Call me crazy, but Aukey's tiny GaN chargers have me more excited than phones or Chrombooks.
Everyone has something they like to "geek out" over. Maybe you're a big NFL fan or you really love watching cooking shows. It doesn't matter what it is, somebody has a passion for it. My sister is a really good cake decorator and once made a set of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Bowser cakes for a kid's party. Yoshi is delicious.
For me, it's "breakthroughs" in electrical products of any kind. I'm the guy who gets excited over the jump from 10nm chips to 7nm chips and the changes to the circuitry that allowed it to happen. I'm also one of the people who has been waiting with bated breath for GaN (Gallium Nitride) to move onto wafers filled with GaN FETs and then into the products we buy every day.
Aukey's new chargers from CES 2020 are more power and less brick
In 2018, I wrote about some of the first chargers using GaN. Back then, a very smart person at a company that was working on perfecting the process and said that starting in 2019, we would see GaN usage jump at 17% year over year. Now that it's 2020, it's really happening, and seeing Aukey's new Omnia line of tiny, powerful, and safe wall chargers have me itching to buy a couple of them.
Source: Android Central
Source: Android Central
I know I'm supposed to be excited about new Chromebooks and Galaxy Note "lite" models. And don't get me wrong, they are pretty cool and I do have a passion for consumer electronics. A look at my drawers of old stuff is a testament to that. But seeing a tiny charger with enough oompf to power a full-size laptop or fast charge a phone while staying cool to the touch is even more cool to me.
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Seeing Aukey — a company that every smartphone owner already knows — showcasing a new line of small chargers using GaN technology to make them safer and less power-hungry gives me hope that it becomes an industry trend and the days of big, fat laptop chargers and brown discoloration of wall socket plates from the heat they give off will soon come to an end.
Come Spring 2020, I'll finally have that 100-watt wall charger I've always wanted and won't be afraid that it will burn my house to the ground.
No GaN here, but still a great buy
If you can't wait for Aukey's Omni lineup or simply don't need that much power, this Quick Charge 3.0 wall charger from the company is a great pickup. It has two full-size USB ports, overcurrent and overvoltage protection, and comes in a small, compact body.
