Anker Prime Foldable MagSafe Charger 25W review: is it worth buying
The Anker Prime Foldable MagSafe Charger 25W is one of those rare folding stations that actually folds small enough to carry, instead of being unboxed once for a marketplace photo and left in a drawer forever after. Qi2.2 and 25W give you decent speed without any magic tricks, and the compact folded size solves the one real problem with this whole category: people just stop bringing them. Skip it if you never travel and have a fixed desk with an outlet within reach — a plain wired brick will be cheaper and faster there.
Anyone who has ever packed a suitcase before a trip knows the moment: you're standing over an open bag wondering whether to bring a separate charger for the phone, another for the earbuds, and maybe one more — just in case — for the watch. You either end up cramming three cables and two bricks into half your packing cube, or you shrug and hope the hotel has decent outlets by the bed. Foldable MagSafe stations exist for exactly this moment — except 90% of them are either a plastic brick that won't fold down to pocket size, or they fold but charge so slowly you'd have been better off with the old wired block.
What's actually going on here
Anker isn't new to this space — the MagGo and Prime lines have been road-tested on frequent travelers for years, and this model is the logical next step. The headline isn't the 25W figure by itself (though for Qi2.2 that's a respectable speed, a world away from the pitiful 5W that early wireless charging mats used to call "fast"). It's that the station genuinely folds down to something the size of your palm and doesn't fall apart into three loose pieces after the first week in a bag. I've handled plenty of competitors, and half of them have hinges that loosen within a couple of months, at which point the magnets stop holding the phone flat.
Qi2.2 certification here isn't just a badge for the box. It means the magnetic alignment genuinely works as intended: you set the phone down, it snaps into place with that satisfying click, and you're not hunting for the one sweet spot on the pad the way you do with cheap no-name chargers. For recent iPhones this is flawless; for Qi2-certified Android flagships it works too, though there's a catch — not every Android model plays equally nicely with magnetic alignment, so it's worth checking compatibility with your specific phone before buying.
The 3-in-1 format is essentially three charging pads folded into one hinged shell: phone, watch, earbuds. This is where the real value shows up. You stop carrying a separate Apple Watch puck that always seems to sink to the bottom of the bag. Everything folds into one flat unit that slips into a laptop sleeve without adding noticeable weight. Compared with the classic setup — three separate chargers plus a power strip — it's a clear win on both bulk and the number of cables you have to untangle every morning in a hotel room.
The real competition isn't another brand, it's habit. Plenty of people still travel with an old 20W wired brick and a cable "because it just works." And it does work, if a pile of cables doesn't bother you. But the first time you fold this thing open, drop your phone, watch, and earbuds on one pad, and go to sleep without the nightly ritual of "where did I put that cable" — going back is hard. This is exactly what the Anker Prime Foldable MagSafe Charger is built to fix.
What's annoying? First, wireless charging is always a bit warmer and a bit slower than wired at the same wattage — that's physics, and Anker isn't pretending otherwise, though the AirCool cooling system does noticeably cut down heat compared with earlier models that lacked it. Second, the price. Marketplace listings start well into three figures, and that's no longer an impulse add-on — it's a deliberate investment in travel comfort. Check the full landed price to your country — item, forwarding, and import duty combined — on dede.sh before deciding; it's often enough for a solid standalone power bank and a wired charger with years of life left in them.
Who should buy it, and who shouldn't
If you fly or travel for work often, own both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, and are tired of counting cables in your bag, this is the kind of device that genuinely changes your morning and evening routine for the better. One pad instead of three chargers — fold it, forget it. For freelancers working out of hotels and co-working spaces, it's close to a must-have; the compact folded size is what makes it work.
But if you have a fixed desk with an outlet nearby and never travel, paying extra for foldability and magnetic alignment doesn't make much sense. A plain wired 20-30W brick at a third of the price will charge faster with none of the compromises that come with any wireless setup. It's also not worth buying if you have an Android phone without official Qi2 support — magnetic alignment simply won't work as intended, and you'll be paying for a feature you can't use.
FAQ
If your phone officially supports it — yes, the difference is immediate: the magnet sets the phone flat on its own, and charging doesn't drop out from being a couple of millimeters off center, which used to happen constantly with older wireless pads. If your phone doesn't support it, the premium isn't worth it — buy a regular Qi station instead.
They solve different problems. A power bank saves you when there's no outlet nearby at all — on a plane, in transit. A foldable station solves the problem at the hotel or the office, where there's an outlet but too many cables. Plenty of people end up carrying both.
Overnight, it's plenty for any phone — eight hours of sleep isn't thirty minutes on the subway. But if you need to grab 50% in half an hour before heading out the door, wireless charging always loses to wired at the same wattage. Worth keeping in mind.