Review: The Anker MagGo Wireless Charger stand is almost perfect

27 Oct 2024, 22:00 by Alex 'Toddy' Walker-Todd · Android Police

Anker has cemented itself as one of the most established and trusted brands for mobile power and charging accessories. Not one to rest on its laurels, the company announced a litany of new products at the beginning of September 2024, with one key commonality: Qi2 wireless charging standard support. While Anker already sells an assortment of Qi2-capable devices, this new run of MagGo 2.0-branded offerings delivers cleaner, consistent aesthetics and, in some cases, greater portability.

Of the trio of charging stands in Anker's MagGo 2.0 series, the Anker MagGo Wireless Charger (Stand) is the most minimalist and modest. But does Anker's approach to this Qi2 charging stand earn it a place in our rundown of the best phone chargers?

Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand

8 / 10

Anker's MagGo Wireless Charger Stand is an attractive, minimalist offering, boasting support for the latest Qi2 wireless charging standard. While compatibility with devices outside the latest iPhones remains limited, the stand will only grow to support more devices as they embrace the Qi2 standard.

Pros

Supports the latest Qi2 wireless charging standard
Clean, elegant design
Rotating, tilting MagSafe-compatible head

Cons

Finish attracts fingerprints
Rotating head lacks torque for landscape viewing on some devices
PD-compatible charger sold separately

$36 at Amazon $36 at Anker

Price, availability, and specs

Announced on September 5, 2024, Anker's MagGo 2.0 range — including the MagGo Wireless Charger (Stand) — went on sale the same day. The stand costs $36, making it the most affordable within the MagGo 2.0 range, with the MagGo Wireless Charger (2-in-1, Stand) and Anker MagGo Wireless Charger (2-in-1, Dock Stand) both costing $50.

All three stands are available in Aurora White or Black Stone; the white model featured in this review.

Specifications

Brand
Anker
Output
Up to 15W
Input
9V⎓2.5A
Color
Aurora White, Black Stone
Weight
252 grams
Dimension
88 × 88 × 153mm
Expand

What's good about the Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand?

Elegant, intuitive, and adjustable

The MagGo Wireless Charger Stand, rendered in all-white, is an elegant-looking accessory, with a conical base sporting subtle Anker branding along its rim and, despite a plastic construction (according to Anker, it's made from 75% post-consumer recycled plastic), serves up a premium, almost marble-like matte finish. A ridged rubberized base offers plenty of grip on a tabletop, which paired with the stand's (just over) 250-gram weight, makes it purposefully difficult to slide or knock over. This is ideal if it's on your nightstand, and you're trying to snap your phone on after turning the lights out at bedtime (as I often was).

The device is Qi2 compliant, so it plays nice with every MagSafe-compatible iPhone, as far back as the iPhone 12 series. It can output at a maximum of 15W, which, when tested with my iPhone 15 Pro (packing a 3,274mAh battery), brought it to 38% charge in 30 minutes and 50% charge in under 40 minutes. For reference, charging the 15 Pro using its top wired charging speeds, Anker has also outfitted the MagGo Wireless Charger Stand with a heap of safety features to prevent issues like overheating and excess voltage/current. It even boasts foreign object detection, ensuring the stand's induction abilities don't mistakenly heat something that doesn't need inducing.

Qi2 is based on Apple's MagSafe charging standard and allows smartphones beyond those within the company's catalog to benefit from the same magnetic attachment and wireless charging speeds as the latest iPhones. At the time of writing, that pool of Qi2-capable phones is small, with a grand total of one: the HMD Skyline. I was, thankfully, able to get my hands on the Skyline to determine how the charging experience differed from an iPhone's, and, for the most part, things remained consistent. There was easy location and attachment to the stand for subsequent hands-free operation.

Read our review

Review: The HMD Skyline pushes Android phones in the right direction

Repairability and Qi2 help the Skyline shine

The Skyline's larger 4,600mAh battery replenishing at the same 15W rate means slower refill times than the iPhone 15 Pro, but still consistent with expectations, reaching 31% charge after 30 minutes and 50% charge after 55 minutes.

