
How Anker is beating Apple and Samsung at their own accessory game - Tomte
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/22/15673712/anker-battery-charger-amazon-empire-steven-yang-interview
======
lowtolerance
Anker's customer service is amazing. I bought a two-port charging block from
them on Amazon, and while it works great, I was disappointed to find that it's
a little too easy to knock it out if the wall.

I wrote a 4-star review in which I mentioned this issue, and within an hour or
two, I received an email from an agent asking if my address was still the same
so they can send me an updated unit. A couple of days later, I had a
replacement that didn't suffer the same issue.

I never was pressured to update my review, never asked to return the original
unit, never solicited to buy more stuff. They seemed to have a genuine desire
to make sure their customers are being served well, and that is the kind of
thing that will make me a customer for life.

~~~
gumby
I used to feel the same way, but had an opposite experience: bought a buggy
cable and, since I could find no other way to contact customer service, left a
negative (not insulting) review. Cust svc contacted me and sent me a
replacement...which was a much more expensive cable which wasn't even yet
advertised on their site. They then asked me to change my review. So I amended
my review saying the new product which they'd sent me for free was OK but I
had no idea if the old one worked.

Also their Type C chargers didn't work with a MacBook + accessory adaptor,
which was only described in the reviews.

It's not like one bad experience has soured me on the whole company, but now I
try to spread my purchases between them and Aukey (who has also had some Type
C duds -- check Benson Leung's reviews before purchasing!)

~~~
nazgul17
I cannot help but think that sounds like they are doing A/B testing on which
strategy is more effective at making users change their reviews. Nothing wrong
with that, btw.

~~~
wapz
Why would you think they are doing A/B testing from those two examples? One
was a 1 star review (very detrimental to their overall score) and one was a 4
star review (very little overall effect). If they were both 2 star reviews or
something I would agree with your idea.

~~~
robryan
In Amazon terms a 4,5 is positive, a 3 is neutral and a 1,2 is negative.
Anything other than positive is bad so essentially it means 4,5 and good and
1,2,3 are bad.

------
pdelbarba
I've had a ton of issues with USB power supplies and cables not allowing
devices to charge properly (Improper wiring, termination, fake specs, etc) and
so I started testing everything I got using a USB power meter and test load.
Anker is the only brand on Amazon that Ive found to reliably meet spec. Their
newer USB battery packs in particular are very interesting because they will
ignore the line termination and do a TCP-like ramp on amperage until they get
a voltage sag, then pull back slightly and sit there. This is especially
entertaining because they'll melt really poorly designed USB supplies :)

~~~
alphonsegaston
Can you recommend a portable USB charger of there's? I sold my wife on getting
one when she needed to replace her's because of their solid reputation, only
to have it break three months later.

~~~
stonesam92
Did you contact Anker? Among the many products I've bought from them, I've had
a couple of problematic ones, but have found that in these cases their support
has been very helpful and sent me a replacement, even a year or so after the
original purchase.

~~~
alphonsegaston
No, but I should have. It broke during a trip out of the country and we needed
to replace it then and there. Thankfully, we were in Japan, so we had no
shortage of options. I'll keep that in mind if I buy from them again.

~~~
wapz
You can buy any of theirs that was manufactured in the last 1.5-2 years and
you shouldn't have a problem. I wouldn't buy one that was originally made 3-4
years ago just because the cells might have lost a lot of capacity. Like the
others said, if you contact them they have great customer support and will
_often_ (very anecdotal) send you a free one.

------
jobu
Anker may make great products, but their marketing is shit. They have way too
many products and no good way to differentiate. Check out this site which
tries to explain the differences:

[http://www.powerbankguide.com/anker-powercore-vs-astro-
the-d...](http://www.powerbankguide.com/anker-powercore-vs-astro-the-
difference/)

 _Let us simplify the situation for you –

#1 An Anker PowerCore+ powerbank is BETTER and NEWER than Astro Gen 1 or Gen 2
of same capacity.

#2 An Anker PowerCore (without the +) powerbank is BETTER and NEWER than Astro
Gen 1 or Gen 2 of same capacity.

#3 Anker PowerCore+ and Anker PowerCore powerbanks exist side by side with
PowerCore+ usually having some extra features while PowerCore offers excellent
value for money._

~~~
clhodapp
The guide tries to make things seem really complex but the reality isn't so
bad.. Anker fully replaced their single-tier Astro line with their two-tier
PowerCore line.. that's _way_ simpler than the branding situations with the
vast majority of consumer electronics companies. The only real cause of
confusion here is retailers continuing to sell their older Astro products as
if they were the latest models, which is hardly Anker's fault.

