Anker’s Nano II 100W USB-C GaN Charger went on sale and sold out quickly

At CES 2022, Anker announced an expansion of its Nano II USB-C Charger relay a message with this stronger version with two USB-C ports capable of outputting up to 100W, as well as an old-school USB-A charging port. Now the $79 Anker Nano II 100W (aka the Anker 736 charger) has popped up for sale Amazon (about MacRumors), although it’s already sold out.

The Nano II chargers use the company’s second-generation gallium nitride-based components, replacing the silicon components of older chargers, to produce more power in a smaller package with less heat. According to Anker, the Nano II 100W is 34 percent smaller than Apple’s 96W charger, with similar capabilities and two additional ports to help you reduce the number of items you need to power all your devices. Another plus is that fast charging is compatible with a wide range of devices, with USB Power Delivery 3.0 PPS (Programmable Power Standard) and Quick Charge 3.0 support.

Image: Anchor

The caveat with this charger is that its USB-C ports have an output power of up to 100W – but that only applies if you have a device connected to one of them. Many notebooks and other devices require significantly less power to charge or even fast charge, but this is something to consider if you have a larger MacBook Pro. Using both USB-C ports at the same time reduces the maximum output to 60W from the first slot and 40W from the second — Anker has a table to break them down further.

Image: Anchor

Anker isn’t the only company using gallium nitride (GaN) for smaller, more powerful chargers — Apple’s first device with the technology is the 140W power adapter that comes with the 16-inch MacBook Pro – but it was ahead of the pack since presenting its first GaN power supply in 2018.

In conversation with The edge EiC Nilay Patel on the decoder podcast last fall, Anchor CEO Steven Yang explained why his company adopted GaN so quickly and developed products based on it.

Gallium nitride is a key technology that came out about three years ago, but you’re already talking about the third generation. Is gallium nitride a technology you need to invest engineering resources in? Is there a supplier pipeline or a materials science pipeline? How do you manage this investment?

In fact, Anker was the first to introduce gallium nitride for charging consumer electronics. We were able to achieve this by working with the leading chipset manufacturers who developed the gallium nitride charging chip. We were almost their alpha customer. So when the chip was first developed, there were many hurdles to overcome in order to turn it into a product. This requires not only knowledge of materials science, but also knowledge of applications, knowledge of system architecture and knowledge of thermal management. It’s almost an overhead. We collect knowledge in it and couple it with the gallium nitride chips and the manufacturer to build them into products.

You will see GaN2 in 65 watt size and 30 watt size this year. We have been working on this with Power Innovations for almost a year. GaN2 is the brand new generation of chips that we launched in the middle of this year. GaN2’s 65 watt size was a fraction of that of the competition.

The reason we were able to do this is based on the latest generation of their GaN2 from Power Innovations. We’ve been the only partner developing this for almost a year – you won’t see similar products from other brands for at least three to six months because PI and Anker exclusively work together.

So Anker and PI had an exclusive relationship to develop the next-gen GaN chipset, and then this window will open three to six months later for other people to buy this chipset.

Yes.

Tyler Mallery, Anker’s head of US media relations, confirmed this The edge that the charger has actually started and that Anker is awaiting the arrival of more stock. The 736 charger is scarce enough that it’s not even listed on Anker’s website, but if this is the charger you’ve been waiting for, keep an eye on this Amazon page to see when it’s coming back.