There are a couple of additional tricks up the Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand's sleeves, too. For one, despite its seemingly solid construction, the head tilts through a 70-degree range. So, it can be adjusted to sit perfectly flat, accommodating any wireless charging-compatible device on top, whether it's packing magnets or not. Anker uses the AirPods wireless charging case as an example, but I also tested the stand with other wireless-charging capable Android phones and true wireless earbuds without issue. Speeds vary when Qi2-capable products are used, with a baseline speed of 5W and, in some cases, 7.5W.

In addition, the head also rotates, with a smooth glide, reminiscent of a fluid head tripod, and a subtle, tactile click, as if cracking an old dial lock safe. Beyond the novelty (twisting your device into a landscape orientation, without hindering the charging process), this feature facilitates full-screen video playback, as well as StandBy on iPhones that support the feature, without marking the back of your device (as can happen when changing a MagSafe-compatible phone's orientation against a static mounting head).

What's bad about the Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand?

Charging challenges and design dysfunction

There's little to nitpick about regarding the MagGo Wireless Charger Stand's charging experience; you snap on your phone and you're away. It's even compatible with MagSafe-case toting phones that don't otherwise support magnetic attachment. That said, while the stand and a color-matched USB-C to USB-C cable come in-box, the respectably low asking price means there's no power adapter included. As such, it's up to you to source a compatible charging brick to get the fastest speeds from the stand, or any speeds at all for that matter.

It accepts up to 9V in at 2.5A, meaning a peak input of 22.5W. Anker suggests using a charger with an output of 25W or higher and one that supports the PD charging standard. I had to check the stand's FAQs to learn this information, which I was only prompted to do after my trusty 65W Samsung trio charger (which plays nice with everything else in my electronic life) refused to supply a single watt to the phone I had mounted on the stand.

I eventually used my wife's 30W PD Google Pixel charger, which worked without issue. But if you don't own a PD-compliant power brick already, you'll need to account for the added cost on top of the stand to actually use it. There are countless options out there, but your easiest bet is likely Anker's own 30W Nano Charger, which at the time of writing costs $19.

While charging is otherwise solid, there are a couple of design flaws worth flagging. I was surprised to find that the stylish matte finish on the stand's base holds onto smudges more readily than expected, which is likely even more obvious on the Black Stone colorway. This issue, is thankfully, easily avoided, provided you get the knack of freeing your phone from the stand's magnets without pressing the base.

Then there's that head. As novel as the clicking rotary action is, the noise isn't always welcome, such as at night or during a video call. The real issue is that the mechanism lacks torque. If you're exclusively an iPhone user, you're unlikely to ever run into this issue, but as I discovered when using the Qi2-compliant HMD Skyline, the placement of the magnets on the phone's back matters.

Unlike iPhones, where the magnetic ring is generally central to the phone's back, and thus around its center of mass. The Skyline's magnet array sits lower. This is fine in portrait, but try to twist HMD's phone to view in landscape on the MagGo Wireless Charger Stand and the off-center weight distribution, paired with the stand's lackluster torque means the phone droops down until it's almost inverted.

This flaw feels like it could have been easily avoided if only Anker's designers catered to devices beyond the iPhone. Qi2-compliant phones are likely to follow the Skyline, and Android devices sporting MagSafe-compatible cases, but it's clear this wasn't something considered during the stand's development. It's an affliction I'd hazard Anker's other two MagGo 2.0 stands suffer from as well.

Should you buy it?

There's no denying that the Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand is one of the best-looking entries of its type and price point. And by embracing Qi2, it opens itself up to users beyond those packing one of Apple's famed smartphones.

The design is clean and elegant, the construction solid, and its functionality surpasses expectations — with that tilting, rotating head. However, the need to source a power supply undermines what otherwise looks like great value for a stand of this fit and finish, while the droopy head issue undermines its intention to offer broader appeal to Qi2 phone-toting users outside camp iPhone.

Even so, there's a lot to like about the Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand, especially if you can snap it up during a sale, something Anker seems to dish out quite often.

Anker MagGo Wireless Charger Stand

8 / 10

The Anker MagGo is a simple, effective wireless charging stand, with the latest Qi2 at its core and a stylish design to complement any desktop. It's the finishing touches that undermine an otherwise excellent wireless charging stand.

$36 at Amazon $36 at Anker

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