The best car chargers for your phones, laptops

While most modern vehicles come with built-in USB ports for charging smartphones, the ports usually deliver low wattage. As a result, it can take hours to charge your phone using the car’s built-in USB port. And you can forget about charging a laptop. Fortunately, you can buy a car charger for just a few bucks and quickly charge your phone or laptop.

There are quite a few good car chargers in the market. But not every charger will be suitable for your phone/ laptop or charge them at faster speeds. So I have researched and found the best car chargers that you can buy today.

Things to remember

Before buying a car charger, there are two key things that you have to keep in mind: Wattage and supported fast charging standards. The charger wattage represents how fast it can charge your device. So, for example, if your iPhone support 20W fast charging, you need a car charger will at least 20W power delivery to get the top fast charging speed.

The supported fast charging standard is also equally important. For example, if your phone uses the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) standard for fast charging, your car charger also needs to support that. The same goes for Qualcomm Quick Charge. To remind you, Apple iPhones and Google Pixels use the USB PD standard for fast charging, whereas Samsung uses the USB PD + PPS (Programmable Power Supply) standard.

If a car charger doesn’t support your device’s fast-charging standard, it isn’t completely useless; you will still get regular charging speeds.

Great for both phones and laptops: Ugreen USB C Car Charger

The Ugreen USB C Car Charger (Tri-Ports Super Fast Car Charger) is excellent for charging your smartphone and laptop. It has three ports —two USB Type-C and one USB Type—that can deliver sufficient power to charge your device.

The port marked USB C2 can provide up to 60W of power, whereas the USB C1 port can offer up to 20W of power. The Type-A port is capable of delivering up to 22.5W of power. In terms of the fast charging standards, the Type C ports support both USB PD and Quick Charge standards, whereas the Type-A port only supports Qualcomm Quick Charge. PPS support is also available on the Type-C ports for charging your Samsung Galaxy phones.

> Buy Ugreen USB C car charger from Amazon

Great for phones: Ugreen 2-Port Fast Car Charger

Apart from its excellent triple-port car charger, Ugreen also offers a superb two-port car charger that is perfect for smartphones. It was two ports—one Type-C and One Type-A. While the Type C port supports the USB PD standard and up to 20W charging, the Type-A port works with the Quick Charge and can deliver up to 22.5W of power.

The Ugreen car charger is well designed and comes with a host of security features to ensure there are no unfortunate incidents. Moreover, it works in both 12V and 24V vehicles.

> Buy Ugreen 2-Port Fast Car Charger from Amazon | Amazon Canada

Great for backseat charging: Baseus 120W Multi Ports USB Car Charger

While the driver and front-seat rider have easy access to most car chargers or the built-in charging port, backseat riders can’t use their phone while charging unless they have access to something like Baseus 120W Multi Ports USB Car Charger.

It has been constructed keeping both the driver and passengers in mind. There are a total of four ports in the charger. One USB Type-C port is located on the central unit, whereas one Type-C and two USB Type-A ports are located on the extension. Each of the ports is capable of delivering 30W of power and supports USB PD as well as Quick Charge protocols.

> Buy Baseus 120W Car Charger from Amazon

Also great: NekTeck USB Car Charger

NekTeck makes some of the best chargers on the planet, and this car charger is no exception. However, it’s not as feature-rich as my other recommendations. For example, it has two ports—one Type-C and one Type-A. Unfortunately, while the Type-C port can deliver up to 45W of power and supports USB PD fast charging standard, the Type-A port can’t fast charge and can only provide 12W of power. Another drawback of the charger is the lack of PPS support, so you won’t get the top charging speeds on your flagship Samsung phones.

> Buy NekTeck USB Car Charger from Amazon

Best Wireless Charger for Car: iOttie Auto Sense

If you aren’t a fan of wired chargers and need a wireless one, the iOttie Auto Sense is an excellent option. It can charge most Android phones at 10W and iPhones at 7.5W. While these speeds don’t sound great compared with wired chargers, they are good for wireless chargers.

The charger also features a nifty clamping mechanism that automatically senses your phone and grips it. You can buy it in three mounts—dash, cupholder, and Vent/CD.

> Buy iOttie Auto Sense from Amazon

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These are my recommendations for the best car chargers you can buy. If you are looking for other accessories, I have excellent guides on the best HDMI 2.1 cables, USB-C charging cables, and USB-C hubs for laptops.