Anker's 45W Nano Charger has ruined all other travel chargers for me — and it's because of this one feature

There are lots of things that Anker does right, and its latest Nano Charger is one of its best yet. It has a lot of new features, but I'll get to those in a minute; what I want to start with is the design. The charger has a unique 180-degree foldable plug that ensures the charging ports are always oriented correctly, and this in itself makes it a brilliant choice.

I constantly get frustrated with this, so to have a charger with a plug that can be oriented in just the right way is a game-changer while traveling. As someone who has dozens of GaN chargers, I have plenty of choice in what goes in my travel bag, and the 45W is ideal; the charger is just as small as the Baseus 45W charger I regularly use, and it has a lot of extras.

A cool feature is the smart charging modes that lets you cycle between fast, steady, and trickle charging, giving you flexibility in how you want to power your device. The charger gets a built-in LCD panel, and you get to see the charging modes and how much power is being sent to your phone or accessories.

The biggest standout is the fact that the charger can easily differentiate between iPhone models, something that you just don't see in this category. It's able to recognize between iPhone 15, 16, and 17 models and assign charging modes accordingly, and that's just great.

It's also available in four color choices, and yes, you can get it in the same orange color as your iPhone 17 Pro. Most chargers are sold in a single color, so it's good to see Anker selling the Nano Charger in vibrant color choices. If anything, the only negative I can think of is that the charger has a single USB-C port — I would've liked to see another USB-C port on it.

Other than that, it ticks all the right boxes: it's small enough to just throw in a sling bag, GaN charging tech ensures it doesn't overheat (I didn't see any issues in this area), it delivers a consistent charge, and it auto-senses iPhone models. It works just as well with Android phones and various accessories, and the 180-degree foldable prong design is the reason I'm slotting this into my travel bag.

And best of all, it doesn't cost much more than other GaN chargers, with Anker selling it at $29 on Amazon and its own website (via a $10 code). Now, if Anker makes a 165W version of this with three USB-C ports and a retractable cable, that will be my ultimate GaN charger.