I bought my first GaN charger two years ago and now I own five. Not because I'm a charger collector ( though that's basically what I've become ), but because once you go GaN you physically cannot go back to those brick-sized power adapters that ship with everything. My desk used to look like a power strip had a fight with a tangle of proprietary barrels. Now it's one small block and four USB-C cables.
Here is what I've learned from buying, testing, and traveling with GaN chargers.
Why GaN Even Matters
GaN stands for gallium nitride. It is a semiconductor material that handles higher voltages more efficiently than silicon, which means less heat, smaller form factors, and more power per square centimeter. In practical terms: a 65W GaN charger is the size of a golf ball. The Apple 30W brick is the size of a small house in comparison.
The efficiency thing is not marketing fluff. Silicon chargers waste energy as heat. GaN runs cooler, which means the charger can be physically smaller without melting. It also means your devices charge at their rated speed more consistently, because the charger is not thermally throttling after ten minutes.
What I Actually Use
Here are the chargers I own and actually use regularly:
Anker 737 ( 120W, 3 ports )
This is my daily driver. Two USB-C, one USB-A. Charges the MacBook Pro at full speed while also topping off my phone and headphones. It is not small — about the size of a deck of cards — but for the power output it is ridiculous. I take it everywhere.
Anker Nano II ( 65W, 1 port )
My travel charger. Tiny. Fits in any pocket. 65W is enough to charge the laptop at a reasonable speed and fast-charge any phone. Single port means I charge one thing at a time, which is fine when I am at an airport or cafe.
Baseus 65W ( 3 ports, foldable pins )
The cheapest one I own and honestly the most surprising. Foldable pins make it pack flat. It charges the laptop fine, the phone fast, and it cost me like 25 dollars on AliExpress. The build quality is not Anker-level but it has held up for a year.
UGREEN 100W ( 4 ports )
This sits on my desk permanently. Two USB-C, two USB-A. Charges the laptop, the phone, the headphones, and the iPad all at once. The power distribution is smart enough that it drops to 65W on the main port when you plug in the second device, which is fine for 99% of situations.
The Numbers That Actually Matter
Wattage ratings on chargers are like IQ scores — the number alone does not tell you the whole story. Here is what I pay attention to:
Total wattage vs per-port wattage.
A 100W charger with 4 ports will not deliver 100W to each port. It distributes. Read the spec sheet. My UGREEN drops to 65W on C1 when C2 is in use. That is fine for a MacBook Air but if you have a 16-inch Pro doing video exports you will notice.
PPS support.
If you use Samsung phones, PPS ( Programmable Power Supply ) is non-negotiable. Without it, Samsung devices cap at around 15W regardless of what the charger claims. All the Anker and UGREEN chargers I listed support PPS. The cheap Baseus technically does too but it is not as stable — I have seen my S24 Ultra negotiate different voltages on different plugs.
Cable quality.
This is the part nobody talks about. A 100W charger with a 60W cable gives you 60W. Period. I use Anker's 100W cables exclusively. They are thick, not very flexible, and cost more than I want to admit, but they actually deliver the rated power. The thin cables that come with most devices are usually 60W max.
Living in Uruguay With One Charger
Uruguay uses Type C and Type F outlets ( the round pin ones, like most of Europe ). Every GaN charger I have comes with a US plug. This means I use plug adapters, which adds bulk and introduces another point of failure. The foldable pins on the Baseus become useless when you have to stick an adapter on them.
My solution: I bought a couple of high-quality EU plug adapters and just leave them attached. The Anker 737 with an adapter still takes up less space than the old Apple 30W brick by itself. That is how far we have come.
Power outages in Montevideo are not common but they happen, especially in summer during storms. Having a single charger that can bring my laptop from 5% to 80% in under an hour during a brief window of electricity is a quality-of-life thing I did not appreciate until I needed it.
What I Would Buy Today
If I were starting from zero, I would buy exactly two chargers:
1. A 65W single-port GaN charger for travel. Anker Nano II or the UGREEN Nexo 65W — both are tiny, both are reliable.
2. A 100W+ multi-port charger for the desk. UGREEN 100W or Anker 737. This covers every scenario: laptop charging, phone fast-charging, and peripheral top-ups all at once.
That is it. Two chargers, maybe 80 dollars total, and you never need the proprietary bricks that come with your devices again. Throw the Apple one in a drawer. Give the Samsung one away. You are done.
The only thing I would add: get a power meter. The kind you plug into the wall, then plug the charger into. I paid 15 dollars for mine and it told me my "100W" charger was only delivering 65W to my laptop because the cable was rated for 60W and the charger was negotiating down. You cannot fix what you cannot measure.
Conclusion
GaN chargers are one of those rare tech upgrades where the marketing is actually underselling it. They are smaller, more efficient, and more versatile than anything that came before. I replaced six chargers with two and my bag got lighter and my desk got cleaner.
Just make sure your cables can handle the power. That is the part nobody tells you.