GaN Chargers: Why the New Ones Are So Much Smaller
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A few years ago a 65-watt power supply was a brick you plugged in reluctantly, because it blocked the neighbouring socket. Today the same output fits into something the size of a sugar cube. There is no marketing trick behind that, just a change of material.
What GaN actually is
GaN stands for gallium nitride — the semiconductor material inside the power supply that chops up the current and puts it back together. For decades that was silicon. Gallium nitride switches considerably faster and loses less energy as heat while doing so.
Together those two things explain the smaller body. Faster switching means smaller coils and capacitors. Less waste heat means less cooling surface. What remains is a power supply that shrinks to roughly half the size at the same wattage.
What you get out of it day to day
- It fits in a pocket. The real gain is not the weight, it is that you actually take it with you.
- It runs cooler. Less waste heat means less thermal throttling — output does not sag mid-charge.
- One unit for everything. Multi-port chargers from 65 to 100 watts feed phone, tablet and laptop at once and split the power dynamically.
That last point is the underrated one. Plug in a second device and the charger redistributes on its own — nothing to unplug. Three power supplies in the backpack become one.
Where GaN changes nothing
Your phone does not charge faster because of GaN. Charging speed is set by the wattage and by what the device accepts, not by the semiconductor material. A 20-watt GaN charger and a 20-watt silicon one charge an iPhone at exactly the same rate — one is simply smaller.
And the socket at home cares little about size. If a power supply never moves, the premium buys you little. The gain is in carrying it: travel, office, second home.
Which wattage you need
| Output | For what | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 20–30 W | Smartphone | charges an iPhone to roughly half in about 30 minutes; more watts add little speed here |
| 45 W | Tablet, slim laptops | iPad Pro, MacBook Air, ultrabooks under normal use |
| 65–100 W | MacBook Pro, gaming laptops | needed when the laptop charges under load — otherwise the battery level merely holds |
What to check before buying
The wattage on the box is the total across all ports, not per port. A 65-watt charger with three ports delivers 65 watts to a single device — with two devices it splits, often 45 plus 20. For a laptop charging under load that is a real difference.
Manufacturers such as Anker and UGREEN usually publish the split in a table. When that information is missing altogether, be careful: the big number is on the box, and what actually reaches two devices stays open.
A second point: a GaN charger needs a matching cable. The full 100 watts only arrive if the cable carries them — an old 60-watt cable caps the output no matter how strong the power supply is.