charging and non-fast charging cables, all look the same. The Anker Prime 240W cable may be the last USB-C cable you need. Aside from supporting absolutely insane charging speeds, it also can transfer data at 480Mbps. So in effect, it will work for almost any USB-C use case aside from screen mirroring.

You can use this as a travel cable to charge small gadgets and your laptop, or at home to charge your Nintendo Switch 2 and/or PC handheld. It'll probably even work great for a USB dock. The choice is yours. Anker sells this cable in 1-foot, 3-foot, and 6-foot sizes. Braided cabling is also (in my opinion) the best cable sheath material, period, because it's durable and doesn't tangle quite as easily. Anker claims in its marketing that it can survive hundreds of thousands of bends and work at a wide range of temperatures.

Phone chips are so powerful these days that Apple slapped a two-year-old one into a laptop and called it the MacBook Neo. The desktop mode on Android, like Samsung DeX, is good enough to literally replace a laptop if you want. We are approaching a future where people may no longer buy laptops — perhaps even computers, period — instead using their phone as their everything device. The only issue is connecting that phone to big displays. Anker's USB-C to HDMI cable may be just the thing.

Spec-wise, the cable supports 4K 60Hz with HDR, and Thunderbolt 5. It's also braided (read: the best type of cable shielding) and built to last. Phones aside, it supports laptops, tablets, and some monitors. The smallest 3-foot-long version could be perfect for a personal desktop setup, while the 6-foot version would be ideal in a living room or a workspace conference room.

Conversely, you can use Anker's USB-C to female HDMI adapter to use a cable you already own instead. These are cheap ways to bring small devices to big screens and — in my experience — they usually plug and play, requiring no additional setup.

If you have an old surge protector, do the safe thing and throw it away already. It may no longer be protecting against any surges, and possibly even worse, could be a fire hazard. Consider replacing it with the Anker Prime 240W 8-in-1 charging station. It supports up to two plugs, two USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports. What stands out most about it is how compact it is, measuring less than an inch thick and using pop-up outlets to make the plugs work. Similar to many other Anker products, the screen provides helpful power metrics.

A charging station like this might be a better-looking alternative to traditional power strips for a minimalist desktop, and certainly backpack-sized for travel. Bringing a power strip on vacation isn't exactly convenient, and let's face it, these days there are very few office devices that strictly need a plug. Most can be charged directly from USB-A or USB-C.

Anker's included app allows you to control the station wirelessly, turning it on and off at certain times of day, and seeing live readings of how much power it's pushing to each port. As a promise that the device will work as intended, Anker offers a $200,000 warranty for any connected equipment that gets fried due to a malfunction.

A smaller, cheaper alternative to the Prime 240W charging station is the Nano 67W 6-in-1 Travel Power Strip. It's effectively the same thing: two pop-up plugs, two USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports, minus the display, and, of course, a much smaller 67W limit. But it's still powerful enough to top up a laptop like a MacBook Pro. A nice little touch is that it doesn't have a huge power brick and features a flat plug that won't make an outlet into a tripping hazard.

Bear in mind the 67W charging limit only applies to the USB-C ports. The USB-A ports are limited to 12W. Still, this is an excellent hotel desk or side table-friendly charging station that brings the plugs and ports to you, rather than forcing you to stoop down to a brick plugged into the wall every time you need power. The slim form factor makes it easy to slip into a suitcase or backpack. Even when not on the road, it can fit easily into any setup you have.

One of Anker's best-looking and cleverest products, we think, is the Anker MagGo UFO 3-in-1 charging station. It combines three wireless chargers — one for a Qi2-compatible phone, one for AirPods, and one for an Apple Watch — and folds them together into a UFO-shaped puck. Few other 3-in-1 travel wireless chargers we've seen condense into such a small, portable form factor. Aside from the included 40W wall brick adapter, this is a pocketable device. Wireless charging may not be the fastest way to charge your devices, but if you need one charger that can charge them all in a trip where you're only allowed a carry-on, this might be just the ticket.

There is one drawback: Barring a Qi2-compatible phone, this is for Apple users through and through. If you don't have an iPhone, a pair of AirPods, and an Apple Watch — or at least two of those three — we can't recommend it. However, it does lean into the fact that it's an Apple-oriented charger. The individual pods can be folded so both the iPhone and Apple Watch work in StandBy mode. The biggest drawback of the UFO charger is the price. It is quite steep at $89.99, though it often goes on sale for much lower.