~~~
jobu
> _Anker fully replaced their single-tier Astro line with their two-tier
> PowerCore line._

Where do you see that?

First I want to know the feature difference between Astro, PowerCore,
PowerCore II, and PowerCore+. (WTF are PowerIQ, VoltageBoost, QuickCharge,
etc.) Next I want to see something that compares product dimensions, weight,
and mAh between all of their products. Recharge times would be ideal as well,
but I understand those can vary based on ambient temperature and other
factors.

It seems like that should be Step 1 for any decent marketing department, but
either their website doesn't have this information or it's hidden very well:
[https://www.anker.com/products/taxons/107/Batteries](https://www.anker.com/products/taxons/107/Batteries)

~~~
epicide
> Where do you see that?

In your post. The bit about "BETTER and NEWER".

I've never had an issue finding out any metrics about their products from the
Amazon page. That includes what all of their trademarked features mean. Having
a chart that compares all of them doesn't really make sense when each one has
the relevant info.

------
reacharavindh
I'm still waiting for a time when UPS or Fedex will come up with a Prime
option where I pay $99 a year for 2-day shipping through them, and all these
companies like Anker would ship through major carriers directly. Buying third-
party stuff from Amazon is always a hit and miss experience..

~~~
manacit
That's basically what
[https://www.shoprunner.com/](https://www.shoprunner.com/) is trying to be, I
think?

It's not as integrated as it could be, but it accomplishes the same thing.

~~~
zippergz
I use Shoprunner where it's supported, because I get it for free with Amex. My
experience is that it's not as good as Prime. Prime is supposed to give you
free delivery in 2 days. Shoprunner is supposed to give you free 2-day
shipping. These are very different things. Yes, the Shoprunner package is
shipped via a 2-day shipping method, but the merchant often takes several days
before they ship it. I've had Shoprunner orders take a week or more to arrive.
Every once in a while Prime misses its promise date, but it's pretty rare, and
usually only by a day. I don't think I've EVER had a Shoprunner order arrive
in 2 days. Unless the merchants are all prepared to start passing orders off
to the carriers more quickly, a carrier program will have a hard time matching
the Prime experience.

~~~
phil21
This is pretty typical for most not-amazon (or amazon-competitor) stores, I've
found. It's why I am so reluctant to use third party sites, even though I know
it's for the better if I do.

Newegg I've found to fulfill the Shoprunner "two day" shipping promise pretty
reliably. I actually get a lot of stuff the next day due to being relatively
close to their Indiana drop-ship partner/warehouse/whatever.

------
Zelphyr
Apologies for going off topic but, this trend of hiding the content until you
scroll down is getting ridiculous. I stared at that stupid animation for 15
seconds thinking the content was to appear at some point, before realizing I
was supposed to scroll down.

~~~
Analemma_
It's the Verge, they're one of the one worst offenders of content-hiding web
gimmickry. If you haven't seen it already, check out their Apple Watch review
for a thorough list of everything not to do with a web page.

~~~
spike021
I'd say they're one of the worst offenders of tech reporting.

Apparently on their Google IO podcast they complained quite a bit how one of
them installed the new developer preview of Android and "none of the new
features worked".

Because of course it's as though they expect the new APIs already being used
out of the box in a build meant for developers to use. It's not called a
"customer preview"...

------
petecooper
At the risk of sounding like a glorified Amazon reviewer…

Checking my Amazon order history, I can see purchases for wall socket chargers
(mains to 2x USB), a 3-port PCI-E to USB 3 card, and a mains powered SATA to
USB 3 adaptor. All used frequently, never had a problem with them. The wall
charger is the best one I own: fast charging, reliable, gets the job done. As
a computer tech person, their stuff works for me.

[No affiliation to Anker, customer since 2015; all products Fulfilled By
Amazon.]

~~~
gcb0
I got some usb cables some time ago. fancy models. both got broken wires in
less than a year. their lifetime warranty was taking forever until I updated
my 4 star review to a one. got and email instantly saying they shipped new
ones to me and if I could change my review to 5 stars. this was via amazon,
they even used the same Shipping address as the purchase. never heard from the
warranty email.

they did send new ones of an upgraded design that even had a pouch. but why
not do that when I contacted via the regular way? that lowered my respect for
them.

