Anker Desktop Charger 112W 6-Port Review: Is It Worth Buying?

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The Anker Desktop Charger, 112W across six ports, is one of those rare gadgets that actually clears your desk instead of adding to the clutter. It powers a laptop and four other devices at once without drama, as long as you're smart about how you load it. If you've still got two or three old power bricks hogging your outlets, this is a direct upgrade.

How many chargers are currently tangled up next to your desk? I had four: one for the laptop, one for the headphones, one for the phone, and some ancient brick for a tablet that runs hot enough to cook dinner. Classic home-office scene — the power strip turns into a rat's nest of cables, and taking that whole mess on a trip is its own nightmare.

Anker's answer isn't another 200-watt brick — it's a smaller desktop station instead. On paper it's "only" 112W total, spread across six ports, and that's the first thing to understand: the number on the box isn't what each port delivers individually, it's the shared power budget the charger allocates on the fly. Anker does this intelligently: plug a MacBook Pro into USB-C1 and it grabs the lion's share, something like 65-80W, while the other ports automatically scale back to whatever's left.

In practice, that plays out fine. Laptop on one port, phone on another, wireless earbuds charging through a USB-A port, a power bank topping up on a fourth — everything coexists peacefully, nothing overheats, no error light blinking. The one thing worth keeping in mind: if you're running a genuinely power-hungry laptop that pulls 90-100W under load (video rendering, heavy compiling) while your phone is also greedily fast-charging at the same time, six ports can start to feel like not enough — not because you're out of sockets, but because you've hit the shared power ceiling. That's just how GaN chargers in this class work; Anker isn't unusual here.

The form factor deserves its own round of applause. It doesn't lie flat like a typical adapter — it stands upright, almost like a small docking station. Cables run down or to the side instead of jutting straight out of the outlet across your desk. If your workspace is a daily battle for every inch of surface area, you'll feel the difference on day one.

There's a natural comparison within Anker's own lineup: this 112W model versus its considerably bigger sibling, the Prime Charging Station at 200W, which also has six GaN ports. The gap isn't just raw wattage — the Prime has a live display showing exactly how many watts each port is pulling right now, and that's not a gimmick, it's genuinely useful when your laptop is suddenly charging slower than usual and you want to know why. The 112W version skips the screen entirely — you just trust the automatic load balancing. For most people who simply want the cable clutter gone, that's a non-issue. If you're routinely traveling with a demanding gaming laptop and want to see exactly how the wattage is being split, the pricier, physically bigger Prime is the smarter buy.

Another useful reference point, same brand, different philosophy: compact car or "smart" chargers in the 30-40W range built for one or two devices. They're cheaper, but they don't solve the desk full of bricks — they just relocate the problem from your house to your car.

Zoom out past Anker's own catalog, and the real competitor here isn't another brand — it's habit. People are used to keeping a dedicated charger for every gadget because "it feels safer." Honestly, that hasn't been true for a while. A modern GaN station with smart load balancing is more reliable than some no-name block picked up cheap at a street market, and the space and cable savings genuinely add up. There's exactly one real downside: you pay for it all in one lump sum instead of spreading the cost across five separate cheap chargers, so it stings more upfront even though it works out cheaper overall.

For the full picture — item price, forwarding, and import duty rolled into a single landed-cost figure for your country — check the listing on dede.sh; it's not the cheapest desktop charger on the market, but it's nowhere near the most expensive either, sitting comfortably between the no-name budget options and the top-tier Prime line.

Who should skip it? If you own exactly one laptop and one phone and nothing else needs charging, you're paying for ports you'll never use — grab a plain 65W two-port charger instead, it's cheaper and smaller. But if your desk looks like a small zoo of gadgets — laptop, phone, earbuds, tablet, maybe a camera or drone once a week — this thing pays for itself just by ending the daily hunt for a free outlet.

Frequently asked questions

FAQ

Is 112W enough to charge a laptop and a phone at full speed at the same time?

For most ultrabooks and phones, yes, no problem at all. Issues only show up if you've got a demanding gaming or workstation laptop that wants 90-100W on its own under load — in that case, a phone on another port will charge more slowly until the laptop releases some of that power.

Which one should I get — this model or the Anker Prime 200W?

If your main goal is just clearing cables off the desk while charging a handful of everyday gadgets, get the 112W version — there's no reason to pay extra for the Prime. If you've got a powerful laptop running heavy workloads and want to see the real wattage split across ports, the Prime's display justifies the price gap.

Is it safe to leave the charger plugged in all the time?

GaN chargers in this class include overheating and short-circuit protection, so round-the-clock operation is the normal use case — it's exactly why people buy one of these instead of a pile of separate bricks.

Can it charge several family members' phones at once?

Yes, and that's one of its best use cases — instead of four separate chargers scattered around the house, one station in the kitchen or hallway covers everyone at once.