As widespread as USB-C has become over the past decade or so, it's not quite yet in everything, everywhere. Many people still have hard drives with USB-A, Bluetooth mice with USB-A dongles, USB-A thumbsticks, USB-A cables, the list goes on. Maybe in the next five years or so we can finally put the old USB-A out to pasture, but until then a great temporary retrofit is Anker's USB-A to USB-C adapter.

A standout feature is that it supports high-speed data transfer. Often adapters like these will only support power. Anything that needs to talk to your computer — hard drives, dongles, thumbsticks — can be used with your USB-C ports, no problem, and a handy indicator light tells you it's working.

It's also arguably a lot more environmentally friendly than throwing away old USB-A devices that still work. A pair of these adapters costs only $12.99, cheap enough that you could buy one for every old device if you wanted to and make it semi-permanently into a "USB-C" device.

The Anker 3-in-1 UFO MagSafe charger is intended more or less exclusively for travelers, not for a semi-permanent setup on a desk. If you'd like the latter variety, try the Anker Prime 25W 3-in-1 foldable MagSafe charger. It is still quite portable, but looks more like a static wireless charger and can actually stand your phone up so you can use it while charging. The angle of the charger can also be adjusted to taste.

One aspect we like about this wireless charger is the built-in cooling system. A perennial issue with wireless charging is that due to poor power efficiency, wireless charging heats up your device a concerning amount. Enough that it could potentially be degrading your battery faster. While rigorous independent testing on the cooling system's effectiveness wasn't readily available, any cooling is better than none.

Just prepare for sticker shock. The Prime retails for $149.99, though sales regularly bring it down to about $100. If it makes you feel better, it's one of the few items on Amazon's storefront that earns the "Customers usually keep this item" badge, ensuring this won't be a $149 mistake.

MicroSD and SD cards may be mostly gone from smartphones, but they are still very much a thing on devices that need a lot of removable storage such as cameras and Android game consoles. Sadly, it feels like card readers are also disappearing from laptops and desktop PCs, the places where you would need them most. Anker's SD card reader is a highly rated, high-quality, and relatively affordable way to access your cards directly, on any USB-C device.

Anker's card reader supports both microSD and SD cards, and most of their respective standards. It works on laptops, phones, and tablets. Thanks to USB-C, it can make full use of a card's high transfer speeds so you're not sitting around for long file transfers. Just be aware that this reader does not support the latest and greatest microSD Express cards.

USB hubs are a dime a dozen, but one form factor that doesn't get enough appreciation is that of USB hubs that plug in flush to the side of your laptop and appear as an extension of it, rather than a dongle hanging off. Anker makes one of these, the Anker 7-in-2 USB-C hub, also known as a Mac Dock. It leverages two of your MacBook's USB-C/Thunderbolt ports to give it stability and to unlock high data transfer speeds and fast charging on all seven ports: Thunderbolt, HDMI, USB-A, USB-C, and an SD card reader pair. Don't worry, you'll still be able to plug in the MagSafe charging cable.

This is a big deal because usually USB hubs take the limited capacity of one USB port and split it a half dozen ways. Here, devices plugged into the dock can charge at up to 100W, transfer speeds reach up to 40GBps, and you can connect up to two more displays (MacBook M4 or better required) at a max 5K resolution. For a device that supports these charging and transfer speeds, the $54.99 price point seems reasonable. Just make sure you don't buy this one if you have a MacBook Neo; it's unsupported.

Anker has a pretty limited catalog of hardware: charging bricks, power banks, USB hubs, with a sprinkling of other adapters and devices. It's focused, limited even, but there's no doubting Anker does its niches well. So, we tried to showcase Anker's best, most portable gadgets, ranging from affordable to higher-end. Anker has a wide variety of products for effectively all price points and budgets; if the options we covered here weren't to your liking, Anker has way more to offer.

Everything we recommend must have at least a 4-star average of reviews. We've personally used and owned many of the gadgets on this list, some of them for years. Anker is certainly not a perfect brand, but it makes great all-rounder products and it's easy to recommend in most cases.