~~~
Osiris
I had a different experience. I had a charger that stopped working. When I
emailed them they immediately sent a new charger (through Amazon) and didn't
even ask me to return the non-functional device. Very fast and excellent
service.

~~~
bergie
I've had the same happen. One of the chargers I bought from them was
defective. Got a new one in couple days, no questions or return asked.

Edit: they may have asked trying different cables first, now that I think
about it

------
jordache
Apple's own USB-C to external monitor options are horrid. They have an USB-C
to HDMI/USB/USBC dongle that is notoriously buggy locking up the new MBP. We
ended up with a 3rd party cables to connect to external monitors.

Some balls definitely dropped over at apple's product teams.

~~~
wlesieutre
Apple doesn't even have an option for connecting to DisplayPort screens. I
need it because the UP2414Q runs 4K@60Hz over DP with multistream transport.
It will only run at 30 Hz over HDMI.

Apple sells a USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 adapter that _looks identical_ to the
mini-displayport connector on my previous laptop but _is only thunderbolt_ ,
no video modes supported. A lot of unhappy reviews on that one.

They dropped just about every ball possible with monitor hookups. I actually
haven't bought a USB to DP cable yet because last time I looked they weren't
well reviewed, had gone out of stock, or cost like $40. I'm debating whether I
should get one or hold off for the TB3 docks to show up.

~~~
petercooper
_Apple sells a USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 adapter that looks identical to the
mini-displayport connector on my previous laptop but is only thunderbolt, no
video modes supported. A lot of unhappy reviews on that one._

I made that same mistake, but it's also broken the other way around.. turns
out you can't use a 2015 iMac as a display using DisplayPort, it _has_ to be a
Thunderbolt :-D So now I have two connectors with the same socket but two
totally different uses.

~~~
Bud
That's not broken. The iMac is not a general-purpose display. It's a computer.

If you plug a Dell laptop into a Mac, would you expect to automatically get to
use the Dell's monitor as a secondary Mac display?

~~~
wlesieutre
iMacs did support this, called Target Display Mode. Similar to how macs can be
mounted as external hard drives in Target Disk Mode.

2009 and 2010 models supported vanilla DisplayPort, 2011 to 2014 cut that for
Thunderbolt only.

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT204592)

------
teemwerk
They make a dirt cheap (~$20) vertical mouse that helped me correct wrist
problems from bad posture overnight. I don't use anything else for long
periods of time, they singlehandedly (pun not intended) helped me fix my wrist
problems. And I use it for gaming just as well.

Anker is dope.

~~~
0xfeba
Yeah they have the only quality, reasonably priced vertical mouse. I have a
bunch of them, wireless and wired.

------
mmanfrin
Accessories are either $1 for random brand, or $30 for Apple/Samsung.
Providing them for $10 while spending a bit more time on QC is a sweet spot,
of course they're beating Apple and Samsung.

~~~
megablast
There is no guarantee that that is a successful strategy.

------
robk
Anker has some serious quality issues now, or at least it feels like that with
fakes on Amazon. It's hard to tell what's geniune Anker anymore, but I've had
really bad luck w/ low quality build of some stuff I've bought there. It's not
expensive enough to bother sending back, but I used to automatically buy Anker
and now I look for other newer brands that aren't potential counterfeits yet
due to the copying of the name.

~~~
will_pseudonym
That's really Amazon's fault. To get around Amazon's issues, I just buy
everything off of Anker's store[0].

[0] [https://www.anker.com/products](https://www.anker.com/products)

~~~
bsg75
I bought an Anker speaker for my office (which I really like BTW -
[https://www.anker.com/products/A3143011](https://www.anker.com/products/A3143011)),
and was comparing to different model on their site. To purchase, there was
only an Amazon button:
[https://www.anker.com/products/A3142011](https://www.anker.com/products/A3142011)

Some of their products are offered direct. Others are Amazon only.

~~~
resoluti0n
I purchased a different bluetooth speaker from them -
[https://www.anker.com/products/A3102011](https://www.anker.com/products/A3102011)
and I really like it too. I use this speaker at home in the kitchen and it's
amazing how well it sounds for a 35$ gizmo.

~~~
codemati
The battery life on the SoundCore is superb as well.

------
petercooper
It was interesting to see this headline because I don't even use the official
charger on my MacBook Pro. Anker does a combination USB/USB-C high power
charger block that's 1/3rd the price and works perfectly well. I never found
any good/reliable third party chargers for Apple equipment before.

Further, when I did once have a dud Anker battery pack, they just sent me
another one next day delivery, didn't even ask for the broken one back.

------
Hasz
A counterpoint -- For the price of one Anker lightning cable, I can have a
dozen lightning cables shipped to me from China still in their original
Foxconn bags. They will last just as long as the Apple cords, and are much,
much cheaper. For a little more, or a few less cords, I can have the same
cords delivered to me by a US based box shifter.

The same thing goes with chargers -- I can get high quality, OEM level stuff
for pennies, directly from China, or, for a small surcharge, from the US.

I understand Anker is trying to be "better" than OEM, but realistically,
they're not 10x better -- maybe 10 or 20% tops, yet they charge significantly
more. I personally do not see the appeal, other than maybe convenience.

