Welcome to another GThentic Review, today we’re taking a look at the RAVPower 4-Port Desktop Charger. One of the things you notice when looking at this charger is this just how  compact it is. It’s a very slim charger that packs into your luggage very easily, therefore, making it very easy to travel with.

On the front of the charger you have 4 USB ports, 2 of them are USB type C and the other two  are USB type A. These are what they call intelligent ports. If you look you’ll notice that none of the ports are labelled with any specific wattage as the charger will allocate power automatically based on what you have plugged into it.

I decided to test the intelligent power distribution by using my laptop, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. I connected a single USB-C cable to the RAVPower charger and my laptop, and when I did my laptop indicated it was charging at 65W (watts).

Next up, I connected a USB-C to lightning cable and plugged in my iPhone and noticed the wattage on the laptop fell to from 65W to 45W while simultaneously charging the iPhone at 18W. I don’t have a power meter to test the actual wattage being drawn by each device, so I guess based on charging times (which can be very slow on a 15” MBP with a low wattage charger). Basically, once both USB-C ports are in use, one will get 45W and the other will get 18W. It doesn’t matter which of the two USB-C ports you connect each device to add the one that requires more power will get the 45W and the other gets 18W.

After this I connected the Apple Watch charger to one of the USB-A ports, which provide the same amount of power as a typical iPad charger – 12W (the Apple Watch will only take about 2W). I removed the USB-C lightning cable and the power output to the laptop remained at 45W while the output for the USB-A port  provided 12W to the Apple Watch even though it couldn’t take all of it.

I then connected a USB-A to lightning cable for the iPhone and with the Apple Watch still connected, the RAVPower charger provided 45W to the laptop and 12W to each USB-A port.

Next up, I connected cables to all ports, a laptop, 2 iPhones, and an Apple Watch. The charger provided 18W to each USB-C port, which is not sufficient to charge a laptop, and 12W to each USB-A port.

Even though the USB-A ports typically only get 12W, if you have a USB device which supports USB quick charge, the charger will output up to 18W through one of the USB-A ports while simultaneously providing 18W to each of the USB-C ports.

So basically with this charger, if you want the full output to charge something like a laptop, you must to ensure there’s only one cable connected and it’s connected to one of the USB-C ports. This cable should also be capable of transmitting more than 20 volts 3 amps (60W) like the 100W cables. If you want 45W then you can use 2 additional ports at 12W each or the other USB-C port at 18W. The moment you use all ports, you’ll only be able to access a maximum of 18W from each USB-C port. 18W is sufficient to charge smaller devices such as phones and tablets, even 12W will do albeit slower. Also note that it doesn’t matter if you’ve connected a device to the other USB-C port or not, when using the lightning cable the output falls to 45W on the other port as soon as you plug in the lightning cable.

Two other things I like about this charger are the detachable cord and the LED indicator light. The detachable cord is good for plugging into outlets which aren’t on your desk or bedside table like behind couches etc. The long (about 4ft) cord allows you to plug into hard to reach sockets and have 4 p ports on your desk or table to use. As for the LED power indicator light, I like it because it’s not one of those ridiculously bright LED lights which light up the entire room in the night. It’s a very subtle green light on both the top and bottom of the charger or you could place it on the left and right sides if you turn the charger into its side. The benefit being you could use this charger by your bedside at night without it disturbing your sleep.

This has been a first look at the RAVPower 4-port desktop charger. If you like this video, please go ahead and share it. If you haven’t already subscribed to GThentic Reviews, please go ahead and subscribe right now. Thanks again for checking out another GThentic video, thanks for watching, see you in the next one.