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I live in a two person household and my electrical cord situation is a complete and total nightmare.
My wife and I don't have an egregious amount of electronics: A cellphone and laptop each, a TV, some lamps and a couple of other things. This is spread out over two rooms and three power strips. Yet, each one of these strips looks like a fatal electrical fire waiting to happen. My apartment is full of angry tangles of black and white electrical cords snaking every which way, and it's awful.
Thankfully, I may have found, if not a solution, then a panacea for my electrical cord rat's nest: The PowerPort Speed by consumer electronics company Anker.
Anker is a relatively new company that sells slightly upmarket, but simple devices like portable batteries, cell phone chargers and USB cables on Amazon. They're about as unsexy as a tech company can get, but their products are well-loved by consumer product review websites like Kinja and Wirecutter because they're hardy, simple and, well, they work. They've expanded into smart home, car accessories and home theater equipment, but their flagship brand remains device chargers. They sent us some of their gadgets to test out.
The PowerPoint Speed not a complex device. It's a normal, 60 watt USB wall charger—think basically any kind of cell phone charger with a USB socket that plugs into an electrical outlet—that's souped up with an additional three USB ports, plus a "power delivery" port which is specially configured for Apple iMacs. It can use those 60 watts to charge up to five devices at once.
This is nice and all, but the PowerPoint is also Anker's top of the line wall charger, and at $55, it certainly isn't cheap. But a week charging all of my devices with it, and I've been very pleased with both my charging outcomes and the noticable reduction in cord tangle in my apartment.
First of all, the build quality on this device is noticably sturdy. The PowerPoint weighs about 12 ounces and the wall cord it comes with is five feet long (thankfully, they provide a cable tie with it) and coated in the same kind of thick plastic used for high end power tools.
Anker guarantees all of their devices for a fairly generous 18 months.
Second, it charges all of my stuff. Simple as that. I've been using it to charge two iPhones, my wireless headphones and Anker's bluetooth speaker (more on that soon), and it does so quickly, quietly, and without heating up to a precarious degree. Anker's products come with what they call an "11-point safety suite" which is built to guarantee protection from surges, electric shorts and regulate temperature. I don't know if this is real or not, but Anker's products all come with an 18 month warranty that suggest they do, which is good enough for me.
If you're looking for a means to reduce home or office wire tangle and you're willing to spend a little bit of dough to do so, the PowerPoint is the charger for you. And if you can't throw down $55 on this megacharger, they've got a whole suite of less expensive chargers available that all come with the same technology and the same warranty.
(Cool Stuff is a new feature at Willamette Week where we feature product reviews, roundups, sales and other commerce and shopping-oriented content. All Cool Stuff reviews are editorially independent, meaning we provide honest reviews and aren't paid by the brands we write about. If you do choose to purchase something after following one of our links, Willamette Week may receive a commission, which helps fund our journalism.)