~~~
Bud
No, you emphatically cannot get "OEM level" chargers for "pennies". This is
not close to being true and has been well documented. Cheap, knockoff chargers
are substandard and dangerous.

[http://www.righto.com/2014/05/a-look-inside-ipad-chargers-
pr...](http://www.righto.com/2014/05/a-look-inside-ipad-chargers-pricey.html)

[http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-
surpr...](http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-
surprising.html)

[http://www.righto.com/2016/03/counterfeit-macbook-charger-
te...](http://www.righto.com/2016/03/counterfeit-macbook-charger-
teardown.html?m=1)

~~~
Hasz
Ken does some pretty cool teardowns. However, you can, assuming you know where
to look. If you're buying gas station knockoffs, of course they're a fire
hazard.

The problem is counterfeits are all labeled as one homogeneous group, when
they most definitely are not. Some are very, very good, some are not.

------
rhokstar
One thing the author doesn't mention are the legions of loyal Ingress players
that have contributed to the rise of Anker ( years before Pokemon Go
launched). Many hours are spent walking around from portal to portal and
socializing with other players.

------
RockyMcNuts
They've done a great job with tough competition, which isn't discussed. Apple
is pretty easy to undercut, but there are a lot of competitors like Belkin,
especially AmazonBasics. It's hard to stay on top of a commodity space for a
long time. (especially when your distributor is a potential competitor with
its own massive supply chain, a great brand, and real-time data from you and
all your competitors)

------
crasm
One thing that makes Anker stand out to me is that they pay attention to the
unboxing experience, which I haven't seen from any other company in a non-
premium market like cables and car docks.

~~~
Brakenshire
My unboxing experience with Anker cables is always "oh they've sent me another
pointless faux-suede pouch, I wonder how many tonnes of these have gone on
landfill this year".

Good products though.

------
exabrial
I <3 Anker products, own quite a few of them. You can tell the R&D has been
done... Every single product I've bought from them continues to function
flawlessly. They're a breath of fresh air: a startup with a focus on
quality/price, not flash.

------
yoodenvranx
I'd argue that Ingress (the game before Pokemon Go) is part of the reason why
Anker became so popular during the last few years. If you asked any random
Ingress player which battery pack to buy then 9 out of 10 would recommend
Anker above everything else.

~~~
kakaorka
Any reason why?

~~~
blhack
Because they're really high quality and gained traction within that community.

------
post_break
Anker, Aukey, Choetech, Ravpower, the 4 heavy hitters. Save for some of their
weird stuff like dash cams and vacuums you can't go wrong. Those brands make
up just about every cable, charger, or battery in my apartment.

~~~
sofaofthedamned
Yeah, i'm the same. Couple of observations:

1\. Anker - started buying them for their HTC Sensation batteries, which were
superb. Bought a load of multi USB ports for the home, last couple of years
they've been flaky with ports dying. Customer service used to be superb, now
not as mich.

2\. Aukey - only bought a car multi USB charger, thing broke apart in a week.
Like everything else, may just be Amazon comingling.

3\. Ravpower - only bought one of their big battery packs, 28000mah or
whatever. The thing is bulletproof, well made, and works. I need to test the
capacity at some point, but it's not given me any surprises.

They're all examples of Chinese companies going direct and emulating the
Western companies who used to rebrand their stuff. As long as they do it
properly, I do not have a problem with this.

------
ebbv
This article claims our phones don't last any longer because of some
fundamental science with Li-ion batteries. But that's horse crap. The 24KWh
battery pack in my Leaf is Li-ion. My laptop has a bigger battery than my
phone, also Li-ion.

The real reason our phones don't get much more battery life than 5 years ago
is packaging; every step forward on efficiency or battery capacity is consumed
by making the phones thinner. Because the manufacturers have decided lasting
one day is fine. They don't recognize any consumer demand for longer lasting
phones as significant.

------
devy
If I am not mistaken, this is one of the rare Chinese (Designed in China, made
in China and owned by a Chinese company) consumer electronics brands that is
also a famous household brands in the U.S.

