RAVPower 61W PD GaN Charger Review – Incredible Versatility

Generally speaking, my bag plays host to two or three chargers at a time. One for my smartphone, one for my laptop (a MacBook Pro), and one for my Nintendo Switch. That’s a lot of cabling to carry in one bag, and most certainly doesn’t do any wonders for their longevity either. The MacBook Pro charger is specifically quite bulky, and that in tandem with both the Switch and my phone charger is a lot of weight on their own to carry. That’s also before I start cramming other stuff like my actual Switch and my laptop into my bag for the day. But what if I could replace those chargers with just one charger? That’s where the RAVPower 61W PD GaN charger comes in.

The RAVPower 61W PD GaN Packaging

The RAVPower 61W PD GaN comes in a simple box with not much else to show for it. The box is basically the size of the plug, with a small leaflet with some regulatory information on the inside. You don’t get a USB-C cable in the box for use with the plug, so you’ll need to have your own. I repurposed the USB-C to USB-C cable that came with my MacBook for this review in order to charge my devices with it.

The RAVPower 61W PD GaN charges everything

As you may expect from a plug, it does indeed charge the thing that it’s plugged into. It uses the USB Power Delivery standard as well, which means that while it won’t Warp Charge your OnePlus smartphone, for example, it will charge at a pretty respectable speed. The one problem I found is the aforementioned lack of USB-C to USB-C cable in the box.

Speaking of my MacBook Pro, the size of the charging brick which comes with it is actually one of the main selling points of the RAVPower 61W PD charger. It’s about a quarter of the size of the MacBook Pro charger, and if you have the US version, the prongs will actually fold in to make it even smaller. I have the UK version of the plug (as we use UK plugs in Ireland) and that can’t fold inwards to make it even more compact.

But there is a downside to using this charger over the one that comes with the MacBook Pro. MacBook Pro models released after 2016 use an 87W charger, so this RAVPower charger will charge it slower than what you may normally expect. That’s not really an issue most of the time, but under time pressure when I’m at home before I head out I’ve had to opt to use the MacBook Pro charger instead.

However, with everything else, you’ll get more or less exactly what you expect. The Nintendo Switch charges with a USB-C compliant charger, and the dock especially can be very particular about the plugs it uses to power it. I was surprised to find that the RAVPower charger was able to power the dock without any issues, and the Nintendo Switch will charge up to full in about 3 hours.

As for smartphones that it can charge, it charges the OnePlus 7/7T series at 15W while it charges the Pixel 4 at 18W. Any device that supports USB Power Delivery will be avail of the speed of this charger in one way or another.

The RAVPower 61W PD GaN Pricing

The RAVPower 61W PD GaN comes in at £39.99 on Amazon. That may seem like a steep price at first for a plug, but just the MacBook 61W charging brick comes in at £69.99 – that also does not include a cable. When you consider that a Nintendo Switch charger comes in at £24.99 (albeit with a cable) and will only reach 15W, it’s pretty apparent that you’re getting a good deal with the RAVPower charging brick. If you needed a new MacBook Pro charging brick – or even just a charging brick for USB PD-charged devices – the RAVPower 61W PD GaN would be perfectly apt for the job. If you’re interested, you can pick it up from RAVPower’s own site or Amazon from the links below.

Amazon U.S. | RAVPower’s website

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