Belkin 30W GaN USB C Charger Block, Fast Charging for Travel

Why it's worth it

This is the charger you throw in a bag and stop thinking about. Thirty watts is enough to fast-charge an iPhone, top up an iPad Pro, or keep a MacBook Air going, and the folding prongs mean it won't snag on anything in your backpack.

If you buy one Belkin thing, make it this one. Thirty watts is the sweet spot for most people's daily life. Wirecutter's testing notes that a USB-C PD charger in the 20W-to-30W range gets a modern iPhone from empty to about half in roughly half an hour. That's the coffee-shop refill most of us actually need. And it's got enough headroom to charge a MacBook Air overnight, which a 20W brick can't do.

Belkin uses gallium nitride instead of the older silicon, and PCMag points out that's what lets it stay so small at this wattage. GaN wastes less energy as heat, so you can pack more power into less plastic. In practice that means a brick that doesn't hog the outlet next to it or block the second socket on a hotel nightstand.

From our review of 8 belkin accessories

What we like

• +If you buy one Belkin thing, make it this one
• +Belkin uses gallium nitride instead of the older silicon, and PCMag points out that's what lets it stay so small at this wattage
• +The prongs fold flat
• +The protection story is the quietly reassuring part

What to know

• –It's a single port. If you want to charge a phone and a watch at the same time, you'll need a hub or a second brick, and at that…
• –Thirty watts will charge a MacBook Air, but slowly, and it won't keep up with a MacBook Pro under load