~~~
brianpan
Lenovo fits that bill.

I would guess the reason is that a Chinese company has plenty of market in
China already and if they expand they would expand to other Asian countries
first for language and cultural similarity reasons. Same reason US companies
expand into Canada and Europe first.

------
DiabloD3
For those that hate Anker's relationship with Amazon, please note: _many_
items Anker makes is also sold first party through Walmart.com now _and is
even in some Walmarts_.

Anker has finally arrived.

------
ReligiousFlames
I use a cheap, no-brand 7x 18650 cell USB battery with a seemingly gimmicky
solar panel that actually works from Amazon. It both charges and discharges
slowly, but it works good enough for now and it's TSA-compliant to pack in
carry-on. It's really poorly designed in that all sides are symmetric and the
manual power button lacks an affordance... it does have automatic power-on
based on USB draw.

As a similar potential business model, Monoprice seems like a great business
for the customer, as cables are/were the highest margin items in electronics
store, but I wonder if they're making enough money to be viable: anyone can
knock-off cables and compete to the bottom worse than DRAM ($.75 USB cable,
where's the profit in that?)

I'm wondering if Anker is potentially investable or if it will at least earn a
comfortable living for workers, suppliers and owner/s. Differentiating a-la
Zappos but beware of an inherent lack of long-term defensibility and brand-
crowded marketplace.

I'll give em a try when I need that next thing that normally would be an
Amazon/Newegg/Fry's purchase.

------
matart
I purchase almost exclusively Anker. When my cheap Bluetooth headphones had a
hard time connecting to my phone they just sent me a more expensive pair. I
have their cords, wall charger, battery pack, headphones, outdoor speaker, and
indoor speaker. All work well and when they stopped or seemed to function
inadequately they just sent a new or updated version.

I can't recommend them enough.

~~~
audi100quattro
+1 for their ~$20 bluetooth headphones. I'm not sure why wired headphones
still exist unless you're an audiophile.

------
greedo
I must be living in another dimension, because my experience with Anker's
products and customer support has been horrible. I purchased a Lightning cable
from them in August that lasted a month before dying. From there on, it was a
sh#tstorm to have it replace.

Step 1. Contact Anker (okay so far)

Step 2. Wait

Step 3. Wait some more...

Step 4. Three days later they finally reply, but want me to provide a serial
number from the cable? WTH? A serial number 4pt type.

Step 5. Wait some more. When I didn't get a reply that day, I contacted them
again and received an email with this lame excuse:

"In our continual effort to provide the best and outstanding service to our
customers, we will be conducting an important training program from Sept 30th
(Wednesday) through Oct 9th (Friday). While we are making our best efforts to
respond to all messages in a timely fashion, we will be slower than usual for
the upcoming days mentioned."

Step 6. Wait some more until they shipped the cable, which lasted another
three months before failing.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

~~~
prawn
Waiting, having to provide a serial number, and then waiting a little longer
doesn't seem that traumatic, especially so if this case is an outlier.

~~~
temp246810
Yes - I agree.

If this were a TV ad there'd have to be the word 'Dramatization' in soft white
lettering at the bottom of the screen because this is definitely going
overboard.

I've gone through this process and it's pretty damn easy - contact anker, send
the the serial number (the rep even tells you it's so they can do proper QA)
and get a new one in the mail.

The alternative would be for them to make you send the old one back which
would be significantly more annoying. I think asking for the serial is
reasonable on their part. Helps them verify you have the cable, prevents
people from filing multiple times on the same cable, and allows them to
control quality better.

------
Glyptodon
I've been using their ergonomic mice for a while. I think they might just be
labeled versions of a generic Chinese product, but the ergonomics relative to
price make them a pretty attractive product.

One thing I've noticed is that they do launch bad/mediocre products from time
to time, but they kill them pretty quickly if the Amazon reviews come back
weak.

------
psidium
Bought a Lightning Powerline+ cable 4 months ago. While Apple's Lightning can
feel a little premium, Anker's kick their ass. It has a nice thingy to carry
it and I know it won't break in the foreseeable future, different from the 5+
Apple cables I already broke in some 3 years. Also, their power banks are
really good as well.

------
yuhong
I remember this debacle:

[https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/TkAnhK84TT7](https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/TkAnhK84TT7)

The cable has long since been recalled, but it is worth mentioning that Benson
Leung is a Google employee and Anker was formed by former Google employees.

------
squarefoot
I have purchased one of those multiple length USB cable packs by Anker months
ago and all problems due to poor quality cables were gone. I usually don't
have high current demands, but I was short on good quality cables and some RPi
and similar boards I was playing with required more current than the usual
cellphone so I had to get something better. So far the only Anker cable that
failed to supply one board (can't remember if the RPi3 or a different one but
wasn't a low power board) was the longest one at almost 2 meters (6 ft) but I
can live with that: it works 100% with everything else and all other cables do
their job with all boards.

------
nfriedly
I see this recurring theme of "I bought some Anker product and it wasn't good,
but their customer service replaced it with a better one and now I really like
them!"

I guess it's working for them, but it sure seems like an odd strategy.

(For the record, I'm in about the same boat, I have probably half a dozen
Anker products, and they replace for free the one battery that failed. My wife
really likes their super-duper iPhone cables because she _destroys_ regular
Apple cables, and the Anker ones seem to hold up much better.)

I'll also give them props for consistently having not-annoying packaging.
Basically just cardboard boxes that are easy to open.

