Don't forget the most basic purchase on Prime Day: A good charger

gAn charger
(Image credit: Jerry Hildenbrand)

Prime Day is when everybody looks at all the cool things we can spend our hard-earned money on. I know thanks to Visa, I spent money I didn't have on stuff I really didn't need because the price was right and I just wanted a few things. I know I'm not alone here.

One thing you won't find people talking about on Twitter or Facebook is the great Prime Day deal they found on a charger. That doesn't mean we all shouldn't be on the lookout for one though.

Your stuff needs to be charged.

Your phone, tablet, cyborg life partner, or other electronic devices won't work without power. It'd be cool if everything ran on kinetic energy or had a tiny fission reactor inside, but in the real world, you need to charge your stuff. For that, you need a charger.

You could just use the shitty charger that came in the box ... wait. Nope. You're going to need to buy a new one or use whatever you have lying around or your cool electronics won't work. If you have an old charger you can use that's awesome. It's good for the environment and it saves you a little bit of money which are both great things. 

Gallium nitride CPU wafer

(Image credit: Arizona State University)

I like to have one charger that works with all my stuff. I have a really cool Aukey 100W gAn charger with two USB C ports and a USB Type-A port that can charge my phone, my laptop, headphones, camera, or anything else that needs to be charged. It has replaced the trio of chargers I used to carry in my laptop bag and it's safer and more efficient. 

My charger isn't on sale for Prime Day, but plenty of others are and they're just as good. I would recommend to everyone who doesn't already know they need a 100-watt charger the Anker Nano II 65W version. It can charge all your stuff — including your laptop — but it only has one USB C port so you can't charge all the things at once. It makes up for that by being super cheap, especially while it's priced at $35 for Prime Day.

All the charger you need

Anker Nano II 65-watt charger: $50$35 at Amazon

Anker Nano II 65-watt charger: $50 $35 at Amazon

You should use a charger you already have if it will work for you, but if you need to buy one, this option's perfect. It will fast charge all of your devices, and it's 30% off for Prime Day.

Gallium nitride is changing the way electronics are being built; you only need to look at charging tech to see why. It does more, is safer, and is much more energy efficient than older silicon technology, and the cool new phone you buy on Prime Day needs to be charged.

Putting together your shopping list for Prime Day? Take a look at our guides to the best Prime Day phone deals and best Prime Day smartwatch deals so you're totally prepped when it's time to buy.

Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.