Best Car Chargers USB Adapters to keep your phone charged in UK 2020

I’ve reviewed car chargers for Wire cutter since 2014, monitoring every noteworthy new charger. Additionally, I’ve tested hundreds of other charging accessories, researching and writing our guides to USB wall chargers, USB-C laptop chargers, and USB-C accessories, among others. Previously, for three years I was the accessories editor , where I reviewed more than 1,000 products, including numerous charging options.

Because USB-C can be dangerous business, Car Chargers and cables can fry innocent phones and laptops, I’ve also used specialized testing hardware to ensure the safety and reliability of every charger we’ve considered for this guide. This step allows us to definitively say that our picks work exactly as advertised, putting out the right levels of power and adhering to safety standards.

Even if your car has a USB port for integrating music playback and phone calls with your car stereo, and even if that port can charge your phone. That’s because the built-in USB ports in most cars put out only 5 watts, which isn’t enough to charge a tablet or even newer smartphones at full speed. If you’re running an app like Ware or Google Maps, your car’s USB port may not charge your phone faster than your phone uses power, so you can end up at your destination with the same battery level on your phone as when you got into the car. Good USB-A chargers can charge more than twice as fast (12 watts), and the latest USB-C chargers can charge modern smartphones at up to 18 watts as long as you use a cable that plugs into the smaller port instead of the USB-A cable that probably came with your device.

Even if your car’s USB port does offer higher-speed charging, most cars have only one port. All of our picks let you charge two or more devices from a single accessory outlet—something your family and friends will appreciate.

Newer USB-C ports can charge phones, tablets, and even laptops much faster than the USB-A ports included in new cars or less-expensive chargers.

However, if you recently bought a multi-port USB charger that provides at least 2 amps from each of its ports (look for the “output” listing in the small print on the body of the charger), you have less reason to upgrade. Although you’d be able to charge some devices slightly faster with our top picks, the difference wouldn’t be big enough for you to spend more money on a new model right now.

You can find hundreds of USB car chargers that plug into your car’s accessory-power jack. Over the past few years, these models have become significantly smaller, more powerful, and less expensive—just like USB wall chargers. But most of the car chargers available aren’t even worth considering because they don’t have enough power to simultaneously charge two devices at faster speeds, something even very inexpensive models can now do. These days, a good USB charger for the car should offer the following:

• At least two USB ports: The cost and space savings of a single-port charger aren’t significant enough to justify the limited output. It’s almost always a better value to choose a charger with two or more ports, whether those ports be USB-A, USB-C, or a combination of the two.

•  USB-C ports with 18- to 45-watt output: A USB-C port will charge most modern phones faster than a USB-A port will (if you’re using the right cable), and can even charge tablets and laptops. Phones that support USB Power Delivery (USB PD)—the standard that allows for fast charging over USB-C—generally draw up to 18 watts, while larger devices can take 45 watts or more. But your device will pull only as much power as it’s rated for, so there’s no safety concern about your phone being damaged or overheating when you’re using a more-powerful charger.

• USB-A ports with 12-watt or Quick Charge 3.0 output: There’s no reason to choose a charger with USB-A ports slower than 12 watts (5 volts, 2.4 amps), because they’re not much less expensive and they offer slower charging to Apple and Android devices.

• A detachable USB cable: A permanently attached USB cable is limiting because you can’t swap out the cable (to use, say, a Micro-USB, Lightning-to-USB, or USB-C–to–USB-C cable) to charge different kinds of devices, attach a longer cable, or have any other control over what kind of connections you use. Just as important, if a built-in cable fails, you have to replace the entire package, charger and all.

• Good power-to-dollar value: We added up the total power across each charger’s ports and divided by the price to determine the value. This step let us rule out unnecessarily expensive models. Ranges varied from 1.2 watts per dollar at the most expensive to around 4 watts per dollar as the best value.

• USB-IF certification: Although this was not a requirement, we gave higher credence to chargers that have been certified by the USB Implemented Forum (PDF), which means they have passed the USB-IF Compliance Program and have been tested for safety.

For our latest update, we tested another 20 chargers, including some with only USB-A ports, some with just USB-C ports, and some with both. To find the top options in each category, we put the finalists through a number of tests.

• Chargers with USB-C ports: USB-C uses digital communication between devices to verify charging speeds in a way that USB-A doesn’t; with the right tools, you can interpret exactly what’s going on in the communication between the charger and the device you’ve plugged in. We used the Total Phase USB Power Delivery Analyzer and its Data Center Software to measure and record this data, including the advertised power profiles, the steady state output, and whether any errors occurred in charging.

• Chargers with USB-A ports: We tested the maximum power draw from each port by plugging in a variable power load and an ammeter. This setup allowed us to finely control the power flow and determine whether it matched the advertised rate. We started with the power load set to 0 amps and then turned it up until it matched the promised amperage, ensuring the voltage stayed between 4.75 volts and 5.25 volts. Then we repeated that test on each charger’s other ports, confirming that every port behaved as expected and that, combined, they matched the right output.

• Combined power output: After testing each individual port, we tested the combined output when each was pushed to the maximum. The best chargers support their fastest rates on each port at the same time, with added devices slowing nothing down.

 For a few Pounds, a good USB car charger can charge your phone and other devices faster than the port that came in your car. After testing more than 60 models, we think the best car charger is the dual-port. You can fast-charge phones, tablets, and laptops from its USB-C port, and simultaneously charge a second phone on its USB-A port. No other charger offers as much power for a better price.

Compared with the familiar USB-A port, the smaller USB-C port can charge most modern phones faster (if you’re using the right cable) and can even charge tablets and laptops provides the best of both worlds.

Yes, some chargers are so small, they’re hard to remove from a car’s outlet when you need to. Although in our evaluation we paid attention to each charger’s size and fit in a car’s dashboard, we concluded that the smallest car charger isn’t always the best choice.

When you’re using a the charger’s USB-C port can charge an iPhone about three times faster (at 18 watts) than the USB-A wall charger that comes in the box from Apple; your phone can charge from empty to roughly 50 percent in just half an hour while you’re sitting in traffic, say, or running errands around town.

This Vibe charger’s 45-watt output and included USB-C–to–C cable also support the maximum charge rate on Android phones (such as the Samsung Galaxy S10), the 2018 iPad Pro, and even many laptops. And you can use the 12-watt USB-A port at the same time to charge a second phone or other device with any USB cable you already have.