~~~
Bakary
There is an inevitable failure rate but if they proactively manage the
customer's moods the failure rate can instead turn to their advantage as it
will produce these sorts of stories which will be read by other prospective
customers and create the perception of good customer service.

------
oneplane
I have never heard about Anker. I don't even think their brand exists over
here...

~~~
optimuspaul
I have also never heard of Anker. My first thought was that the article was
written by them.

------
ruminasean
I have an early Anker battery, from a few years back. It sees use constantly,
and still kicks ass. Their backstory is interesting, thanks for posting.

------
matheweis
I recently picked up a USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter from them - was pretty
impressed that a little $5 USB dongle could match a $30 Thunderbolt.

------
jkimkidding
I was looking to find a lightning cable replacement for my mother. I think
first to look at Anker since I have two older battery packs from them and
they've been working great for years. But I did find some reviews to shy me
away from them so I naturally stuck with the Apple original. If this was a
case for micro-USB, I likely would have gotten an Anker cable instead.

------
Psilidae
I'm surprised how much love there is for Anker. The only product I have from
them is a vertical mouse, which I'll admit looks nice and has a solid feel,
but within a week the scroll wheel became nearly useless due to some
hardware/software issue. The only reason I still have it is because I was too
lazy to go to a USP store to mail the Amazon return.

------
bedros
I've purchased 4-5 anker battery packs and usb chargers, very happy with
quality of product, however recently switched to ravpower because of lower
price for, as of now, comparable quality, so far I purchased battery pack and
USB charger (6 outputs) for 30% cheaper than anker.

I have no connection to either company, this is my personal experience, and
both make great products.

------
antirez
They are in a risky business at this point. Finally after the users begged for
years, new phones start to be a little more thick but with whole day battery
life even with non trivial screen on time usage patterns. This will not make
aux battery packs go away, but will reduce the use case from "almost
everybody" to "people with special needs".

~~~
amclennon
_Expanding into more product categories is a logical evolution for Anker, but
it’s also a response to a looming existential threat: Yang says he foresees a
future where portable chargers won’t be necessary due to advancements in both
fast charging and wireless charging. “I think we all agree that the portable
charger isn’t forever,” Yang says. But consumers will always need wall plugs
and cables, and Anker sees its goal now as keeping pace with changing
standards, like the introduction of USB-C. In the meantime, Yang says it’s
diversifying with a future expansion into audio, smart home, and automotive
product lines._

It looks like something they are already taking into consideration

------
sparkling
Most Anker products are not actually manufactured by them. They - like many
others - buy from chinese OEMs and put their name on it.

~~~
otterley
Do you have any evidence of this?

~~~
ferongr
[http://lygte-
info.dk/pic/USB%20PS/27%20Anker%2040W%205-port%...](http://lygte-
info.dk/pic/USB%20PS/27%20Anker%2040W%205-port%2071AN7105/DSC_0379a.jpg)

[http://lygte-
info.dk/pic/USB%20PS/28%20BlitzWolf%2040W%205%2...](http://lygte-
info.dk/pic/USB%20PS/28%20BlitzWolf%2040W%205%20port%20usb%20charger/DSC_0421a.jpg)

One of those is the Anker, another is Banggood's household brand, Blitzwolf.

~~~
otterley
How is such a similarity conclusive, though? How do you know Blitzwolf didn't
copy Anker? Even if Anker released their product later, how do you know it
wasn't an improvement on the Blitzwolf product?

