Anker MagGo 2-in-1 Dock Stand Review: A Closer Look (Before You Buy)

0:00 This is the Anker Mag Go twoin-1 dock stand. It's a MagSafe compatible wireless charger with a unique design and fast CH2 charging speeds. It could be a solid option for your desk. But I've got a couple concerns that you'll want to hear first. Anker did send this over to me for review, but had no say in how I covered it. So, now let's jump in. Starting with the build and design, the Anker dock stand has a rather unique look. It features a wide base with a tall, slender arm going up to the main MagSafe style charging pad at the top. Beneath that sits a secondary charger designed for earbuds. As a twoin- one, there's no integrated charging for an Apple Watch, but there is a threein- one version available if you need an Apple Watch charger as well. The base is solid, weighing in at 270 g, but I certainly wouldn't characterize it as heavy. After all, it is made almost

0:47 entirely of plastic. On the bottom is a textured rubber pad to help cushion the charger and prevent sliding, though honestly, it doesn't do a great job of either. It can certainly slide around fairly easily on most surfaces. The majority of the body is made with some silky smooth plastic. However, there's one important part where they opted for a different type of plastic, which we'll get to soon. The Magdo charger comes in this white color or in a black version as well. For usability, this charger is definitely a desk or bedside table type companion. It's meant to be left in place, not taken on the go since it doesn't fold down and it's too large and oddly shaped to be a good travel companion. The main charger doesn't have any side to side tilt, but there's quite a lot of vertical tilt going from a nearly vertical angle of just 7° all the

1:34 way out to 45°. Perfect for getting the right angle on your phone in either portrait or landscape orientation, including with Apple standby mode. The hinge is pretty easy to move, which definitely could impact the usability. When charging a phone without a phone case, I was able to remove it with just one hand without the hinge adjusting at all. However, with a magnetic case like this one from ESR, trying to remove your phone one-handed winds up tilting it back until it maxes out at that 45° angle, then you can easily take it off. This is not the best since it means that you'll constantly be adjusting the angle rather than being able to set it once and then take your phone on and off with ease without adjusting it. That's not the only issue that I have with these chargers, though. I've got one major complaint with each of the two chargers

2:20 on this device. First, I mentioned that not all of the plastic parts were silky smooth. Well, the main charger on top is just hard plastic with some raised textured bits around the outside, which poses the question in my mind of whether it could potentially scratch devices. It's not particularly abrasive other than those raised parts, which do have a texture to them. So, it might be totally fine. But, when every other charger I've ever reviewed has some type of soft touch or slightly padded material here, it's a little bit concerning for me to say the least. You can even hear the material as you spin a phone around on it. The weird thing is that all of the other materials they use around the charger are softer and totally would

3:05 have worked. The white material on the front is somewhat soft and then the gray material on the back is particularly soft and would seemingly be a perfect fix to this issue. It's perplexing why they decided to use this harder plastic just on this main part of the charger. Next is the earbud charger on the back. Unlike the primary charger, which has around MagSafe style magnets, there's no magnets on the back charger. That's fine, but on top of that, there's also no indentation or any other way to get your headphones in place and keep them in place. See, the reason why MagSafe was so revolutionary is that it makes it nearly impossible to have your wireless charger misaligned. This is huge because a misaligned charger will not only charge slower, but it'll also lose more of its energy to heat. Think about it like a faucet filling up a cup. If your

3:51 cup is aligned with the faucet, pretty much all the water gets into the cup. But if you're slightly misaligned, some will go into the cup, but some will miss. With charging, those misses wind up as heat. So, for that reason, I don't love this back charger design. The base is large, which is a positive. It's just big enough for the Power Beats Pro 2 for context. But with smaller headphones, this is where that misalignment can come into play. If we place these AirPods 4s onto the middle of the charger, an indicator light on the front lets you know that they're charging, but then the light turns off. If after that your headphones get bumped slightly, they may move partially or fully off the charger, but you'll have no idea unless you check your phone to see whether the headphones are still charging or not. Worst case scenario, you may come back later or

4:36 wake up after several hours and realize that your headphones haven't charged at all. There are a bunch of ways Anker could improve this. Adding some MagSafe magnets would help, though only for certain compatible headphones. They could add a generic small indent like some other manufacturers do to hold headphones in place and make it clear when they're in the right location. Finally, they could just have the light remain on permanently when the secondary charger is in use so that you can clearly see when something is charging or when something's not charging. Any of those would help. For charging speeds, the Mag Go is CH2 certified, meaning that it can achieve fast 15 watt charging on iPhones and other CH2 certified devices via the main charger on top and up to 5 watts on the secondary earbud charger. It has the CH2 magnetic power profile, which uses the

5:22 same exact round magnet pattern found on MagSafe, meaning that it will work with any MagSafe compatible phone or phone case. Running it through my standard charging test, taking my iPhone 16 Pro from 30 to 40%, it managed the same quick speeds as other top G2 chargers that I've tested, taking just 7 minutes to complete. As continues to be the trend, the only way to wirelessly charge faster on the latest iPhones is with the updated version of the official MagSafe Puck, and even then, it's only about 15% quicker. At this point, any G2 certified charger seems to be plenty fast enough. I also ran extended tests to evaluate heat and noted no concerns from a heat management point of view. In fact, though I don't have exact measurements, this seemed to be one of the coolest chargers that I've tested to date. For accessories, the included USBC to C cable is color matched to your device.

6:09 It's 1.5 m long and made of a very generic plasticky material. There's no power adapter included with the regular model. Though on Amazon, there is a version for purchase that does include one. If you provide your own power adapter, it's recommended that you utilize one that's capable of at least 30 watts. If you need one, Anker makes incredible power adapters like this Nano 30 watt model, which would be perfect for this exact charger. I'll link it down below. Also, if you need a longer USBC cable for this or for another use, I made a video highlighting some of Ankor's best options, which you can find linked below as well. This Mag Go charger retails for $50, but as of the time of writing, you can pick one of these up on Amazon for 42 bucks. As mentioned, the regular version does not include a power adapter. But there is an option to purchase one with a 40 watt

6:55 power adapter for $60, though it is currently marked all the way down to $45, making it just $3 more than the regular one. Make sure you check the current pricing on both models if you plan to buy. If you want the 3in-1 version with the Apple Watch charger, that one comes with the exact same 40watt power adapter for $90 retail and was selling for $64 at the time of writing. So, these are regularly discounted, so always look out for that. For differentiators and deal breakers, there's the unique design and look of this charger with its wide base and the interesting shape. The fast C2 charging is always a plus. My recommendation is to avoid any wireless charger at this point that isn't explicitly CH2 certified. There's the twoin- one and 3in-1 options to provide the right amount of charging for your needs. Finally, at $50 or less, this is on the

7:42 low end for MagSafe style chargers and could be a really great value buy. The deal breakers include my concerns around scratches from the main charger and the potential to misalign earbuds charging on the back, both of which can be mitigated if you're careful. Though you can use the charger one-handed, it's not always easy and may be harder with a strong magnetic phone case. Finally, the charger is not portable, meaning that it's really only useful for someone looking to have it permanently on a desk or table. This charger isn't for me personally since I worry about those scratches and the misalignment. However, that doesn't mean it's not the right one for you. So, if you'd like to pick one up, there's affiliate links down in the video description. If you want to keep looking, try this playlist with other charger reviews to help point you in the right direction. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next