I stick to Anker for cables, batteries and chargers. I'm sure they've had their own issues but everything I've bought feels well made. The only one I've had an issue with was a USB-C to everything else adaptor which weirdly stopped working after a week or two. I was surprised to find that their support was based in the UK (Cardiff if memory serves) and very efficiently processed a return and replacement.
I've watched Big Clive's videos for too long to trust no-name Chinese things with anything involving mains potential or energy storage.
No comment on Anker quality, but the "feels well made" feeling is something that has been known and gamed (for example, by including dummy weights in devices) in the hardware industry since forever. It is relatively unrelated to things you as a consumer may actually care about (like adherence to safety standards or amount of engineering effort put into the longevity of a product).
> No comment on Anker quality, but the "feels well made" feeling is something that has been known and gamed (for example, by including dummy weights in devices) in the hardware industry since forever.
Yup but for Anker devices you have a lot of nerds picking them apart on Youtube. If Anker were to engage in shady practices, the uproar and resulting shitstorm would be on a scale that could tank the entire company.
IMHO, Anker is one of the last remaining (funny, the company isn't that old) "brands" in the original sense.
That said, the last two Anker power pack models I've bought were both recalled for sometimes exploding/melting down in use. Once I'll give them, but twice? In a row?
You could also count recalls as a higher quality signal: QA, people testing, how they handle the recall & replacement, etc. Way better than not hearing anything because nobody's looking. I'm skeptical Anker is doing crazy-unique things with their manufacturing, vs. an OEM manufacturer cutting corners to save pennies.
A lot of big manufacturers have had recalls (for things like laptop batteries, vehicle batteries, the infamous Hoverboards, etc) so I wonder what Anker's batting average is compared to others. It's clearly a hard problem and squeezing in the level of density that customers expect means potentially thinner safety margins.
One of mine bought in 2017 was recalled and replaced, which impressed me: how many of the word salad brands of today would even be around to handle a recall if their devices decide to spontaneously combust?
Anker is a Chinese manufacturer and Alibaba is a market place. Why would rebadging Alibaba mean there? Outsourcing design and production while only being an exporter?
They already are in China. It's highly likely they outsource part of their production process and supply chain. They just have good quality control like any other serious manufacturer.
I'll be the voice of dissent here. I've heard nonstop praise for Anker online. Bought a couple keyboards and adapters from them and they all failed within a year. My wife got a mobile battery from them and that ended up dying in under a year as well. I'd be willing to write off one bad item, but I've had no good experiences and the pattern is clear to me.
It's mediocre trash. But in relative terms... the bar is so low now and the market flooded with randomly named fly-by-night operators that even mediocre trash stands out as exceptional just by existing long enough with a consistently spelled brand name to not be perceived as a fly-by-night operator.
Did you buy them off Amazon, or from a reputable reseller? I ask because Amazon mixes third party inventory together with first party inventory, so it's impossible to tell if you're getting a genuine product or a counterfeit.
>To avoid commingling, sellers have long had the option to apply a unique, seller-specific Amazon barcode — known as an FNSKU (Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit) — to every product. This ensures their inventory is tracked and shipped separately.
... is that really all that was necessary all along? I can see that being a problem for, like, 10 cents worth of stuff, but a lot of the commingling complaints have been around expensive items. It's not zero cost of course, but for your average $30+ thing it doesn't seem very difficult to justify.
I feel like anker combines mediocre quality control with pretty good customer service. A lot of the praise I hear from them includes something like "it died but they replaced it for free".
FWIW, after reading a few comments below you, I discovered that their usual warranty is 18-24 months. I've got a power bank that I had assumed was out of warranty (> 1 yr) but I'm still within 18 months so back to them it will go! You might find an equally pleasant surprise.
There's widespread issues with power banks in China, with a new CCC certification required, and recently something about upgraded enforcement because previously certified devices having been found to have issues.
I'd rather go with a brand that does proper costly recalls over one that just lets everybody keep the dangerous products around.
The difference here is that Anker will recall a faulty product. Lesser known brands will not. If you know of another brand that has a better safety and reliability record, please share.
