Best multiport USB wall charger

After surveying more than 1,100 Wirecutter readers and using six iPads to test 18 top models, we can safely say that Anker’s 36W 4-Port USB Wall Charger is the best USB wall charger for most people.

At only $20, it’s essentially the same price as Apple’s single-port 12W USB Power Adapter, but the Anker model can push out three times as much power and charge four devices at once.

In fact, it can simultaneously charge three fullsize iPads at full speed while also charging a smartphone. Our readers said they prefer chargers that plug directly into an outlet, and this is the most powerful one we tested to do so. Additionally, Anker’s charger lives up to its advertised power output; some of the competition does not. How we decided

We whittled down a list of 45 chargers by knocking out those that had only one or two high-speed-charging ports (except for supercompact chargers, mentioned below), had no highspeed-charging ports, or had a mix of faster- and slower-charging ports, requiring you to figure out which one is the “right” port if you want to charge your tablet as fast as possible.

We brought in 18 units for hands-on testing. First we connected an iPad Air 2 to a USB ammeter, which measures power transfer.

Then we measured the electrical output of each port83 in all looking for fig- ures around 2.4 amps, the maximum power draw of the tablet.

We tested the remaining chargers with a collection of six iPads to ensure that the power draw didn’t drop as we added more devices. We used our ammeters to measure the average draw of an original iPad Air and a fourth-generation iPad, the models that draw the highest current, on each charger while keeping the other ports on that charger connected to the remaining iPads. In closing

Anker’s 36W 4-Port USB Wall Charger is the best multiport charger for most people, but you can find other good options depending on the number and kinds of devices you need to charge.