Desk & Power review
Anker Prime 100W Review: Three Ports, One Plug, One Warm Brick
Roughly 43 percent smaller than Apple's 97W charger and it runs three devices from one socket. It also gets genuinely hot when you ask it for everything at once.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Anker
Anker Prime 100W GaN Charger
Good · researched from 4 sources
The charger to carry if one plug has to serve a laptop, a phone and a tablet. Expect it to be warm to the touch when it is working hard, and expect a 16-inch MacBook Pro to charge slowly rather than fast.
- Buy if
- Travel, where it replaces two or three separate bricks · Anyone charging a 13 or 14-inch laptop plus a phone from one socket · Desks short on outlets
- Skip if
- 16-inch MacBook Pro owners who want full-speed charging · Anyone who needs full power to two laptops at once · Buyers who only ever charge one phone
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
What gallium nitride actually buys
GaN switches faster and wastes less energy as heat than the silicon it replaced, which means a given output fits in a smaller box. That is the entire reason this category exists.
Digital Camera World put numbers on it: 49.6 by 45.6 by 72 mm, 180 grams, and about 43 percent smaller than Apple's 97W charger. For roughly the same output, with two extra ports.
If you travel with a laptop, a phone and a pair of headphones, that is one brick instead of three and one socket instead of two.
The 100W is a budget, not a promise
The number on the box is what the charger can supply in total, not what any one device receives.
Macworld measured the splits. Two USB-C devices get 65W and 35W. A USB-C laptop alongside something on USB-A gets 76W and 22.5W. So the laptop that was pulling the full 100W on its own drops as soon as a phone joins it.
This is normal and it is not a criticism of this charger specifically. It does mean that if you want a laptop to charge at full speed, it wants the charger to itself.
It runs warm
Both sources raise heat without being asked, which is usually the signal that something is worth reporting.
Macworld found no temperature problems in ordinary use but says it gets very warm fast-charging a MacBook Air M3. Digital Camera World describes it as quite hot at maximum capacity, and adds the detail that matters: the temperature stabilised rather than continuing to climb.
That reads like a charger operating at its design limit rather than one in trouble. Still, this is not something to leave running at full output buried inside a bag.
Where it runs out
A 16-inch MacBook Pro. Macworld is clear that fast charging that machine takes 140W, so this will hold the battery and slowly fill it rather than charging it quickly.
And USB-A caps at 22.5W, which is fine for a phone and irrelevant for anything larger. The port is there for the cable you already own, not for speed.
What it is good at
Digital Camera World verified the advertised speeds across every port and ran a MacBook Pro 13 from empty to full in about two hours from a single connection, then separately ran a Pixel 7 Pro, a Pixel Watch and an iPad Air together without trouble.
Macworld's half-hour results across single devices came in at 56 percent for an iPhone 15, 50 percent for a MacBook Air M3 and 36 percent for an 11-inch iPad Pro.
That is the use case. Not maximum speed to one machine, but a lot of devices from one plug, at speeds close enough to their own chargers that you stop carrying those.
How it scored
The overall 7.7 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Charging performance
Macworld took a MacBook Air M3 to 50 percent in 30 minutes, and Digital Camera World charged a MacBook Pro 13 fully in about two hours from a single port.
Value
Digital Camera World gave five stars and told readers to just get it. Both sources still treat it as a premium buy against generic multi-port chargers.
Build quality
Matte finish with minimal branding per Digital Camera World, and folding plug pins on both US and UK versions per Macworld.
Ease of use
Digital Camera World measures it at 43 percent smaller than Apple's 97W charger, at 180 g, so it genuinely replaces several bricks in a bag.
Thermal behaviour
The clearest weakness. Macworld found it gets very warm fast-charging a MacBook Air M3 and Digital Camera World says it gets quite hot at maximum, though the temperature stabilised.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- Three ports from one socket, two USB-C and one USB-A
- 43 percent smaller than Apple's 97W charger while matching it on output
- Folding plug pins on both US and UK versions
- Digital Camera World confirmed advertised speeds across every port
- Charges a laptop, a tablet and a phone at once without dropping any of them
What we didn’t
- Both sources found it runs hot under sustained maximum load
- Not enough for a 16-inch MacBook Pro to fast charge, which Macworld notes needs 140W
- The 100W is shared, so a second device immediately cuts what the laptop gets
- USB-A tops out at 22.5W
- Priced well above generic multi-port chargers
Specifications
| Ports | 2 x USB-C, 1 x USB-A |
|---|---|
| Total output | 100W shared |
| Single port | Up to 100W on USB-C |
| Two-port split | 65W and 35W across USB-C, or 76W and 22.5W with USB-A per Macworld |
| USB-A maximum | 22.5W |
| Weight | 180 g per Digital Camera World |
| Dimensions | 49.6 x 45.6 x 72 mm per Digital Camera World |
| Plug | Folding pins, US and UK |
| Technology | GaN |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
4
sources reviewed
Macworld supplies the port-split figures and the 30 minute charge results across three devices, and is the source for the 16-inch MacBook Pro limitation. Digital Camera World measured the physical dimensions and weight, verified advertised speeds on every port and ran the sustained single-port laptop charge. The two agree on the thermal behaviour, describing it in slightly different words, which is why it is scored as the weak point rather than treated as one reviewer's impression. Anker's own product page was not read, so every figure here is attributed to a reviewer.
What we read
Common questions
Will the Anker Prime 100W fast charge a MacBook Pro?
How hot does it get?
What happens to the power when I plug in a second device?
Is it actually smaller than an Apple charger?
How fast does it charge a phone?
The bottom line on the Anker Prime 100W GaN Charger
The charger to carry if one plug has to serve a laptop, a phone and a tablet. Expect it to be warm to the touch when it is working hard, and expect a 16-inch MacBook Pro to charge slowly rather than fast.
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