Anker Nano 45W Smart Display Charger review: a tiny charger with a surprisingly useful screen

Chargers are not typically the most exciting accessories I get to review, but Anker is doing its best to change that. In recent generations it has increasingly experimented with displays on its larger power banks and desktop chargers.

The Anker Nano Charger brings that idea down to one of the smallest products Anker makes. It is essentially a compact 45W USB-C wall charger with a tiny color screen on the front, which can show information including live charging power, charging mode, temperature status, and, with supported devices, the device model and battery level.

The question is whether any of that information is actually useful, or if this is just putting a screen on something that was perfectly fine without one?

Specifications

Price

The Anker Nano Charger costs $39.99 / £34.99 / €42.99, though Anker is also offering a temporary discount on its store for early adopters (at the time of writing).

That puts it at a slight premium over Anker’s standard Nano 45W charger, which is not surprising considering the screen and additional charging modes. Anker's cheaper charger is also frequently available bundled with a USB-C cable.

I don’t think the premium for the Smart Display version is unreasonable, but if all you want is to get power into your phone as quickly as possible, you can save some money by skipping the display entirely.

Design & Handling

I really like the overall design of the Nano. It is very small, feels well-made, and actually looks quite cute for a wall charger. The little screen dominates the front, and the interface also includes a few playful animations alongside the useful charging information.

Although I didn't get off to a winning start with the display. When I first plugged the charger in, I immediately thought my unit was broken because everything on the screen was upside down. Obviously, I had not read the instructions.

It turns out holding the small touch-sensitive control for two seconds rotates the screen by 180 degrees. Problem solved, and an important reminder that occasionally reading instructions can be beneficial. A single tap cycles through the various information screens, while a double tap on the mode page switches between Auto and Care charging.

All my complaints are about the UK version of the charger, so US readers can skip the rest of this section and be smug with your simpler (if less safe) plugs.

The US version has clever folding pins that also rotate, making the charger much easier to pack and to plug in. The UK/EU version has the usual chunky plug permanently sticking out of the back. I appreciate that fitting rotating UK pins is impossible, but I have used enough chargers (including from Anker) with folding UK/EU pins. For a small "Nano" device, this feels like a miss.

This also means that the USB-C port is always positioned on the bottom of the UK charger. This can be awkward when using wall sockets close to a desk, counter, or floor.

I also dislike how much regulatory information is printed across the top of my UK sample. I know this is the law, and the information has to go somewhere, but it is usually hidden a little more elegantly. Here it is quite prominent on top of what is otherwise a very clean product.

Performance

The screen is obviously the headline feature here, and I found it useful, although I am not sure it is really a necessity for everyone – it really depends on how much you obsess over your charging speeds.

Beyond just displaying the output, there are two main charging settings: Auto and Care. Auto lets the charger adjust power based on what your device requires, while Care deliberately takes a gentler approach designed to reduce charging temperatures and battery stress. Anker says Care Mode can keep the phone battery up to 5°C cooler.

I mostly charge my phone overnight, so Care Mode suits me perfectly. I don’t need my phone charging at maximum speed while I am asleep. But if I suddenly realize I am about to leave home with 10% battery remaining, it takes only a couple of taps to put the charger back into its faster Auto mode.

It is additionally useful if you live in the Apple ecosystem. When I connected my iPhone 17 Pro Max, the charger recognized what I had plugged in and could adapt the charging speeds for the device. This is not universal, though. My Pixel phone charged perfectly well, but the charger did not recognize it by model.

But I genuinely like being able to glance at the charger and see what is happening. I could watch my devices charge at close to their maximum speeds when the batteries were low, before the power gradually reduced as the charge level increased. Is that needed though? Probably not.

The maximum 45W output is a useful sweet spot. It is enough to cover the maximum charging speeds of most mainstream phones, tablets, cameras, and accessories.

It can even charge something like a MacBook Air without much trouble. A MacBook Pro will also take power from it, although 45W isn’t enough to keep up with the more powerful model doing sustained heavy work. For browsing, writing, or light editing, however, it can still be a useful emergency laptop charger.

Verdict

I have used chargers with displays before, I like knowing exactly what my devices are drawing, and it is particularly useful when testing different cables or devices and wondering whether they are actually charging as quickly as they should. Auto and Care modes also make good use of the additional intelligence.

There are still a few things I would change. Device recognition should work with more hardware, and the UK design loses all of the cleverness of the US design and feels like an afterthought.

But underneath all the smart features is simply a very capable little 45W charger, and the premium over a conventional charger is small enough that I think the added information and control are worth paying for.

Alternatives

Anker Nano Charger (45W)

If you like the tiny dimensions of the Smart Display Charger but don’t care about seeing live charging information, Anker’s 45W Nano is even simpler and smaller. Plus, it has folding pins on the UK version!

Ugreen Nexode RG 65W

It looks like a tiny robot, complete with a screen for a face, but also offers a more powerful 65W maximum output and three charging ports. But its screen is nowhere near as informative as the one on the Anker, though, and is mostly there to look adorable.