From the reviews I got the impression that this would charge the Android phones at 1A (AC mode charging displayed on screen). Unfortunately it turned out to be a false assumption as my phone shows to be charging in USB mode which means it is drawing only 0.5A which ultimately means my battery will drain even if I connect it to this little gadget when Navigation and screen is on. Now I have to go through all the hassle of cutting the USB cable and shorting Data cables. Why can't you at least short one of the USB sockets so I didn't have to go through this trouble.Edit: Surprisingly, the manufacturer got in contact with me after seeing the review (I didn't try to contact them at all). They sent me a cable that I can use with my Galaxy Nexus so that it will charge in AC mode using this adapter. It all works fine now. While the product needs this cable to work as desired the company's attitude was just great so I had to make it 5 stars. Now I feel mcuh more secure knowing that the company is behind the product for sure.
Original Review
So my goals were to be able to use a single car charger with two different phones, my girlfriend's iPhone and my Android phone. I would just need two device specific USB cables and this one charger. When I received the item I was a little shocked at how small it was. It was actually perfect for my car because it is just a tad longer than the actual cigarette lighter so I was able to fully close my ashtray cover. Perfect I thought.
Before hooking either of our phones though I wanted to test it out as the size was a little disconcerting to me, especially if this device is a high output device. I wasn't sure how it was going to keep cool, etc. I decided to charge a simple bluetooth earpiece just to see if it was a fast charger or not. On my typical drive home my regular, single output charger can normally charge my earpiece from one bar down to full. For some reason this device stayed at one bar down for the trip. That was funny I thought, but at least the device wasn't fried.
The next morning I turned on the car and noticed a burnt smell. I realized it was the charger right away and sure enough it was smoking. It wasn't hot or on fire or anything as I unplugged it right away. It just burnt. Something inside was lacking I suppose.
Anyways, glad it died on the second day, I just threw it in the trash. Was on sale for only four bucks so to me it's not worth contacting the reseller to get a return. Plus I definitely DON'T want a replacement, even if it were free. My hands still smell like burnt electronics as does my car. It'll probably take a couple of days to fully air out.
My advice, stay away. I think for the size it should not be such high output as it really does not have the cooling mechanisms to support that much output. At least in my opinion and I suppose that's why it burnt so quickly.I got this charger because I spend a lot of time in the car and use Bluetooth and GPS on my iphone regularly which isn't great for the battery. I have tried other chargers in the past but they never seemed to last very long and didn't charge my phone well (in one case the charger wouldn't even maintain the battery level). This charger appealed to me because I can use any USB charging cable with it which allows me to charge my phone, my ipad, my wife's phone or my Anker external battery pack. I can charge 2 devices at the same time when necessary and the charge rate is superior to any others I've tried.
The device looks nice too. I know appeal doesn't improve performance, but if it's visible, I want it to look nice. The glossy black finish is very attractive and the blue indicator light is diffused enough that it's useful and not distracting. I actually abandoned a previous charger due to it's harsh, overly bright red indicator light (in addition to poor performance).
There are car chargers galore to choose from. Some much cheaper and some much more expensive than this Anker product. It's hard to know which one to choose, but after several attempts, I've found it! Save your money if you're considering a higher priced one and save your time if you're considering a cheap one. This device performs the way it should and looks nice to boot. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a durable and versatile car charger that performs well consistently. And with the USB and micro-USB ports, it will charge just about any modern device.Be wary of cheap chargers. We have both Android and Apple iPods, iPhones, and now an iPad in the house. At times we saw these devices losing charge even when they were plugged in and supposedly charging. After we bought an iPad 3 and I wanted to ensure I didn't waste money so I did a lot of research. It turns out that Apple has done some tweaking to the USB connection to get more power out of it, and Samsung and other Android device makers have done *different* tweaks and these tweaks are incompatible. To charge an Apple device at high-speed you need a special USB port like this one which works great. For Android devices (to charge at high-speed, as opposed to "normal" the max power available through a normal USB port) you need a different type of port and this charger provides that via the permanent micro-USB cable. We had no problems using this to charge a Droid3 and iPad3 simultaneously, at high-speed.
Highly recommended!I don't know if it's just me, although I doubt it, but I constantly rely on my iPhone at college. All day it is in use, and needless to say that means my battery drains quite fast. I was looking for a good car charger and ended up with this one, all I have to say is that it is amazing! It can charge two things at once and works on both Apple devices and anything else you can think of pretty much. I am very happy with this product.
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