In late October Anker promised the arrival of a couple new USB C chargers, dubbed PowerPort Atom PD 1, Atom PD 2 and Atom PD 4. The first, single port version, was due to arrive in late November but as of now they‘re still nowhere to be found.
They’re about the same size as the blocky 5 Watt charger Apple still likes to ship with every iPhone to date, while Anker’s new Gallium Nitride charger offers 27 Watt and a USB C port. Chargers that offer more than one USB C port are still rare to find, which makes the Atom PD 2 and PD 4 especially interesting to those of us who prefer to travel with only one charger instead of many different ones for smartphone, tablet, watch and notebook. This is what USB C promises but still has to cash in on, because of this lack of chargers.
This lack also shows itself in portable/travel-sized USB C hubs, like the ones we have had with traditional USB for a long time. It’s hard to find a USB C hub, that has one input and — for the sake of argument — say five USB C outputs that you can use to attach your peripherals. For now I‘d take a USB C charger with at least two ports to be able charge my iPad Pro and MacBook Pro with a high-wattage at the same time. It looks like the PD 4 might be a good fit, should it ever arrive.
Oh, and there‘s also this, especially for devices with just one USB C port and nothing else, like the new iPad Pro: Where‘s the USB C dongle that has a headphone jack and a USB C port to charge the device from?
Update 1: There’s a new HyperDrive dongle listed on Kickstarter now.
Update 2: It’s now the end of February 2019 as of writing this update, and there’s still quite a lack of supply for Ankers Atom PD 1, no matter if you use Amazon.com* or Amazon.de* (where it doesn’t show up in the search results at all).