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Power. We all need it for our devices. Fortunately, the latest generation of chargers are smaller and more powerful both. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ tests and reviews both the AUKEY Omnia 100W GaNFast charger and the AUKEY Minima 20W mini-charger and finds that they both work great. Well, except for that darn iPhone...
Minima 20W -- https://amzn.to/3bSIx7N
OMnia 100W - https://amzn.to/3rdQ33A
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Small chargers, big power. Let's check them out
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[♪ music playing ♪ Dave Taylor here, and if there's one thing we all have in common
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it's we have to deal with power. We have all these devices, they all have to be charged
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they all run off a battery, which means you have to deal with chargers
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Now, companies generally provide chargers, though not most, you know, the most recent generation, not so much
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But you still got to deal with it, you still got to figure things out
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which is why it's great that there are third-party companies doing really cool things in the charger space
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Both of these are from AUKey. This is a 100-watt Omnia charger
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and this is a 20-watt Minima charger. They're both really small. In fact, just as a size comparison
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here's a 100-watt charger from AUKey, here's the 87-watt charger from Apple
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So you can see, it is dramatically smaller, and actually not a lot lighter, but a little bit lighter
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And this, this is like a 1-inch cube that pushes out 20 watts of power
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That's not bad. So, let's start with the bigger guy. This one is pretty interesting
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This is, like I said, the Omnia USB-C. So it has USB-C, it's running Power Delivery 3.0, or PD 3.0
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and this is a GaN-fast technology. So it's gallium nitride, which is the latest circuitry design
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for power chargers, which is how they get it to be so darn small
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It has built-in safeguards for overheating, overcharging, and excess current. And I thought, hmm, well, I usually have this 87-watt charger
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plugged into my MacBook Pro, but what happens if I plug in a 100-watt charger
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Now, critical to know is that if you want to get more than 60 watts out of a charger
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you need a cable rated for more than 60 watts. If your cable doesn't say anything
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or you just bought yourself a third-party cable, and it doesn't specify wattage, it's a 60-watt
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This is a 100-watt charging cable. USB-C on both ends. It only costs a couple bucks more
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and I love this one because it's really long, too, so it gives me a lot of flexibility
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But I plug this into the wall, giving me 100 watts. I plug this into my computer
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and then I go into System and look at the system information power
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and here's what I see. So, interestingly, the computer's seeing 100 watts
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but it's saying no to charging, which is a little confusing. Now, turns out that all of Apple products
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and really a lot of modern electronics, are managing the power coming in
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So, what Apple was doing in this situation is it's saying, you know, kind of okay on charge
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We're not going to do a lot of charging right now, even though we have a lot of wattage
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So, I went into the Energy Saver settings, I disabled that feature
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I went back to Power Charging, I looked, and now it says yes to charging
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That's a win. So, how much did my MacBook Pro charge on this 100-watt charger
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In one hour, I am not making this up, it got a 92% charge
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So, basically, in an hour, my MacBook Pro went from just about dead
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to almost completely topped up. Now, it turns out, even with those features turned off
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that your charging from like 0% to 10% is much faster than 90% to 100%
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We're going to really hit that when I get to my phone. But, for suffice to say
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this was an absolute rock star in terms of charging my computer
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Loved it. And again, make sure you have a fast or high wattage cable
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to get the maximum benefit out of that. I actually did a video talking about
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all the differences and demonstrating how much the cable matters. So, you might want to check that out
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It's here on YouTube, too. Easy enough. Now, I'm going to tell you the prices at the very end
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So, this is the Omnia USB-C 100-watt charger from AUKey. But, this little guy, this one's even more fun
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This is the 20-watt Minima charger. And, as you can see, it's just a smidge over an inch around
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And, this also gives you overheating, overcharging, and excess current protection. I don't think this is gallium nitride
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I'm not sure what technology they have in here. But, 20 watts
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The little guys that came with old iPhones and stuff were the same size and only pushed out 5 watts
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So, you'd think, hmm, 5 watts to 20 watts, that's a pretty big difference
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Well, it depended on what device I plugged in. So, USB-C to USB-C
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When I plugged in my Google Pixel 5a, it was an absolute rock star
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Charging 76% in one hour. Not as good as my MacBook Pro
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I'm this big guy, but for a phone to get 76% in an hour
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no complaints. In fact, it even said on the bottom, it said fast charging
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which I rarely see from non-Google devices. So, this worked great with the Pixel
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and I imagine it would work great with just about any Android phone
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Now, the other half of the coin is, I actually plugged in USB-C to Lightning
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and then plugged in my iPhone 12 Pro, and I was kind of a little disappointed by the charging
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This gave me 42% charge in an hour, which is really nothing to write home about
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I'm not even sure it was able to process more than 5 watts of power
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Now, what I think I was encountering, is I was encountering the iPhone battery management
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and energy management system, because, again, just like I said with the MacBook
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if I went from 0 to 50%, that would probably go really fast
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But if I want to go from 80 to 100%, it might take just as long, or even longer
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In fact, some people say that their devices never get to fully 100%
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unless they wait a really long time. And that's this having smart circuitry to manage its power
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so that it doesn't overheat the battery, and it doesn't end up degrading the overall lifetime
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of the rechargeable battery in the phone. Long, complicated excuse, I suppose
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But suffice to say, 76% in an hour on my charge with my Pixel
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42% with my iPhone. Kind of not super thrilled with the iPhone
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But then again, think about it. You have the one charging unit that will work
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with really a lot of different devices. And you can even charge a computer with this slowly, very slowly
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But if you leave this plugged in overnight, and your computer's off
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then you can get a little bit of a charge that you can eek out of this, even at 20 watts
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But really, this is designed for smaller units, for tablets, for phones, for any devices like that
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Maybe a remote camera that can be recharged. So 20 watts and the size of a 5-watt charger
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nothing to complain about. I should point out on both cases that the prongs fold in
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and that makes it that much easier to transport. And I actually have one of these in my computer bag
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because why would I carry this clunker from Apple when I can carry this sleek and svelte charger
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I can't believe I think chargers are svelte, but there you go
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From Ayuki. So, great. Let's talk about price. But before we get to price, can you go ahead and subscribe to my channel, please
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Just a click or a tap on that red subscribe button on the lower right, and boom, we are connected. Great
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All right, let's talk prices, because both of these units are on pretty good sales right now on Amazon
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So, this is the Ayuki 100-watt Omnia USB-C charger, and it's regularly $45.99
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but right now, when I went to record this video, it's for $32.99 at Amazon.com
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Now, remember, this works at least as well, if not better, than this Apple charger, which I can guarantee costs over twice as much
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Why would you want the bigger charger that actually costs twice as much
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I don't know. Get this instead, right? And then, this is the 20-watt Minima USB-C charger
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and it's $16.99, but they have a promo, they have discounts, Amazon Prime members get special pricing
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By the time you put this in your shopping cart, you could have the price as low as $7.01
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And I just want to say, for $7, just go buy a couple of these
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These are so handy to have for emergency purposes. Leave one in your car, put one in your desk at work
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have one at your vacation cabin, whatever it is, give one to each of your kids, because you're such a wonderful person
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What a great stocking stuffer this would be, except it's kind of the wrong time of year right now
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but generally speaking, great price, great product, little disappointed with the iPhone results
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but otherwise, these two are doing a rocking job of charging, and their form factor are fantastic, and their price is ridiculously good
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So, I say, check them out. And with that, I hope to catch you in my next video
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