Featured Review: Aukey Quick Charge 3.0 Dual-Port Wall Adapter

One of the most sought after features in smartphones in 2016 is going to be Quick Charge 3.0. With more and more smartphones doing away with removable batteries – although LG did keep it, and you can rest assured that they will promote that feature quite often on the LG G5 – technology like Quick Charge 3.0 is going to be a big deal. Quick Charge 1.0 and 2.0 were already big deals in the past few years, and Quick Charge 3.0 is even better. This new standard can charge your smartphone even faster than before, giving you about 3A to charge up your smartphone. You can go from 0 to 80% in about 35 minutes, which is a pretty insane feat when you think about it.

Now that we have devices available that support Aukey Quick Charge 3.0, it’s time to start taking a look at chargers that can charge at 3A and are certified for Quick Charge 3.0. Which includes Aukey’s dual-port wall charger here. Making it a pretty important charger, especially where most Quick Charge phones don’t come with a Quick Charge compatible charger in the box. So in order to take full advantage of the new technology, customers are forced to go out and buy one. Maybe this Aukey Quick Charge 3.0 Wall Charger will be the right one to buy.

This charger can output 3A in each port. What’s interesting here is that while both ports do use Quick Charge 3.0, they also use Aukey’s proprietary AiPower technology. AiPower is a way for your phone to get as much current as it can handle without damaging the device. You can think of it as talking with the charger and saying “okay, I can only handle 2A” and it only gives your device 2A of current. This is good for those that don’t have Quick Charge 3.0 in their devices, or may have a device that doesn’t have Quick Charge 3.0, like the Samsung Galaxy S6. Like other Quick Charge chargers, this one does in fact work with earlier versions of Quick Charge as well as conventional charging. So if you have a device, like the Nexus 9, that doesn’t have any form of fast charging, you can still charge it without damaging your device.

When I took this charger out of the box, the first thing I thought was how large this wall adapter is. We reviewed their Quick Charge 2.0 wall adapter last year. However that had just one port, not two. On top of that, Quick Charge 2.0 didn’t use as much power as Quick Charge 3.0. More power means it needs more space, which is why the adapter is quite a bit larger. It’s still fairly lightweight, so you can easily throw it into your bag when traveling, without any issues. However, the prongs do not fold down which can be an issue for some. It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, it just means you’ll need to be more careful when traveling with this one. The last thing you’d want to do is bend one of the prongs on this charger.

Design-wise, there’s not much here. It’s basically just a black brick wall adapter that is curved on the left and right sides. It’s in matte black, which is actually a nice color, as it doesn’t get disgusting looking from fingerprints. Although that’s not much of an issue with wall chargers as it would be with a smartphone or tablet. It’s a pretty plain looking charger here. Nothing really stands out, in terms of logos or FCC information. It is all there, but it’s in black, so it’s not standing out that much. When you pick up this charger though, it definitely feels like something sturdy and made of quality. Not like it could be damaged easily, but something that will last quite a long time.

While this charger is wider and lengthier than most other chargers, it doesn’t cover up other wall outlets. This is important because covering up another outlet could be a deal breaker for many. Especially those that are already struggling to find an empty outlet in their home or office, where this charger might end up. And because it is wider, it means that it won’t hinder the use of other outlets, even on a surge protector.

We used this charger with the Nexus 6P for about a week, and we’re pretty satisfied with how it charged our device. Using a USB Type-A to a Type-C cable, the charger charged about as fast as you’d expect. It was about the same speed as our OEM charger from Google, as well as the other chargers we’ve used from Tronsmart and Aukey. We were unable to test out Quick Charge 3.0 speeds, since we don’t have a Quick Charge 3.0 device in house. But it will work with the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge and LG G5, all of which were announced at Mobile World Congress and are now available (the LG G5 is on pre-order at some carriers and retailers and will be available at the beginning of April). As mentioned earlier on, if you have a device that doesn’t support Quick Charge 3.0 you can still use this charger to charge it. And that is completely true. We used it with the Nexus 6P, and for kicks, the Sony Xperia Z3 which does support Quick Charge 2.0. Both charged at normal speed without getting any warmer than usual when using a method of fast or quick charging.

On the safety side of things, this charger does have a bit more power than other chargers do (that aren’t Quick Charge 3.0), but Aukey does have a number of safeguards in place here so that your phone, tablet, or whatever you are charging doesn’t overcharge, overheat, or worse, catch on fire. So when it comes to safety, there’s nothing to worry about here with the Aukey Quick Charge 3.0 dual-port Wall Adapter. You can use it to charge anything (even the Google Chromebook Pixel if you have a USB Type-A to Type-C cable) without any issues.

Aukey has this wall charger available on Amazon for $24.99. Now, that may sound like a lot for a wall charger, but one thing to remember here is that your conventional wall charger doesn’t have as much power inside, which requires more circuitry, not to mention certification from Qualcomm. At $25, this Aukey Quick Charge 3.0 wall charger is actually one of the cheaper models available on Amazon right now. And it’ll work perfect for your Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, HTC One A9 or your LG G5. We’d definitely recommend this to anyone picking up a Quick Charge 3.0 device, or just want to get a future-proof charger these days. Aukey does also have a number of other Quick Charge 3.0 accessories available, which you can take a look at here.