It may be their branding but anker has gained some trust despite some issues… I ordered a battery bank that was recalled, sent it back for a new one. Then a few months later the replacement battery bank was recalled which is not great. That being said I do trust they will recall a protect and notify me when there are issues with their products which is reassuring.
I call Anker the Oxo (kitchen gadget company) of the tech world. Does Oxo make the absolute best gadgets or tools? Nope. But they are among the best designed and made and typically the best bang for your buck hitting above its weight.
Anker is similar, it may not be the absolute best of the best but for the money you get solid design and build and rarely would you purchase something you need and be disappointed.
I haven't used any of their power banks, but have used a LOT of chargers from Anker and UGreen over the years and most have run without any issues for years. Getting good cables for charging vs. data/video is a different story though.
Currently have a relatively high watt USB PD charger in my livingroom and handles everything I've thrown at it including laptops, phones, tablets, earbuds, etc.
Seems most of the issues in these threads are with the power bank (portable battery chargers).
I bought myself an anker powerbank because of all the rave around them. Mine behaves incredibly strange. Charged in seconds, then not containing half a phone charge.
For a 20.000 mAh this was really disappointing.
Probably a one of but still leaves the impression that this was looked at because it ruined the price for others.
Had a tangential issue with an Anker power bank (screen was sometimes showing bogus charge essentially), and can confirm Anker E-Mail support is pretty good in my experience, they sent me a second unit (even though the first is still functional and I still use it just fine to this day), free of charge after a brief exchange.
They also did a recall on speakers (under their soundcore subbrand) for the same thing. I'm not sure if this is good or bad - they proactively contacted me to let me know about the recall.
I moved away from Anker to UGREEN following Anker’s Eufy using unencrypted feeds and sending data to the cloud with no user consent, which was bad, but their gaslighting response to the tech media and overall handling of the situation made me completely lose all trust in them. Maybe they’ve gotten better since, happy to be proven wrong.
UGREEN fit that niche of ‘tech products that are generally of quite good quality’ for me fine. They feel like neither an upgrade or a downgrade to the Anker stuff I still have.
Yeah same. I’ve bought Anker power adapters, cables, power banks, headphones. All of them have done incredibly well. They’re not immune to issues, because sometimes their suppliers let them down. But if that happens they’ll replace your product for free.
I still have an old Anker 20,000 mAh power bank that works fine. Might not have the same charge ability as it once had but I can still get 2-3 charges out of it for a Pixel 8 Pro. Has 4 LED's to display charge level and a button that flashes them when you want to check status.
I bought a UGREEN bank on a recommendation and it was a buggy mess. It discharged more than it should when charging and when plugged in it rapidly charged to 100% which was sus. Graphical menu was weird and displayed ambiguous graphic messages to avoid text. These things feel like time bombs.
I also still have an old 20,000 mAh Anker power bank, and my only issue with it is that the micro-USB charging port is starting to wear out. For the rest, it's still brilliant, and it holds its charge very well while in storage.
I have an older Anker power bank that would be considered giant by today's standards. I bought it for the specific feature of it having a 2.4mm power port that can be switched between 6v and 12v. It was one of the very few power banks that I've seen with this feature.
I highly recommend avoiding their cables. Their 100W rated cables fail when connected to to 60W chargers (of thier own brand). I had tons of issues with devices intermittently charging or continuously connecting and disconnecting. Narrowed it down to Anker cables. Replaced them all and have had no issues since.
I have an Anker powerbank. It will no longer charge using the USB-C port. I have an older Belkin that is certainly less stylish but has a higher capacity and still works perfectly, including charging via USB-C, so I'm not inclined to buy Anker again.
Of course neither of us has a lot of first hand data so it's hard to draw meaningful conclusions.
IKEA 45W and 65W Sjoss chargers and braided cables are also good. Pretty cheap too. There's also a 30W charger, but it has cheaper, presumably poorer quality components.
Those chargers have nice specs too. They support PD PPS (programmable power supply).
I've watched Big Clive's videos for too long to trust no-name Chinese things with anything involving mains potential or energy storage.