It is simple to silkscreen 600W on the product, however can the product reside as much as the hype?
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
I check dozens of chargers yearly. Some are glorious, whereas others fall quick. Right here on ZDNET, I solely characteristic the cream of the crop –the better of the most effective. Nonetheless, I often obtain requests from readers asking for my ideas or opinions on particular merchandise.
Currently, one product that is been producing numerous buzz is that this 600W GaN charger.
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So, I purchased a pair for testing. At $99, they don’t seem to be precisely low-cost, however in comparison with the Ugreen Nexode 300W unit, which prices $140, they appeared like a cut price. In spite of everything, that is an 8-port, 600W charger versus a 5-port, 300W unit.
8 ports — must be cool, proper? Flawed!
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
The primary crimson flag for me was the no-name model—a generic title I might by no means heard of earlier than. Why does this firm have 600W chargers available on the market, whereas the massive names — Anker, Ugreen, Belkin, Baseus, and others — do not? I’ve heard of and handled these corporations extensively, and so they’ve constructed reputations for high quality and reliability.
However issues went downhill the second I plugged it in.
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The primary difficulty I observed was that the charger was erratic. I might get 140W out of one of many USB-C ports, however the different 140W port wasn’t cooperating and appeared to be caught at round 65W. To make issues worse, one of many 100W ports seemed to be fully useless.
One other main downside was that plugging or unplugging units would typically trigger the charger to malfunction. As a rule, it could enter a state the place it stopped working solely, requiring me to unplug the ability cable to “reboot” it and get it functioning once more.
Not good.
The charger wants a reboot — once more!
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
It doesn’t matter what I attempted, I could not get this charger wherever close to its claimed 600W energy ranking. To make issues worse, it was erratic and temperamental.
So, I made a decision to open it up and have a look inside.
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The very first thing that greeted me was a lump of… one thing. At first look, it appeared like a thermal compound, nevertheless it smelled and felt extra like a window glazing compound, abandoning an oily residue. It was additionally surprisingly heavy, virtually as if it had been added to present the charger some synthetic heft. With out it, the stays of the charger felt extremely mild.
Undecided what this contained in the charger is… ballast maybe?
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Undoubtedly not what I might count on from a 600W charger.
A fast examination of the circuitry revealed that it is a sub-par piece of kit. With out getting too technical, the separation between the mains voltage and the low-voltage sections of the charger is insufficient.
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This poor design implies that a malfunction might doubtlessly outcome within the charger outputting mains voltage — a severe security hazard. Moreover, the transformers and voltage regulators used do not look like able to delivering the marketed 600W.
That is NOT what a top quality product appears like.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
One other concern was how simply the case popped open, exposing the inner parts. If this charger fell off a desk whereas plugged in, the facet cowl might detach, exposing the high-voltage parts. This creates a harmful scenario the place somebody might unintentionally come into contact with the principle voltage whereas retrieving the charger.
Backside line: this charger does not make the lower. It does not even come shut.
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That is precisely why I extensively check every little thing—from energy banks and chargers to energy stations. Producers can simply make daring claims on spec sheets, packaging, and even the product itself, however creating a tool that really delivers on these guarantees is a far larger problem.
Want a strong charger? Go for one thing just like the Ugreen Nexode 300W or Anker Prime 250W. These are high quality merchandise that ship the products from corporations with a observe report of delivering the products.
