​I used a 200W beast to charge six devices at once, and it didn't even sweat

To be productive on the go today, you need to carry around more than just a few essential electronic devices. Depending on how you work, you may carry a laptop, a smartphone, a smartwatch, a camera, a webcam, a tablet, a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, a Nintendo Switch, a pair of headphones with a microphone, a Nintendo Switch... I think you get the idea.

When you're on the go with all of these gadgets, it can be annoying to have to carry so many chargers and only have a few AC outlets to keep them all charged.

A new way to solve this problem is with a desk charger from the Chinese electronics company UGREEN. This charger can power up to six devices at once.


The charger is called the 200W Desktop Charger (or Nexode in some parts of the world) by UGREEN. It can deliver up to 200W of power to your devices at the same time (100W maximum for a single device), and it has four USB-C Power Delivery ports that can support devices that need a bit more power to work.

But first, let's talk about how the charger is made and what it is made of.

Not at all hard to handle.
The charger, which costs about US$199.99 at the moment, is well-made. It has a plastic body that doesn't feel cheap and a design that will probably look good on any desk. It's also pretty heavy, so it's better to keep it on your desk than to carry it around every day (although you can do that if you want, as well).

IMAGE: Southeast Asia on Mashable
But if you look at how much power it can put out, the dimensions of 3.97 x 3.97 x 1.27 inches are probably fine. This is, of course, because gallium nitride (GaN) is used as a semiconductor. This is what has allowed most modern chargers to get smaller without losing power.

IMAGE: Southeast Asia on Mashable
The unit also comes with a braided USB-C cable that is a meter long and can charge at 100W, as well as a regular power cord that plugs into a wall socket.

Strong, but more than a little hard to understand.
When it comes to the main purpose of the device, the charger seems to be more than capable of meeting most users' needs. However, to figure out how much power each of the six ports (4x USB-C and 2x USB-A) can provide, you'll need to look at a confusing chart that UGREEN provides.

If you look at the diagrams, you'll see that the charger will send out different amounts of wattage depending on how many devices you plug in and which ports you use. For example, if you only use the first two USB-C ports, you can get up to 100W of Power Delivery fast charging. However, if you add a third USB-C device to the third port, you can only get 65W of charging for each device.

Then there are the different maximum outputs for each port, which you need to remember if you want to know exactly how much power each of your devices is getting. Depending on how important your devices are to you, you should use the first two USB-C ports on the charger for the ones that need the most power or need to be charged right away. The rest of the ports should be used for the less important devices in your setup.

When all six ports are in use, the maximum charge output for the first USB-C port is 65W, for the second and third USB-C ports it is 45W, for the fourth USB-C port it is 20W, and for the last two USB-A ports it is 5V4A (20W).

Obviously, it wasn't worth my time to try to remember these specifications, so I just used the diagrams (see below) to keep track of what was going on.



Everything can be charged with it.
Even though the specs were hard to understand, I found that the charger was able to power multiple common devices without much trouble. During my tests, I connected a laptop with a dedicated graphics card, a 2021 Macbook Air, two iPhones, a Microsoft Surface Pro 7, and an Apple Watch. I found that all of them got enough power to go from a low charge to a full charge in a reasonable amount of time.

IMAGE: Southeast Asia on Mashable
I also connected my gaming laptop and the Macbook Air to the first two USB-C ports, which UGREEN says can send 100W each (for a total of 200W), to see if the charger could really do what it said it could. Using battery reporting software, I found that this was also mostly true, with the charge rates hovering around the 100W mark when receiving power around the 20% charge mark.

Most people will find that this amount of power is more than enough to power the portable electronics they use every day. This makes the 200W charger a very useful tool that can replace the many charging bricks and adapters that take up space in a backpack.

In my case, I didn't need to bring a big power brick and a wall adapter to keep my gaming laptop, iPhone, AirPods, and smart watch charged while I was at the office. I only needed to bring the charger and the USB cables that went with them.

IMAGE: Southeast Asia on Mashable
I should also say that the 100W charging from the first two USB-C ports was more than enough to keep my high-powered gaming laptop charged all day while I did things like type documents, watch videos, and surf the web.

But people who buy this charger for their own gaming laptops should keep in mind that this isn't enough power to run dedicated graphics cards like an RTX3050 during actual gaming (or anything similar or more demanding). In this case, you should use only the power bricks that came with the device.

The last thing that impressed me was that the charger didn't get hot or even warm most of the time, even though it was charging several things at once. Once again, this is because gallium nitride works so well as an internal semiconductor.

But if there was one thing I wish UGREEN had done better with the charger, it would be to include some LED lights that would light up when the charger is working or if there is a problem. Right now, the only way to know if your devices are getting power is to check on them one by one.

But since this charger is one of the first of its kind, I can't really complain too much about how it looks or how much it costs. I do expect that the design and price of future versions will quickly get better.

In terms of price, the 200W GaN charger by UGREEN sells for a high US$199.99 on the brand's official website, which means that many people will have to think carefully before deciding to buy it.

Obviously, such a price tag is due to the novelty of such a powerful charger, but I expect that its functionality will (for now) only appeal to those who really want something that can easily replace their messy collection of charging bricks and wall chargers.
 Ejtandemonium.com