You can drain your phone’s battery pretty fast while in the car. Between using a navigation app, streaming music or chatting on the phone, your battery doesn’t stand a chance — especially on longer car rides. That’s because, unless your vehicle is equipped with a built-in screen that’s compatible with CarPlay or Android Auto, your phone’s screen is on pretty much nonstop, which can burn through your phone’s battery. Even if your car has a built-in USB port for charging, it probably won’t be the best car charger for the job. Is it providing enough juice to keep up with the demand on your phone’s battery? If not, there may be better USB car chargers out there. It’s worth investing a few bucks to get yourself one of the best car charger options — one that plugs right into your vehicle’s power supply.
Fortunately, car charger tech has improved just like home charger tech. You can now get some high wattage options, at least for the category, that can either maintain the charge on your phone or charge up another device rapidly. And that’s the key: You definitely want to invest in a dual-port charger that you can plug into your vehicle’s 12-volt adapter (or «cigarette lighter,» if you’re old school). And having one that can charge multiple devices simultaneously is a huge perk when you’re on the go.
There are a variety of options when it comes to multiport car chargers. Historically these were two or more USB-A ports, the wide rectangular connection we’ve had on nearly everything for decades. More recently, there have been a growing number of USB-C options. USB-C, the small, rounded-off rectangle, is found on nearly all cell phones (other than Apple), tablets, laptops and more. It’s basically the new standard in everything but name. We decided to focus on chargers that have one of each, as this gives you the flexibility to charge newer USB-C devices, plus a «legacy» USB-A port that can connect to any USB devices as long as you have the right cable. (You can always pick up dongles or adapters to go from USB-C to USB-A or USB-A to USB-C, too.)
In our testing, there wasn’t a huge difference in charging times between the models we tested, though some were faster than others.
Other products we tested
Wotobeus PD 65W: The Wotobeus offered a splash of color in the form of a removable silicone sleeve that covered the larger half of the charger. Despite having the highest claimed wattage rating (83!), it actually charged the slowest in our testing. This, combined with a price the same as some faster chargers, put it out of the running.
How we test car chargers
We performed both synthetic and real-world testing for all the chargers we considered. Using a MakerHawk Electronic Load Tester, an Uctronics Electronic USB Load Tester and a JacobsParts USB C PD DC Voltage Trigger Test Module I tested the maximum amperage possible for each of the USB-specified voltage outputs each device was capable of . I didn’t waste gas to do this, instead I used a Knoter AC to DC Converter which is rated at far more wattage than we were dealing with here. While interesting, and a good test to get a sense of what’s going on «behind the scenes,» these numbers didn’t create terribly useful real-world numbers for most people.
So I used the Uctronics Electronic USB Load Tester to create a «dummy load» at the maximum power output possible on the charger’s USB-A output, and then timed how long it would take to charge a fast-charging USB-C device, in this case a Pixel 5. Most battery-powered devices limit the charging speed at the upper and lower ends of the battery’s maximum storage, so I timed how long it would take to charge 10% with the battery no lower than 30% and no higher than 70%. Overly cautious? Probably. I also put the phone in airplane mode and waited for the screen to go into standby before timing.
The chart below shows that number, plus a calculated «for 50%» time that estimates how long it would take to charge 50% of this device’s battery. Charging speeds between phones/tablets/etc. can vary for a number of reasons. Which is to say your phone, with the same charger, might charge faster or slower than the numbers listed here. However, it should charge roughly the same amount faster or slower compared to one of the faster or slower chargers.
