Expert's Rating
Our Verdict
Aukey’s five-port desktop charger is an excellent solution for charging multiple USB gadgets. The built-in support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 is excellent, but it offers only a single compatible port. Choetech’s desktop charger is a little more expensive and not as good-looking, but it offers an extra Quick Charge port (six ports in total), and may be a better choice if you have several compatible devices to charge.
Price When Reviewed
$24.99
Aukey’s five-port desktop USB charger is an excellent solution for simultaneously charging multiple mobile devices – especially if one of those phones or tablets supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0. Read our Aukey desktop charger review. Also see: Best desktop chargers 2015.
The Aukey five-port desktop USB charger is available from Amazon UK for £17.99, making it £8 cheaper than its Choetech rival. It also looks nicer on the desk, a stylish and compact black rectangular plastic box with smooth, polished sides, a matt top and fewer logos and legends that are always on show.
Design is perhaps less important than the technology inside, although a key reason you’ll be looking to buy a desktop charger is to minimise ugly cable clutter on the desk. Desktop chargers are also very useful for reducing the number of power adaptors and mains outlets that are required for refilling gadgets at home or on your travels. Also see: How to improve smartphone battery life.
But the Choetech is ‘technically’ better, a 60W desktop USB charger (this Aukey is 54W) with an additional USB output that, importantly, is a second Quick Charge 2.0 compatible output. Indeed, whereas only one of the Aukey’s five outputs support Quick Charge 2.0, two of the Choetech’s six do so. If you have multiple compatible devices you may find the Choetech a better buy, but if you don’t you’ll find better value in the Aukey. Also see: Best power banks 2015.
The advantage of Quick Charge 2.0, where supported, is that it is able to reduce charging time by up to 75 percent. Our Samsung Galaxy S6, for example, can get a 40 percent charge in half an hour. But the Aukey is still pretty fast even without this Quick Charge output.
The four ‘standard’ USB outputs on the Aukey power bank have a shared total power output of 36W, meaning with four devices plugged in there is 9W available to each. It doesn’t quite work like that, though, because the Aukey will recognise the type of device attached and deliver the optimum amount of power (Aukey calls this tech AlPower). This means that if one device is drawing only 5W, there will be more power available to the remaining ports, and it can in turn charge your devices faster.
Read next: How to charge your phone or tablet faster
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Specs
Aukey 5 Ports USB Charging Station: Specs
- 5-port desktop USB charger
- 54W total power output, with 36W across four AlPower ports and 18W for one Quick Charge 2.0 compatible port
- 94x60x25mm
- 149g
Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she's worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our EMEA and LatAm editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry's transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.