Momax GaN charger offers speed and power

By now I’ve learned that not all device chargers are created equal. Use the wrong base and my iPhone will sit for hours before it’s fully charged or my iPad won’t charge at all. The problem lies in the amount of power that is delivered through the charger, the little block that you plug into the wall or the strip of USB outlets. 

The Momax USB C Charging Station promises to fix that by pumping up to 100 watts through a compact case with outlets for four cables. The charger is among a new group of charging units that use gallium nitride in place of the more common silicon. GaN chargers are faster and more powerful that ordinary chargers. And they’re able to refuel multiple devices, including Apple laptops.

Charging times for an iPhone 14 vary according to the power of the charging device: about 2 hours for a 30-watt charger, 3 hours for a 20-watt charger and 4 hours for the old 5-watt chargers that we all have around the house. 

To see just how fast the Momax charger is, I drained the batteries in my iPhone 14 Pro and a 2019 iPad Air, then plugged both into the USB-C ports. After just 10 minutes, the phone had a 25% charge and the tablet was up to 14%. Forty-five minutes later, the phone had 82% power and the tablet 63%. Both were fully charged after about an hour and a half. 

I like the performance of the Momax and I like its price: $49.99 on Amazon. Apple sells a GaN charger on its website that is configured just like the Momax - two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports - but its price is more than twice the cost of the Momax. 

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Written by Ric Manning

Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.