Anker’s Prime Wireless Car Charger review: Fastest-ever in-car wireless iPhone charging

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

25W for iPhone 16 and 17

15W for older iPhones

Adjustable design

Secure magnet

Cons

25W only for iPhone 16 and 17

Expensive

Incompatible with Tesla or Mercedes

Our Verdict
If in-car charging speed is of vital importance to you, the 25W Anker Prime is the fastest wireless car charger for iPhones that you’ll find. It’s sturdy in position with neat cable holders keeping your car tidy, and a dual-port USB charger is included.

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Unless you’re on a long trip the chances are that most of your car journeys are relatively short and often hurried affairs: the school run, a dash to the shops, an office commute. As such the time you have in the car for charging your phone is likely brief—therefore the faster the charger, the more juice you can squeeze into your phone, ready for the next charger-less stage of the day.

Of course, you should have charged your phone before you got in your car, right, but sadly the everyday got in the way and now you need as many percentage points of battery life as you can get into your iPhone before it’s back in your pocket.

Speed means power

The fastest magnetic wireless iPhone car charger available right now is the Anker Prime Wireless Car Charger that utilizes the latest Qi 2.2 wireless charging standard to reach the top 25W output. Read: Which wireless technology is best for your iPhone.

That compares to 15W for certified wireless MagSafe and Qi2 chargers and a mere 7.5W for “MagSafe Compatible” chargers.

25W should in practice get your iPhone up to a 50% charge in just over half an hour, compared to 45 minutes for 15W, and well over an hour for the older and cheaper chargers at 7.5W.

The new 25W wireless chargers put out so much energy that maintaining power output requires dedicated active cooling. The Anker Prime uses the fancy sounding Thermoelectric Cooling (TEC) system to keep your iPhone below 95°F (35°C) while charging. Grills circle the top of the charging pad. Lower temperatures help protect your battery and reduce long-term wear.

25W wireless charging works with only the iPhone 16 and later; older iPhones can use the same charger but at a more limited 15W of power. Anker claims that even 15W-only (iPhone 15 and older) phones charge cooler and more efficiently with the charger’s TEC system.




Simon Jary

Design

The design of the Anker Prime Car Charger isn’t wildly different to the slower alternatives. It’s compact at 3.66 x 2.36 x 3.46 inches (9.3 x 6 x 8.8cm) and the charging pad is plenty big enough to be attached magnetically.

A ball joint holder’s tail hook clips onto an air vent—you spin the body to determine how much of the clip you need protruding—and can be angled at a 32-degree adjustable tilt. The pad can be horizontally rotated 360 degrees.

Note that the Anker Prime is not compatible with Tesla or Mercedes-Benz vehicles, or with cars that lack vent blades or use nonstandard vent designs, such as round air vents. The first car we tried it in was a Mini and the placement of the vents doesn’t allow for a car charger such as this one—indeed you’ll need a separate mount for some cars. Compatible vent blade depths must be between 10 mm and 24 mm for optimal grip. See image below for more on vent compatibility.




Anker

The USB-C port is placed at the base of the unit. Here you connect the included 3.3-foot (1m) cable, which itself is powered by the 45W dual-port charger that plugs into the power outlet (aka cigarette lighter port) in the car. The other port is legacy USB-A that can output at 12W.

Handily, the cable comes with an organizer and holders to keep your driving space tidy from stray cables. You’ll have to tidy up your hurried snack wrappers and kids’ coloring books yourself.

The 13N magnet does a good job of keeping the device secure while still being able to remove it at the end of your drive without ripping the holder out of the vent.




To ensure you have the charging properly set, the charger’s ambient light turns on for 30 seconds at power-on and remains continuously lit during charging.Anker

Price

The Anker Prime Wireless Car Charger is priced at $89.99 / £79.99, which puts it at the high-end of the many wireless car chargers on the market, but remember that it’s by far the fastest, and the package includes the power outlet charger and cable.




Anker

Should I buy the Anker Prime 25W Wireless Car Charger

If in-car charging speed is of vital importance to you, the 25W Anker Prime is the fastest wireless car charger for iPhones that you’ll find. It’s sturdy and neat and tidy with cable holders included, and a powerful dual-port USB charger along for the ride too.