The Greatest 3-In-1 Charging Stand for iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods

I’ve been onboard the wi-fi charging practice for almost a decade, and nonetheless bear in mind being excited to lastly have a tool I might strive it with after I purchased my iPhone 8 in 2017. Wi-fi charging felt like magic,even though it was sluggish and unreliable, that it wasn’t all that uncommon to select up your cellphone to seek out it was each method too scorching and hadn’t charged in any respect. We’ve come a protracted, great distance since then.

The latest innovation is Qi2.2, the newest model of the Wi-fi Charging Consortium’s MagSafe-based customary that requires chargers to characteristic a magnetic ring and be able to outputting as much as 25 watts of energy to Qi2.2-compatible telephones. That’s actually good for wi-fi charging, though with out some further cooling, you may’t count on it to hit that price for very lengthy, if in any respect.

Enter the brand new Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station, one of many first Qi2.2 chargers available on the market—and priced prefer it’s the solely one, at $230. At first look, it’s no completely different than another 3-in-1 stand which you can grasp iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods on for simultaneous charging. But there’s extra to it than that: it’s obtained a cooling fan to maintain your cellphone from throttling the charging price. It additionally has a touchscreen, so you may verify the charging energy going to every machine. You may also see that very same data in an app that allows you to tweak settings, set the time (its timeout display screen reveals a clock), and even replace its firmware.

That’s all so much, however the excellent news is that the Anker Prime Wi-fi Charging Station works nicely, particularly in relation to its huge banner characteristic of quick wi-fi charging on your smartphone. I confirmed with my associate’s iPhone 16 that this charger can rise up to 22.5W, as Apple says it and others within the 16 line can. And my very own iPhone 15 Professional, which isn’t explicitly able to that, nonetheless reached about 17W and held it for long-ish stretches. That’s all in line with the stand’s personal show; there’s not a great way to verify it, in any other case. However the finish consequence was a cellphone that might totally cost almost as quick as after I charged with USB-C, but was nonetheless cool—and typically chilly—to the contact after I pulled it off the charging pad.

These types of charging stands—the type with two stalks, one for a cellphone and one for an Apple Watch and a wi-fi charging pad for AirPods—aren’t often fairly, however Anker positive tried! It’s sturdy and weighty, and the corporate used comfortable contact supplies for the bottom and magnetic pad for iPhone charging. Its stalks are encased in shiny, reflective steel, the bottom has properly grippy ft, and its show appears to take a seat beneath glass.

The cellphone pad is thick to accommodate the cooling fan and sports activities vents on the prime and backside to eject scorching air by, and you’ll tilt it up and down for higher viewing. The Apple Watch charger, just like the AirPods pad, costs at as much as 5 watts. Powering this equipment are a braided USB-C cable and a 65W Anker USB-C wall adapter.

There’s a display screen and a fan

I’m a sucker for screens on units that don’t often have them, even after they’re extraneous; fortunately, the one on the Anker Prime Wi-fi Charging Station is something however. In addition to providing key data in regards to the charging wattage of every machine sitting on it, it’s also possible to cycle by a couple of choices to set issues just like the charging mode, the time and date, and display screen brightness. The clock operate is a bit of under-baked; it doesn’t account for daylight financial savings time within the U.S. (which occurred to begin whereas I used to be testing it), and in the event you unplug the machine and plug it again in, it loses the time utterly. You realize, like a range clock. Fortunately, all you must do is hook up with the charger by way of the Anker app and the time corrects itself. As for the show, it was barely seen below the intense fluorescents of IFA 2025, the place I first noticed it, however, fortunately, it’s completely seen in regular indoor lighting circumstances.

As for these charging modes, they’re Ice Mode, which units the cellphone charging pad’s cooling fan to full blast; Increase Mode, which is a balanced charging mode by which the fan doesn’t run as excessive; and Sleep Mode, which turns the fan off and might be finest in the event you use the charger at your bedside. It’s good to have the selection, but additionally, the fan is already so quiet even in Ice Mode that I didn’t hassle altering it after testing the assorted choices.

It’s my firmly held perception that the display screen is nice sufficient that the Anker Prime Wi-fi Charging Station by no means wanted an app in any respect, however the Anker app connects to it, so we’d as nicely speak about it. When utilizing the app, you’ll hook up with the charger by way of Bluetooth, supplying you with a display screen that reveals you an image of the Prime Charging Station, present output wattage, voltage, and amperage, and a “Actual-Time Information” line graph. Faucet on that, and you’ll see a couple of hours’ value of charging historical past for every of the charging factors.

The Worth Is Too A lot

It’s nice that Anker has determined to come back out of the gate swinging with its first Qi2.2 charging station. The Prime Wi-fi Charging Station is inarguably good and definitely value greater than your common no-name Amazon charger. And the corporate looks as if it’s actually making an attempt to justify the value with the options that this factor comes with. I actually like this charging stand and don’t thoughts calling it probably the greatest 3-in-1 charging stands you should buy right this moment.

The factor that Anker has to cope with right here is that the huge bulk of its worth is derived from the uncooked comfort of its tree-style type issue, not from its quick charging, its cooling fan, its touchscreen show, or any of the opposite niceties. It’s simply too handy to have one straightforward place to plop an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods case on the finish of the day, and the bar to enhance on that could be a lot greater than I feel any of Anker’s further options attain. I simply can’t see myself paying $230 for this.

Anker appears to know that’s maybe an excessive amount of, and has already discounted the charger to $150 (as of this writing) inside lower than two months of it being announced. However that’s nonetheless greater than what competing 3-in-1 Qi2.2 chargers price; see Belkin and its personal cooling fan-equipped Qi2.2 charging stand for $130, or Kuxiu, with its tri-fold Qi2.2 journey charger that’s fanless and far more susceptible to thermal throttling in my testing, but additionally solely prices $100. I feel you’d must be an actual Anker tremendous fan to purchase the Prime Wi-fi Charging Station for full value or anyplace near it. Nonetheless, it’s an important machine, and it’s completely value checking its value throughout Black Friday.