Gallium nitride probably isn't something that most people are intimately familiar with. And honestly, that's okay. You won't need to go pick up a chemistry degree to still keep up with smartphones.
But a long story short, gallium nitride is being positioned as a potential replacement in some electronic applications. There's plenty of mystery about the future of electronics with that, but right now we're starting to see GaN become a little more prevalent in wall chargers, like RAVPower's own USB C PD wall charger that we're reviewing.
A major advantage to this switch to GaN is the size. Instead of a hulking brick that eats up outlets and looks like a wart on your wall, this charger is extremely thin and manages to sit almost flush against a wall. It has a single USB C port on the bottom, giving you an easy way to turn one outlet into a high-speed charging port while still keeping your cables neatly run and tucked away.
Seriously, this thing is like half the size of the massive blocks that come with tablets, but it doesn't sacrifice any power. Small but mighty is the perfect descriptor for RAVPower's charger, since it's rated for a whopping 45 watts with USB C power delivery. That's a seriously big deal, because not only will this thing charge up your phone in record time, but you can also use it to charge up, say, your laptop or something like a Nintendo Switch.
See how impressive it is from that perspective now?
Instead of the gigantic wall chargers that come with laptops, you can simply plug your USB C cable into this and your laptop and get a full speed charge out of it. 45W is more than what some manufacturers ship their laptops with, including Apple's own MacBook line, so you're getting plenty of juice with just a fraction of the weight and size.
It's still not quite enough for something like a gaming laptop, but this is an extremely early iteration of the tech, which should excite just about anyone.
Putting the charger through its paces, I actually charged up one a 20,000mAh battery that normally takes me several hours with my normal setup. I usually do this overnight, so I don't have a particularly high-speed setup going, but I know it's not a quick process. At least, it's not normally quick, but plugging into RAVPower's little charger completely juiced up the battery in just a couple of hours. I ignored it for a bit to go do some cleaning, and when I paid attention to it again it was almost fully charged, and I didn't have to use any massive wall warts in my living room for it.
For that kind of thing, it really is sort of overkill. We already have chargers that are fast enough for our phones and batteries, and that tech has plateaued a bit. But what is exciting is that I'll eventually be able to grab a block of this size, toss it in my bag, and charge up any device that I need that day. Phones, tablets, laptops, whatever. Hey, maybe this kind of thing will eventually remove the need for gigantic power supplies in computers and game consoles, too.
It's pricey right now, like any new tech would be, but this is exactly the kind of thing you want to keep an eye on while it makes waves in the background.
Buy it now: Amazon