~~~
ferongr
Because that's not how things work in China. An off-brand copy would be a
literal copy of the PCB with cheaper and /or missing components (especially
EMC-related ones). An "improvement" from a different OEM would have obvious
differences in parts like the heatsinks (they are literally the same part,
with extremely similar cutting marks) and various other generic
interchangeable parts (e.g. the input MOV, the IEC connector, the optical
feedback package on the top etc).

------
mixmastamyk
I own their low profile USB charger for use inside the car and recommend it.

Also purchased their led desk lamp, has good qualities but they unfortunately
used bright blue leds on the indicators, which made it practically unusable in
my room. They have a good rep for listening to customers, so I made a request
to change to orange leds, let's see if it happens.

------
semi-extrinsic
My trouble with Anker cables is I'm not able to buy them in a reasonable way.
If I go on Amazon, most of their products "do not ship to your location
(Europe)". For the few that do, Amazon wants to charge me $16 in "import tax
deposit" (when the item cost is way below the threshold for import tax) plus
$15 for the cheapest shipping. That's on a cable costing $4.99.

This is a major beef I have with Amazon in general, and the reason I almost
never buy stuff there. Most stuff I want doesn't ship to my location, there's
no way to filter out unavailable items from search, and shipping is usually
horribly expensive. When AliExpress offers a better experience, your ecommerce
store has some serious issues...

Now, I can go on eBay and get an Anker cable more reasonably priced, but then
it's 85% likely I'm getting a Chinese knockoff. Then I might as well buy 10
straight-outta-Guangzhou $0.99 cables and get 1 that works well for a year.
Which is what I do now.

Does anyone know a quality yet reasonably priced micro usb cable brand
available in Europe/Scandinavia?

~~~
pi-rat
I often bought Anker chargers and cables while traveling in the US and brought
it back home to Norway - even had them replace or refund broken stuff for me a
couple of times (excellent customer service!)

Wanted to buy a new car charger recently, and got really annoyed at how
difficult it was to find someone who would ship to Norway without breaking the
bank on shipping or risking a fake item.

Then I discovered their official AliExpress store -
[https://anker.aliexpress.com/store/1710553](https://anker.aliexpress.com/store/1710553)

They won't ship batteries to Scandinavia - but chargers and cables are fair
game, and decently priced. All original stuff.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Thanks for the tip! Just ordered a cable to try them out, $6.99 and free
shipping is more like it.

------
trizic
I like to think of Anker, RAVPower, Aukey, etc as high quality generic goods.
They aren't dirt cheap like AliExpress goods but not expensive either compared
to well known brands. They certainly seem to have decent quality control is
helping build their brand/reputation.

------
mmagin
Well, they don't do much that's original, but the respond to market demand and
make things of reasonable quality. They're one of the only third-party brands
of random lithium-ion battery-containing accessories that I trust not to
randomly burn my house down.

------
logophobia
Not to mention google. My nexus 6p charger broke, I wanted to buy a new one.
Turns out google doesn't sell usb-c chargers in my country anymore (they used
to). Anker was pretty much the only decent other option for a usb-c fast
charger that was up to spec.

------
vickytips
This completely failed to work. It charged up OK, but when connected to a
cellphone or touchpad, it charged them for no more than a minute before
switching off. Repeated attempts failed. I had an Anker charger before and
that worked OK.

------
johngalt
Anker's battery charging docks are why I'm still using a Note 3.

I know it seems silly, but it is amazing to be able to just swap batteries
whenever I get low. I never have to leave my phone somewhere plugged in and
charging.

------
richdougherty
"From there, Anker ventured into smartphone batteries…"

"Yang says he and Anker’s small team “definitely saw the explosion of smart
devices”…"

This quote made me smile in light of recent issues with exploding batteries.

------
jbergens
I tried to order an Anker power bank through Amazon but they don't ship to
Sweden. When I found a local e-shop the prices was almost twice as high. I
assume they don't want the Swedish market.

~~~
provemewrong
I order my Anker stuff straight from China. On second thought, IIRC the Anker
charger I bought from AliExpress was delivered from a warehouse in Estonia, so
there wasn't even the typical wait involved.

------
mc32
Why do I but Anker over alternative? Reliability and predictability. I could
save some money on a knockoff, but why suffer uncertainty for little in the
way of price reward? Just not worth it, to me.

------
Paul_S
The customer service on Anker products is why I keep buying Anker products.
These are smart people who realise that spending money on creating trust pays
off. They also happen to make solid products.

