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Apple stopped putting a charger in the iPhone box years ago, so you are on your own for that part. The Anker Nano 45W Smart Display charger is one of the better little bricks I have used to fill that gap, and it does a few things most chargers do not: it shows you live wattage on a small screen, it names the device you plug in, and it folds down small enough to disappear into a backpack.
This is for the person who wants one charger for their iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch, and iPad, and does not mind a little nerdy detail on a display. Anker sent me this unit to review and had no input on what I say here. Below is my honest take, including where 45 watts runs out of room.
The best tiny single-port charger I have used for Apple gear, as long as you know 45 watts is a travel backup and not a laptop charger.
- Live display shows real wattage and names the device plugged in
- Folds flat with reversible prongs and a rotatable screen for any outlet
- Smart three-stage charging protects battery health automatically
- Charges iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch, and iPads well from one port
- Supports PPS, so Samsung Super Fast Charging works too
- Single USB-C port, so you charge one device at a time
- Only sustains 45 watts in short bursts, then eases down to 20 to 25 watts
- The small body builds heat faster and can throttle to 20 watts under load
- Not enough for a MacBook Air running something heavy like Final Cut Pro
The display is the whole point
Most chargers are a black box. This one lights up the second you plug it into the wall, and it has a bit of personality to it. With nothing connected it just sits there idle, but plug in an iPhone and the screen tells you exactly what it is talking to. In my case it read the iPhone 17 Pro and showed the current battery percentage right on the brick.
It then ramps the power based on how full the phone already is. My phone was over halfway charged, so it held a lower wattage. Drop down to 20, 30, or 40 percent and it climbs toward the full 45 watts to fill you up faster. When I plugged in a high capacity Anker power bank, it jumped straight to 45 watts because that battery actually needed the maximum.
I know most people do not care about the exact wattage leaving the wall. But it is genuinely nice to verify how fast your gear is charging, and when a device finishes, the screen even tells you how long it was charging for. It is a nerdy charger, and I mean that as a compliment.
How it knows what is plugged in
The naming trick is not magic. The charger does a digital handshake over the USB-PD protocol, reads the device’s unique ID, and matches it against an internal database. That is how it can say iPhone 17 Pro instead of just showing a number.
One catch: it needs a proper USB-C cable to pull this off. A cheap power-only cable can leave the screen blank, so use a real data-capable cable if you want the smart display to do its thing.
Compact design and folding prongs
Out of the box, the first thing that struck me was how small this is. You can fold the prongs flat against the back to keep it pocketable for travel, or pop them out for standard wall use. Compared to the old Apple 20 watt brick, the Nano 45 is noticeably smaller, and those folding prongs save real space in a bag.
The orientation is flexible too. The USB-C port and the display are both reversible, so you can have the port facing up or down. Flip the prongs and you can have the cable running straight out the side with the display sitting on top of your outlet. If the screen ends up upside down for your setup, press and hold for two seconds and it rotates 180 degrees.
Care mode and switching displays
You are not stuck with one screen. Get into select mode and a double tap swaps between auto and care mode. Care mode forces the charger into a low-power trickle, which is the setting I would use overnight so a device sips power slowly instead of blasting in at full speed.
To go back, return to that same screen and switch it to auto. It is a small thing, but it means you can leave this on your nightstand and let it baby your battery until morning.
Colors and thermal management
The Nano 45 comes in four colors: white, black stone, misty blue, and orange. The orange one looks great next to the newer iPhone 17 Pro if you want them to match.
Cramming 45 watts into a body this small does create heat, and the tradeoff of the smaller size is that it warms up faster than a bigger brick. Anker leans on ActiveShield 5.0 here, which monitors the temperature more than three million times a day and scales power back if it senses any overheating risk. It does a good job dissipating heat, but this is why the charger does not hold peak wattage forever.
Understanding the three-stage charging
Think of 45 watts as the peak, not the constant. This charger uses three-stage charging, and once you understand it you will not be alarmed when the numbers on the display drop.
- Stage one: it blasts the full 45 watts when your battery is low to get you back to a usable level fast.
- Stage two: as the battery fills, it communicates with the device and ramps down to a mid level, roughly 20 to 25 watts. I saw this a lot charging my iPad Pro M5.
- Stage three: around 90 to 95 percent it drops to trickle charging at just a couple of watts, which is there to protect your long-term battery health.
So if you glance over and see the wattage falling, that is the logic working as intended. It blasts power when needed, balances out, then eases off so your battery chemistry is not cooking while it sits at 99 percent.
What it charges well, and where it runs out
This is designed first for an iPhone, and it is just as happy topping up AirPods or an Apple Watch. It also handles iPads well. Pretty much every iPad can take 45 watts, and while the newest iPad Pro M5 can accept a 60 watt charger, 45 watts is still plenty even under a demanding workload.
It will charge a MacBook Air too, but this is where you need to be honest about the limits. If you have a newer M4 or M5 MacBook Air and you are running something heavy like Final Cut Pro, 45 watts may not feel like enough. Keep an eye on the display, because if the charger gets warm under that kind of load it can throttle down to 20 watts to protect itself. It is a great travel backup for a laptop, but it is not a replacement for a full 70 to 100 watt laptop charger.
Android users are covered as well. The Nano 45 supports PPS, the programmable power supply tech behind Samsung’s Super Fast Charging, so you get the same smart experience there.
The gear I use with it
Two things pair naturally with this charger. You need a proper USB-C cable for the smart display to read your device, and if you travel with a power bank, the Nano 45 will top it off at full 45 watts. Here is what I reach for.
The verdict
At $40, the Anker Nano 45W Smart Display is the little charger I would point most Apple users to. The single USB-C port means you charge one thing at a time, and the 45 watts is really a peak burst rather than a sustained output, so it is not the brick for a hard-working MacBook. Name that limit up front and there is not much to complain about.
For an iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch, or an iPad, it is excellent, and the folding prongs plus reversible display make it the best single-port travel charger I have carried. I love that it reads your device and adjusts the power for battery health on its own. If you want one small charger for almost everything, this is an easy recommendation.
