by 
Whatever your devices are, you need a way to charge them. The recent introduction of gallium nitride in chargers was quite the breakthrough. In practical terms, what it means is a more efficient conversion of the alternating current into the direct current your devices expect, meaning you save a touch when you charge, and your bricks don’t double as space heaters when you’re using them. Recently, we’ve been using two GaN chargers from mophie, and one that’s not implicitly GaN, but is ready for travels.
If you’re needing to charge up a lot of things – or perhaps looking for a replacement for your laptop power brick – then the mophie speedport 120 ($99.95) is where it’s at. As you might guess from the name, it can push out up to 120W, shared across the 4 ports. So, if you’re running a power-hungry laptop, you’ll want to watch what you plug in.
The top two ports are rated for 100W output, while the 3rd USB-C outlet is a 20W output. Finally, you’ve got a USB-A outlet as well that can push 12W. So, depending on what you’re charging, you’ll not be likely to use all four ports at once, but we suppose it’s possible. This charger is definitely setup for an at-home situation, with the longer cord that plugs into the back. We also really liked the white LED light at the base that lit up when power was being drawn, but shut off to signal that things were done charging.
On the other hand, if you want your GaN a bit more portable, then the mophie speedport 67 ($59.95) is where it’s at. You’ll only be pushing a max of 67W across the two USB-C ports on the charger, so be mindful of what you’re going to try and run off of it. We rather like the fact that the plug prongs fold in on the back of the brick, making for a smooth to device to drop into your bag and not worry about it poking holes in anything.
Finally, we come to the mophie snap+ travel charger ($99.95). As we mentioned, this one isn’t implicitly GaN, but you could swap out the included wall wart for a GaN one (like this one that mophie offers). This charger is a bit larger than you might expect from travel, but it offers a LOT of functionality. You get two wireless charging pads (perfect to drop a phone on to charge overnight), plus two more USB-A ports that you can plug into to charge up other devices, such as your Kindle, say.
Frankly, GaN is the path you should be going for in any new charging devices you pick up. The mophie speedport 120 has taken up residence in a charging station for our various devices, and has seen a lot of use. The speedport 67 and snap+ travel charger have been ending up in my work bag when we’ve taken some road trips and have gone to visit family. The speedport 67 is just handy, and the snap+ makes it feel almost like you’ve got your at-home charging setup with you on the road. You can check out all the charging options over at zagg.com