------
drej
After getting maybe a dozen cables and a few battery packs from Anker, I
bought a bluetooth speaker. It looks like the Soundlink Mini from Bose, but it
was a fraction of the cost. However, when playing base heavy songs at very low
volume (which I had to late at night due to house sharing), it would sound
distorted. I didn't mind too much, but in the end I emailed them about the
problem.

Two or three days later, I had a replacement unit in the mail. When asked how
I was supposed to return the faulty unit... I was told to keep it. So now I
have two units, both work perfectly fine in most situations and I'm one happy
customer. Like below - I was never told to update a review or buy more stuff.

Highly recommend Anker.

------
djrogers
Not sure that Apple really competes in the low-end accessory "game" \- I don't
think they see it as worth their time/brand value to offer cheap dongles at
low margins.

------
Buge
They mention their portable batteries at airports. Is that allowed? I thought
I heard spare lithium ion batteries were banned from planes, both checked and
carryon.

~~~
kalleboo
I think that only applies to cells with exposed contacts. You could say that
"Power banks" aren't technically batteries - they're phone chargers that have
built-in batteries, so they're more akin to a phone or tablet with a built-in
battery from a safety point of view, with all the same physical and electrical
protections against short-circuits.

------
monster_group
I bought an Anker laptop battery four years ago. It still works great. I don't
remember any other non OEM laptop battery lasting that long.

------
smrtinsert
I just ordered another item from Anker last night! I have tablet/phone stands
and several usb connector types. I love them.

------
homero
Very true. I prefer anker over oem parts. Part of that is because of fakes
from those brands and anker can actually be contacted.

------
ekzy
The Anker USB-ethernet adapter worked when the Apple one didn't work on both
an Apple and a Windows computer...

------
unics
I bought a battery pack that could jump my car let alone charge my phone. I
didn't expect much but was impressed with it from the start. Everything was
quality made. (My truck doesn't start easily in cold temperatures) Right after
I got it I happened by someone on the street in -30 temperatures that ran down
their battery. Anker's battery jumped it in less then 10 seconds and the
battery was at half charge.

------
dkersten
I've had apple chargers due. I've yet to have Anker chargers die. Anecdotal,
for sure, but... ;-)

------
akurilin
All of our chargers and cables at the office are Anker, so far pretty happy
with them.

------
kirikiri
Anker products are of great quality and the great service is their competitive
edge

------
tempodox
This looks useful. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

------
brndnmtthws
How much did Anker have to pay to have this full page ad on The Verge?

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Where's the balance? I mean, TheVerge is a _tech blog_. When does writing
about tech cross the line into advertising the tech?

~~~
brndnmtthws
What bothers me is that there's no way to know whether it's a paid
advertisement, or a legitimate piece. This thing reads like astroturfing to
me.

------
kirRoyale
Too bad I've never heard of them.

------
Tepix
I'm a security conscious buyer. I haven't bought Anker so far because they do
not have GS, TÜV, CCC or UL certificates.

------
AdmiralAsshat
I've got nothing but praise for their battery packs.

EDIT: Previously linked to AUKEY cables that were defective, not ANKER. Sorry
about that. Benson has only reviewed two ANKER USB-C cables, and both followed
the spec, as far as I can tell:

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R26RCODZS6VUEF?ref_=glimp_1...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R26RCODZS6VUEF?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R3DGG0QBAYCT1N?ref_=glimp_1...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R3DGG0QBAYCT1N?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl)

~~~
krj
Do you have a source for Anker and Aukey being the same company?

~~~
DiabloD3
They aren't, but Anker seems to be the OEM for some Aukey and Ravpower
products.

And yes, I mean Anker as the OEM, not sharing Anker's OEMs (because they build
stuff like how Apple uses Foxconn (and like literally every single electronics
manufacturer does)).

Aukey and Ravpower always seem to be a generation behind, but keep up with
Anker quality. So either I'm correct, or what is actually happening is still
very similar.

------
dba7dba
You know Samsung made it when it's mentioned with Apple in the same sentence
as a part of a click bait. Still, Apple is mentioned like 12 times while
Samsung only twice...

I do own more than a few Anker products and am happy with them.

~~~
eropple
_> You know Samsung made it when it's mentioned with Apple in the same
sentence as a part of a click bait_

That scrappy, eighty-year-old company has certainly made it.

~~~
DiabloD3
I think they made it when members of the Samsung family got pooched when the
whole Presidential cult thing came to light.

You know you're somebody when you're basically the mafia running a country.

~~~
valuearb
Apple will finally have makde it when they get mentioned alongside Samsung in
an article about Samsung washers, or apparel, or semiconductors, or cargo
ships, or telecom equipment.

